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Iceland approved the 4-day workweek in 2019: nearly 6 years later, all the predictions made have come true.

⁨330⁩ ⁨likes⁩

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨the_abecedarian@piefed.social⁩ to ⁨workreform@lemmy.world⁩

https://farmingdale-observer.com/2025/05/10/iceland-approved-the-4-day-workweek-in-2019-nearly-6-years-later-all-the-predictions-made-have-come-true/

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  • AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    There were fears of a drop in productivity, increased costs for businesses and difficulties in adapting to maintain service levels. However, the Icelandic experience has swept these fears under the carpet.

    I don’t think that metaphor means what they think it means.

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    • potpotato@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Idiom, bruv

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      • obinice@lemmy.world ⁨20⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Whadid y’all call me

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    • macaw_dean_settle@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      *rug.

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  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world ⁨22⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Don’t worry. Us Americans will entirely ignore that other 1st world nations have a better quality of life and we’ll continue to allow our abusers to abuse us more.

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    • match@pawb.social ⁨21⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      except for the nazis who will declare that better quality of life is only possible if the population is all “white”

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  • Enkrod@feddit.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I would love that. Just one more day, one more day a week to do my own activities. That would help so much with all the anxieties.

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    • BlueLineBae@midwest.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      I was lucky enough to experience the 4 day work week for 1 glorious year. I used my extra day to schedule weekday appointments without taking time off, taking care of chores so I could enjoy the weekend more, and doing more hobbies when I wasn’t doing those other 2 things. It was the best quality of life I ever had.

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    • ChexMax@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Yes, when I was lucky enough that I could survive on part time income, my four day work week was glorious. I used Mondays to just rest. I could actually enjoy my weekends AND be productive because I wasn’t trying to also rest in prep for the coming week.

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  • HubertManne@piefed.social ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    This is where unions really dropped the ball. I feel in the eighties and even back in the seventies they were pushing for overtime over increased staffing and thus membership plus not going for lower work week. Its crazy that the work week increased over the last 50 years (well in the us).

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  • AntiBullyRanger@ani.social ⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    🥳

    Now let’s go for 12 hour tit for tat work weeks!

    Nú skulum við fara í 12 tíma vinnuvikur þar sem við skiptum á milli!

    12hrttww

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    • sunflowercowboy@feddit.org ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Oh hey I have this work life balance and can’t make ends meet. The 4 hour shifts feel unproductive due to break rules, incentivizing the 15 minutes used at the end of day. These days I usually have very limited time and cannot extend/reflect meaningful progessive or incentive to engage further.

      In turn losing ability to create further responsibility, which assures the job necessitates me. Losing a major avenue of job security.

      Any time free is spent trying to not indulge in further spending.

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      • AntiBullyRanger@ani.social ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I’m not so sure why your employer isn’t paying you for the dividends of your yields, but the 12hr tit for tat work week is the homo sapien schedule to a healthy body. The countries doing 4 day work weeks pay for the full 40 hour wages + benefits, even if you’re working 32hrs.

        I’m anarchist, wages are theft. So is money. This is why I’m mentioning to keep pushing the political landscape further free. Work should be for pursuits, not having to worry about paying rent

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    • LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      You’re getting me too excited, stop filling my head with such wondrous dreams!

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  • syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    How does a 36-hour workweek work out to a four-day workweek?

    Here in Norway everyone in sneezing distance of a union deal has a five-day workweek at 7.5 hours a day, for 37.5 hours in total. (The law says six days at 8 hours; the half-hour difference is in practice lunch, which is your own time with a union deal and the boss’ time without. I think we could go down to 7h a day and get an hour of lunch like our neighbours.)

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    • PapaStevesy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      9 x 4 = 36

      IANI (I am not Icelandic) but that’s my guess based on currently-accepted mathematical models.

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      • syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Yeah, but there’s also no way anyone in the Nordics would be fine with a nine-hour workday. There’s something clearly wrong here.

        I’d rather guess that they’re working a five-day workweek but have cut the hours per day from 8 to 7.2, or 8 hours Mon-Thu and 4 hours on Friday or the like. The article just comes off as weird.

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    • spankmonkey@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Probably four 9 hour days

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      • syklemil@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨23⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        There’s nothing probable about the combination of a Nordic country and a 9-hour workday.

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  • DJKJuicy@sh.itjust.works ⁨17⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I work a 4x10 workweek right now. Huge improvement on my quality of life. I use my free weekday to handle chores and shopping and appointments, then actually spend my weekend with my family. I’ve been doing this for about 3 years.

    I know I’ll lose this someday. Eventually somebody will use it against me. That’s the day I’ll start entertaining new opportunities.

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    • LemmyFeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      Could you imagine 4x8 with same pay? Even better!

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      • EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        I might stop trying to speedrun FIRE if I could have a 4x8 schedule. Going from 71% of the week being workdays to 57% of the week is fucking huge. Longer weekend and shorter workweek is like a double effect.

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      • roofuskit@lemmy.world ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        They’re probably only really getting 8 hours of quality work out of most people in a 10 hour day anyway.

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  • goldenquetzal@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    I wonder what the impact on birthrates has been

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  • Damage@feddit.it ⁨18⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Yes, but what about the suffering?

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  • pelespirit@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    The Icelandic experiment began in 2015 with a pilot phase involving around 2,500 employees, or just over 1% of the country’s working population. Following the resounding success of this initiative, with 86% of the employees involved expressing their support, the project was made official in 2019 . Today, almost 90% of Icelandic workers benefit from a reduced working week of 36 hours, compared with 40 hours previously, with no loss of pay. Initial concerns about the four-day week were widespread, both in Iceland and elsewhere in the world. There were fears of a drop in productivity, increased costs for businesses and difficulties in adapting to maintain service levels. However, the Icelandic experience has swept these fears under the carpet.

    The Icelandic experiment began in 2015 with a pilot phase involving around 2,500 employees, or just over 1% of the country’s working population. Following the resounding success of this initiative, with 86% of the employees involved expressing their support, the project was made official in 2019 . Today, almost 90% of Icelandic workers benefit from a reduced working week of 36 hours, compared with 40 hours previously, with no loss of pay. Initial concerns about the four-day week were widespread, both in Iceland and elsewhere in the world. There were fears of a drop in productivity, increased costs for businesses and difficulties in adapting to maintain service levels. However, the Icelandic experience has swept these fears under the carpet.

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