The news reverses a trend toward reducing the work week to four days, which studies have found benefits for productivity and employee happiness and satisfaction. The Greek government says the measure will help alleviate labor shortages, ensure workers get paid overtime, and address the problem of tax evasion on unreported work. But labor advocates say Greece’s new law will likely not produce the desired results, and could instead have unintended consequences such as higher turnover, burnout, illness, and even death.
“This is clearly a step in the wrong direction and I feel it’s shortsighted,” said Marissa Clark, director of the Healthy Workplace Institute at the University of Georgia, which studies work-life balance. “We know that long work hours are detrimental to employee health.”
A recent Gallup poll found that 77 percent of U.S. workers believe a four-day, 40-hour workweek would have an extremely or somewhat positive effect on their well-being. U.S. companies that have piloted or adopted reduced workweeks say they are seeing benefits.
A six-day work week is the norm in much of Asia and other developing countries, but globally, a growing number of countries are considering reducing working hours. France was one of the countries to recently pilot a four-day work week, while Belgium became the first to formally approve a shorter week in 2022. Other countries experimenting with a four-day work week include Iceland, Japan and South Africa.
But obstacles to widespread adoption of the shortened week remain, with many concerned about staffing issues, potential productivity losses, increased costs and complex changes to work.
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Greece’s move runs counter to numerous studies that show that working more hours actually reduces productivity, not increases it, said Brigid Schulte, director of the Better Life Lab, a work and family justice program at the think tank New America. Instead, more hours often lead to workers making more mistakes, working slower, and becoming more fatigued, stressed, and sick.
“The evidence is clear,” Schulte said. “Maybe if Greece suddenly turned its economy around, people would think differently about Greece, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”
Schulte also said such policies often have negative effects on caregivers and women, reduce diversity in the workforce and leadership, and widen the gender pay gap.
Greek law paves the way for people to work a 48-hour week but doesn’t require it, and European Union law says employers must ensure employees don’t work more than 48 hours a week on average, including overtime. But Clark says the Greek law only creates the perception that there is a choice, as higher wages encourage people to work longer hours.
“You’re making it harder to change direction [the pay] “What are the norms and expectations within the organization?” she said.
While Greece has bucked the tide and been slow to adopt shorter work hours, Schulte and Clark say future trends are more likely to show a decline in work hours than an increase. Companies will continue to learn how to make processes more efficient, leverage technology and discover the benefits to workers and profits, they predict.
“It’s a kind of hidden mission of organizational excellence,” Schulte said. “If done right, shortening the work week is good for companies, good for people and good for the economy.”
What do you think your work week should look like? daniel.avril@washpost.com.
