The joint signature of the three days of the weekly holiday triggered the public's discussion of the three days of the weekly holiday, let's see what other countries found after introducing the three days of weekly rest?
Woman Fan Editor Maggie
Recently, Taiwanese people launched a "three-day off week" petition on the public policy network participation platform, and 5,736 people seconded it. Due to the meeting of the threshold of joint signatures, the Ministry of Labor is obliged to respond to this proposal at the end of the next (6) month, and if approved, Taiwan will become the first country in Asia to take a three-day weekly holiday.
One wonders if three days off a week will improve work efficiency and quality of life.
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Does three days off a week affect productivity?
However, it is clear that the adherents of the three-day off week must be the majority of laborers, and few managers should be willing to reduce the number of hours employees work for the same salary.
In order to solve the manager's doubts about whether it is possible for employees to "get 100% salary, use 80% of working hours, and achieve 100% work output", the British non-profit organization "4 Day Week Global" cooperated with research and research institutions Autonomy, Oxford and Cambridge universities to carry out a six-month experimental project last year (2022).
A total of 61 companies, including banks, fast food restaurants, marketing companies, etc., these companies fully implemented three days off in the past six months, and after the experiment, up to 97% of employees believed that three days off a week significantly helped them maintain work-life balance, and even the management was satisfied with the three days off a week, because according to the results of the experiment, three days off a week can not only improve the work efficiency of employees, reduce management costs, but also increase the average annual revenue of the enterprise by 35%.
The end of the experiment is not the end of the experiment, and in view of the benefits of a three-day weekly holiday, 18 of the companies that participated in the program have permanently adopted the three-day weekly holiday.
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Ninety percent of Iceland's work has been practiced for three days off a week, and Panasonic fired Japan's first shot
Not only have the experimental results shown that the three-day break does not affect the productivity of employees, but Iceland, the leader of the three-day weekly holiday, has also found the same thing.
As early as 2015, the Icelandic government promoted the three-day weekly rest experiment for civil servants, shortening the weekly working hours from the original 40 hours to 35 to 36 hours, which proved that the three-day weekly rest can release employees' spirits and pressure, and improve their work performance.
The success of this experiment has also given confidence to the Icelandic government, and now nearly 90% of enterprises across the country have followed suit, and also affected the United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Ireland, the United States, Canada and other countries to start experimenting with the three-day weekly rest system.
Perhaps the working culture and industrial structure in Europe and the United States are different from Taiwan, and it is impossible to compare them in parallel, so we may wish to look back to Asia and see. The example of Panasonic, a Japanese company once hailed by the media as "a pioneer of labor reform in Japan."
Panasonic introduced a three-day weekly rest system in 2022, and has also succeeded in making employees willing to stay with the company when they are fully rested. Moreover, not only private enterprises, but also the Japanese Personnel Institute suggested that the Japanese government promote the "three-day weekly rest" system for civil servants to solve the problem of high working hours and high-pressure working environment, resulting in high turnover in government agencies.
Photo by Pavel Chernonogov on Pexels
Although the implementation of Taiwan's three-day weekly rest has not yet been decided, the experience and systems of Europe and the United States cannot be transferred to Taiwan in parallel, and more local planning is needed, and some people believe that most of Taiwan's service industries and property transmission are not very suitable for the three-day weekly rest system.
However, since we have all realized that the phenomenon of two days off and long working hours per week, in the context of the 22nd century, is not only out of date, but also a new type of feudal system, then changes must be made, and perhaps the three days off will become the clarion call for revolution.