Work-life balance has always been a struggle.

维持工作和生活的平衡一直是件难事。

But an increased concern for workers’rights paired with the power of automation has created a shift.

但是，在自动化影响下，劳动者权利愈发受到重视，这导致了一个转变。

Certain industries don’t require as many working hours anymore, and the global trend–especially in Europe–leans toward a four-day workweek.

一些行业已经不再需要那么多的工作时间，从全球趋势来看-尤其是欧洲-更倾向于每周工作四天。

Does it work? Can people accomplish the same amount in four days as they can in five?

这能行吗？人们可以在四天内完成五天的工作量吗？

And if so, why isn’t everyone doing it?

如果可以，为什么大家不都这样做？

Let’s look at what we know so far to see how effective the four-day workweek really is.

来看看目前为止所我们所了解的，为期四天的工作周多么有效。

THE FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK IS AN IDEA AHEAD OF ITS TIME

四天工作周是领先时代的想法

In 1930, during the Great Depression, e conomist John Maynard Keynes predicted that we’d all have a 15-hour workweek “within 100 years.”

1930年，大萧条时期，经济学家约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯曾预测，“100年内”，我们都将每周只工作15小时。

In his own time, Keynes saw the rise of industrialization and assumed the trend toward more efficient work methods would continue. Once a worker earned enough to pay for their necessities, he suggested, they’d opt¹ to spend more time at home or in leisure, reducing the workweek to only two or three days.

在他的时代，凯恩斯看到了工业化的兴起，并认为更有效率的工作方式会继续出现。他说，一旦工人挣到足够的钱购买必需品，他们就会在家庭和休闲上投入更多时间，把每周的工作时间减少到两三天。

As an attractive fantasy to beleaguered² workers throughout the century, the idea never quite left the public consciousness. Even Richard Nixon, during his vice³ presidency⁴ in 1956, predicted that the four-day workweek was coming “in the not too distant future.”

一个世纪以来，劳动者饱受困扰，这个幻想很有吸引力，未曾在公众意识中消失。即便是理查德·尼克松，他在1956年担任副总统期间也曾预测，为期四天的工作周会“在不太遥远的将来”出现。

The idea remained just an idea for close to a century, until 1998, when France enacted⁵ the first of its two “Aubry” laws that reduced the national workweek to 35 hours instead of 39, with excess hours counting as overtime⁶. (In subsequent years, revisions have eroded⁷ much of the original laws.) Their aim was to reduce their 12% unemployment rate (at the time) through work sharing, but the success of the legislation got other countries revisiting their standard work schedules.

近一个世纪以来，这个理念都只是一个想法。直到1998年，法国颁布了两部“奥布里”法律中的第一部，将全国每周39小时的工作时间减少到35小时。超出时间算作加班。（随后的几年中，原版法律不断被修订，很多内容被更改。）他们的目标是通过分担工作量降低（当时）12％的失业率，而立法的成功也让其他国家重新审视自己的标准工作时间表。

With the tech disruption evident in the 21st century–similar to the “conveyor belt” tech disruption of the 1920s that ushered⁸ in the five-day workweek–the idea continues to snowball. Even business mogul Richard Branson supports the shift to a shorter workweek, stating in a blog post:

20世纪20年代的出现的“输送带”颠覆性技术，迎来了为期五天的工作周，于此类似，随着21世纪颠覆性技术的出现，这个想法继续膨胀。商业大亨理查德·布兰森也支持这一转变，缩短每周的工作时间，他在一篇博文中说：

By working more efficiently⁹, there is no reason why people can’t work less hours and be equally–if not more–effective. People will need to be paid more for working less time, so they can afford more leisure time. That’s going to be a difficult balancing act to get right, but it can be done.

通过提高工作效率，人们没理由不在更短的时间内做完同样多甚至更多的工作。人们要在工作时间缩短的情况下获得更高的报酬，来支付更多的休闲开支。要达到这个平衡其实很难，但却可以实现。

Different countries in Europe are already experimenting and implementing¹⁰ shorter workweeks in varying degrees. But the conversation got louder earlier this year, when a New Zealand firm conducted a formal experiment.

不同的欧洲国家已经在不同程度上在尝试和实施缩短每周的工作时间。今年年初，这场对话变得愈发响亮。新西兰的一家公司正式进行了一次实验。

NEW ZEALAND STUDY ABOUT THE FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK

新西兰对每周四天工作日的研究

The Perpetual Guardian¹¹ is an estate¹² management firm that deals in wills, trusts, and EPAs–a fairly unassuming and conventional company, perfect for capturing a work experience close to the norm.

Perpetual Guardian是一家物业管理公司，经营遗嘱、信托和可信赖商业业务——这是一家相当低调传统的公司，非常适合作为样本，衡量常规的工作体验。

In March and April 2018, the firm ran an experiment that reduced their workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours, for all of its 240 employees, while still paying the same salaries. They hired a pair of researchers to record the results quantitatively¹³, and what they found shows positive support for the four-day workweek:

2018年3月和4月，该公司进行了一项实验，将240名员工每周的工作时间从40小时减少到32小时，并支付相同的工资。他们聘请两位研究员对结果进行量化记录，结果证实了四天工作周的有效性：

24% more employees felt they could successfully balance their work and personal lives. Stress decreased by 7% among everyone involved. Overall work satisfaction increased by 5%. But above all, “their actual job performance didn’t change when doing it over four days instead of five,” in the words of Jarrod Harr, the Auckland University of Technology human resources professor who jointly¹⁴ oversaw¹⁵ the experiment.

24％的员工感觉他们可以成功地平衡工作和个人生活。所有参与者的压力都下降了7％。总体工作满意度提高了5％。但最重要的是，一同参与监督了这次实验的奥克兰理工大学人力资源教授杰罗德·哈尔说“用四天取代五天工作日，他们的实际工作表现没有变化”。

As reported, with the benefit of an extra free day, employees were exceptionally motivated to meet productivity requirements. This motivation inspired workers to devise better work habits and to waste less of their work time, to say nothing of the improvements in their mood. “Supervisors¹⁶ said staff were more creative, their attendance was better, they were on time, and they didn’t leave early or take long breaks,” noted¹⁷ Harr.

据报道，因为多了一天休息日，员工格外积极地满足生产要求。这个动机激励员工形成更好的工作习惯，减少工作时间的浪费，更不用说，他们的情绪也有所改善。“管理者说，员工们更有创造力了，他们的出勤率更高，准时上班，而且没有早退或长时间休息，”哈尔说。

The study seems to offer evidence for what many already predicted: Productivity isn’t influenced by just time–employee mentality¹⁸ also plays an influential¹⁹ role.

这项研究似乎为很多人的预测提供了证据：生产力不仅受时间的影响——也受员工的心态的影响。