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by mrks_hy 869 days ago
Can someone change the misleading title to part of the subtitle? It is "Less work, same money, more happiness and productivity. As of February 1, 45 companies in Germany are testing a 4-day workweek.", which is much more meaningful.

Title makes it sound like there is anything like a concerted effort, whereas these are just 45 random companies. No details on size of those companies, no data on number of employees or fields. I would expect that in particular the traditonal German "backbone" of the economy is not the kind of company amenable to this work week model or even participating in such a study. Example, classic automative supplier with more "blue collar" style work.

The source seems to be https://www.intraprenoer.de/4tagewoche but this is equally opaque.

Overall a weird article with not a lot of original research.

To not have this comment only be a rant, here is some data [1]: There are 3.4 Million companies (definition at link, they need to have employees and taxable turnover) in Germany, with 35 Million employees. That includes small 1-person shops as well as Fortune 500 companies.

Anyone seems to be able to sign up for that study, and without any further details this seems hardly representative. I am very much interested in the outcome of these studies and would probably for myself assume that I can be productive in 4 days as well, but I'm not sure how this gives us usable data.

1: https://www.destatis.de/EN/Themes/Economic-Sectors-Enterpris...

1 comments

"testing a 4-day workweek"

So, it is a 4-day workweek? So how is title misleading?

HN has a character limit, so sometimes titles get changed to fit.

The title is misleading because it says Germany is exploring - suggesting there is anything like a cultural shift/push on a society-wide scale to explore. That unfortunately is not the case.

German work culture as a whole is very much still "butts in seats", working for the predefined number of hours per week with a fixed quota each day, and the Stempeluhr [1] is very much alive even in white collar jobs.

1: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stempeluhr

If you interpret Germany to mean German government mandate then I can see how it would seem misleading, but if you interpret Germany as the people who live there, then 45 random companies (that the journalist could find, there will be more) is actually pretty good evidence of a society wide exploration.
I did think the government when I read the title