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Could a four-day working week become the norm?
一周工作四天能成为常态吗？
Plenty of people have been toiling for longer during the covid-19 pandemic. According to one study of over 10,000 workers at an Asian technology company (the data were anonymised), total hours worked were 30% higher than before the pandemic, including an 18% increase in working outside normal hours. But this extra effort did not translate into more output. As economies recover and companies rush to hire more staff, workers seem to be gaining bargaining power. The demands of some are particularly ambitious. One idea, long batted about by trade unions and certain economists, is that people can work for fewer hours without reducing their overall productivity.
在新冠病毒大流行期间，很多人已经辛苦工作了更长时间。根据一项对亚洲一家科技公司1万多名员工的研究（数据是匿名的），总工作时间比新冠病毒大流行前增加了30%，其中非正常工作时间增加了18%。但这种额外的努力并没有转化为更多的产出。随着经济复苏，企业争相招聘更多员工，员工的议价能力似乎正在增强。一些求职者的要求格外地野心勃勃。工会和某些经济学家长期争论的一个观点是：人们可以在不降低整体生产率的情况下减少工作时间。
It is if you’re Icelandic. Last month Alda, an Icelandic pressure group, and Autonomy, a British think-tank, published a report into experiments by the Reykjavik City Council and Iceland’s government between 2015 and 2019. They involved almost 3,000 workers reducing their working hours, many of them from 40 per week to 35 or 36, while staying on the same pay. According to the report, overall output did not dip in most workplaces, and in some it improved.
这在冰岛确确实实发生了。上个月，冰岛压力组织Alda和英国智库Autonomy发表了一份报告，对雷克雅未克市议会和冰岛政府在2015年至2019年间的实验进行了研究。他们让近3000名工人减少工作时间，其中许多人从每周40小时减少到35或36小时，同时保持相同的工资。根据报告，大多数工作场所的总产出没有下降，有些工作场所的总产出有所改善。
Reykjavik’s department of accountancy, for example, recorded a 6.5% increase in the number of invoices it processed during the trial compared with the same period a year before. Workers reported feeling less stressed and healthier too. Men even started doing a bigger share of the household chores. The trials encouraged trade unions to push for shorter working hours, and employers responded swiftly.
例如，雷克雅未克的会计部记录显示，与一年前同期相比，该部门在实验期间处理的发票数量增加了6.5%。员工们表示，他们感到压力更小，也更健康。男人甚至开始做更多的家务活。这些试验鼓励工会推动缩短工作时间，雇主们也迅速做出了反应。
