While most in the Western world work their butts off five days a week, eight hours a day, some companies and even countries are trying to hack the current system of productivity and introduce a four-day working week. There’s been an attempt of introducing this working schedule in Japan when Microsoft Japan carried out an experiment and tried introducing this new schedule. The results were beyond satisfying as the company noticed an almost 40 percent increase in productivity with its employees. Finland’s new prime minister Sanna Marin has some additional thoughts as to why this working schedule is beneficial for society and plans to introduce it in her country.

Update (01/08/20): After the news of Finland’s PM went viral worldwide, the Finnish government released a statement on the 7th of January, 2020, explaining that while this idea was brought up by the now-PM Sanna Marin before her election, it is not currently included in the Government’s agenda.

Finland’s new PM, Sanna Marin, is considering a four-day working week and six-hour-long shifts

Prior to starting her work as a prime minister of the Finnish government, 34-year-old Sanna Marit, who is currently the second youngest PM in the world, came up with a beautiful plan to send her country on a different course regarding the typical understanding of work hours. One of her plans was to introduce a four-day working week and six-hour shifts. She said then: “I believe people deserve to spend more time with their families, loved ones, hobbies and other aspects of life, such as culture. This could be the next step for us in working life.”

She believes the country would prosper even more if the citizens could spend more time with their families

Sanna Marin believes it’s important to allow Finnish citizens to work less. In her opinion, it is not in question of governing with a feminine style but offering help and keeping promises to voters. The neighboring country of Sweden might have been an example regarding her decision to decrease the length of a working week since they conducted an experiment in 2015 and trialed a six-hour working day. The results showed that employees were happier, wealthier and more productive.

Update: After the news of shortening the working week went viral, the Finnish Government released a statement saying the issue is not yet on the Government’s agenda

In the Finnish Government´s program there is no mention about 4-day week. Issue is not on the Finnish Government’s agenda. PM @marinsanna envisioned idea briefly in a panel discussion last August while she was the Minister of Transport, and there hasn’t been any recent activity.

— Finnish Government (@FinGovernment) January 7, 2020

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