A 4-Day Workweek? A Test Run Shows a Surprising Result

新西兰一公司做四休三，据说雇主和员工都很满意

A New Zealand firm that let its employees work four days a week while being paid for five says the experiment was so successful that it hoped to make the change permanent.

新西兰一家公司让自己的员工每周工作四天，但会支付他们五天的薪水。该公司表示，这项试验非常成功，希望能永久保留这一改变。

The firm, Perpetual Guardian, which manages trusts, wills and estates, found the change actually boosted productivity among its 240 employees, who said they spent more time with their families, exercising, cooking, and working in their gardens. The firm ran the experiment – which reduced the workweek to 32 hours from 40 – in March and April this year, and asked two researchers to study the effects on staff.

这家公司名为“永久护卫”，业务包括帮客户管理信托、遗嘱和产业。在今年三月和四月，公司进行了一项试验，将每周工作时间从40小时减少至32小时，结果发现缩短工作时间实际上提升了240名员工的生产力；员工则表示他们有更多时间陪伴家人、锻炼、下厨，打理花园了。

Jarrod Haar, a human resources professor at Auckland University of Technology, said employees reported a 24 percent improvement in work-life balance, and came back to work energized after their days off.

奥克兰理工大学人力资源教授杰拉德·哈尔表示，员工们报告他们的工作与生活之间的平衡提升了24%，并且在放假后回来工作感到更加精力充沛。

“Supervisors said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didn’t leave early or take long breaks,” Mr. Haar said. “Their actual job performance didn’t change when doing it over four days instead of five.”

“主管们表示员工变得更有创意，出勤率变高，上班准时，而且不会早退和长时间休息了，”哈尔表示。“尽管工作四天，而不是五天，但他们实际的工作表现并没有改变。”

Similar experiments in other countries have tested the concept of reducing work hours as a way of improving individual productivity. In Sweden, a trial in the city of Gothenburg mandated a six-hour day, and officials found employees completed the same amount of work or even more. But when France mandated a 35-hour workweek in 2000, businesses complained of reduced competitiveness and increased hiring costs.

其他国家也有过类似关于减少工作时间提高工作效率的试验：瑞典哥德堡市的一项尝试要求人们一天工作六小时，结果官员们发现员工完成的工作量一样，甚至还要更多。但法国2000年的一项规定要求一周工作35小时，公司抱怨竞争力下降、雇佣成本升高。

In Perpetual Guardian’s case, workers said the change motivated them to find ways of increasing their productivity while in the office. Meetings were reduced from two hours to 30 minutes, and employees created signals for their colleagues that they needed time to work without distraction.

在“永久护卫”的案例中，员工表示这一变化推动他们寻找在在办公室提升生产力的方式。开会时间从两小时减少到了30分钟，员工们还创造出一种信号，向同事表明他们需要不受打扰地工作。

“They worked out where they were wasting time and worked smarter, not harder,” Mr. Haar said.

“他们找出了浪费时间的地方，更聪明地工作，而不是更辛苦地工作，”哈尔表示。

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