In order to allow workers to spend more time doing things they enjoy and less time working, Panasonic will allegedly implement a four-day workweek starting in 2019. In the long run, this will lead to shorter workweeks, but it is a start.
CEO Kusumi Yuki revealed that Panasonic will provide its workers with a third day of work each week starting in January 2019. An investor briefing was held where this information was made public. Employers will be encouraged to switch to four-day workweeks, according to Japan’s annual economic policy guidelines, which were released last year.
“We must assist their well-being,” Kusumi declared in the Nikkei Asian Journal.
In order to enhance work-life balance, the electronics maker is granting employees greater flexibility and enabling them to refuse job transfers that would force them to relocate. However, not all employees around the world will be subject to these new regulations. Also unknown is whether or not workers’ working hours or compensation would be adjusted to account for the reduced workdays.
Four-day workweeks have been a long-held ambition for many workers for many years. A transient vision that has been given to them as an oasis in the middle of a desert has been sold to them as a fantasy oasis Workers in Iceland reported in 2021 that the country’s largest test of a shortened workweek resulted in considerable gains in employee happiness as well as productivity and health. With considerable success, Microsoft Japan experimented with a four-day workweek in 2019. It resulted in a roughly 40% boost in production. Perpetual Guardian noticed a 20% boost in production over a two-month trial period. A four-day work week was mandated for Perpetual Guardian as a result of the situation.
For years, scientists have tested and retested their products all across the world, and their results have always been favourable. Despite the well-documented benefits of a reduced work week for both individuals and companies, its implementation continues to be challenging. The companies are continuing to draw their feet, stating that it is impossible, that they are an exceptional situation, and that it would not work in their particular business.
Although the economic consequences of the COVID-19 epidemic have increased worker dissatisfaction, the disease itself has not. In light of the rising anti-worker movement, employers may want to rethink their attitude.
