The Singapore government's labour department and labor unions have jointly issued a new guideline: local business employees can apply to work only four days a week from December this year. In an Asian culture that emphasizes overtime, this is undoubtedly a "breath of fresh air".
Of course, this guideline does not mean that Singapore has begun to fully implement the four-day work week. Even in Europe, which is the most "radical" in this regard, the four-day work week is dominated by social experiments, initiatives and small-scale implementations.
But in the future, we can indeed expect the four-day work week to be promoted.
Countries such as the UK have launched the world's largest four-day workweek pilots, attracting many businesses to participate.
The test report shows:
Of the 61 pilot establishments, 54 are still in place for the four-day workweek after one year, and 31 have turned it into formal corporate rules.
According to the report, the majority of employees in companies recognize the four-day work week. The majority of employees believe that the new system has significantly improved work stress. Traditionally, corporate employees tend to have "Wednesday fatigue" and "Sunday anxiety". The former is every Wednesday when you suddenly find out, "Why do you have two more days to work?" The latter is a dilemma of "take a day off, go to work tomorrow, and don't have fun today" every Sunday.
After a four-day workweek, most employees who scheduled a "weekend" said that these two stresses were significantly reduced, allowing them to take better care of their families, further study and exercise, and in turn improve their mental health and work-life balance.