更多的老板嘗試每周4天工作制

更多的老板嘗試每周4天工作制

Companies around the world are embracing what might seem like a radical idea: a four-day workweek.

世界各地的公司都在接受一個看似激進的想法：每周工作四天。

The concept is gaining ground in places as varied as New Zealand and Russia, and it's making inroads among some American companies. Employers are seeing surprising benefits, including higher sales and profits.

這一概念在新西蘭和俄羅斯等不同的地方越來越流行，在一些美國公司中也取開始流行。雇主們看到了令人驚訝的好處，包括更高的銷售額和利潤。

The idea of a four-day workweek might sound crazy, especially in America, where the number of hours worked has been climbing and where cellphones and email remind us of our jobs 24/7.

一周工作四天的想法聽起來可能很瘋狂，尤其是在美國，工作時間一直在攀升，手機和電子郵件時時刻刻提醒著我們的工作。

But in some places, the four-day concept is taking off like a viral meme. Many employers aren't just moving to 10-hour shifts, four days a week, as companies like Shake Shack are doing; they're going to a 32-hour week — without cutting pay. In exchange, employers are asking their workers to get their jobs done in a compressed amount of time.

但在一些地方，這個為期四天的概念正在像病毒一樣傳播開來。許多雇主并沒有像Shake Shack這樣的公司那樣，一周四天、每周10小時輪班;他們將一周工作32小時，而不會削減工資。作為交換，雇主要求他們的工人在壓縮的時間內(nèi)完成工作。

Last month, a Washington state senator introduced a bill to reduce the standard workweek to 32 hours. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is backing a parliamentary proposal to shift to a four-day week. Politicians in Britain and Finland are considering something similar.

上個月，華盛頓州的一名參議員提出了一項法案，將標(biāo)準(zhǔn)每周工作時間減少到32小時。俄羅斯總理德米特里·梅德韋杰夫支持議會提出的改為每周工作四天的建議。英國和芬蘭的政客們也在考慮類似的事情。

In the U.S., Shake Shack started testing the idea a year and a half ago. The burger chain shortened managers' workweeks to four days at some stores and found that recruitment spiked, especially among women.

在美國，Shake Shack在一年半前開始測試這一想法。這家漢堡連鎖店將一些門店經(jīng)理的每周工作時間縮短到4天，發(fā)現(xiàn)招聘人數(shù)激增，特別是在女性中。

Shake Shack's president, Tara Comonte, says the staff loved the perk: "Being able to take their kids to school a day a week, or one day less of having to pay for day care, for example."

Shake Shack的總裁塔拉·科蒙特說，員工們喜歡這項福利：“例如，每周可以送孩子去上學(xué)一天，或者減少一天的日托費用。”

So the company recently expanded its trial to a third of its 164 U.S. stores. Offering that benefit required Shake Shack to find time savings elsewhere, so it switched to computer software to track supplies of ground beef, for example.

因此，該公司最近將試點范圍擴大到其164家美國門店的三分之一。提供這種福利需要Shake Shack公司在其他地方節(jié)省時間，所以它轉(zhuǎn)而使用電腦軟件來追蹤碎牛肉的供應(yīng)。

"It was a way to increase flexibility," Comonte says. "Corporate environments have had flexible work policies for a while now. That's not so easy to do in the restaurant business."

“這是一種增加靈活性的方式，”科蒙特說。“公司環(huán)境實行靈活的工作政策已經(jīng)有一段時間了。這在餐飲業(yè)不是那么容易做到的。”

Hundreds — if not thousands — of other companies are also adopting or testing the four-day week. Last summer, Microsoft's trial in Japan led to a 40% improvement in productivity, measured as sales per employee.

數(shù)百家(如果不是數(shù)千家的話)其它公司也在采用或測試這種四天工作制。去年夏天，微軟在日本的試運行使生產(chǎn)率提高了40%(以每名員工的銷售額衡量)。

Much of this is thanks to Andrew Barnes, an archaeologist by training, who never intended to become a global evangelist.

這在很大程度上要歸功于安德魯·巴恩斯，他是一名訓(xùn)練有素的考古學(xué)家，從未打算成為一名全球布道者。

Barnes is CEO of Perpetual Guardian, New Zealand's largest estate planning company. He spent much of his career believing long hours were better for business. But he was also disturbed by the toll it took on employees and their families, particularly when it came to mental health.

巴恩斯是新西蘭最大的遺產(chǎn)規(guī)劃公司Perpetual Guardian的首席執(zhí)行官。在他職業(yè)生涯的大部分時間里，他都相信長時間工作對生意更好。但他也對這給員工和他們的家人帶來的損失感到不安，特別是在精神健康方面。