Investor Carsten Maschmeyer is certain: the four-day week will prevail, precisely because of the shortage of skilled workers. German companies are desperately looking for skilled workers. That’s why business representatives are calling for an increase in working hours.
This article first appeared at ntv.de
Investor Carsten Maschmeyer firmly expects the four-day week to become established in Germany. He is convinced, the entrepreneur writes in an article on , “that everyone benefits from it” – employees and employers. In his opinion, the development cannot be stopped anyway, says Maschmeyer, who is known, among other things, as an investor from the VOX program “The Lions’ Den”. Basically, as an investor, he “doesn’t care at all” how many days a company’s employees work, “as long as the goals are achieved.”
Maschmeyer believes that the view held by many business associations and some economists that Germans have to work longer in order to maintain the economy and prosperity in the country is wrong. This is “an illusion”. Longer working hours or more overtime would only help companies affected by the labor shortage in the short term. The current “rigid” system of five-day weeks and 40 hours of work per week has contributed to the “economically difficult situation with high inflation and low productivity,” said Maschmeyer.
On the other hand, reducing working hours to around 32 hours over four days could significantly increase productivity. Maschmeyer points to pilot projects that have shown that employees with a four-day week take fewer sick days, suffer less from burnout and are generally more motivated and creative.
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In addition, a four-day week is suitable for making work more attractive in sectors that are currently suffering from an acute shortage of skilled workers. For example in gastronomy, care and crafts. Maschmeyer therefore expects that more and more companies will offer the four-day week in the competition for workers. “This is the only way companies will find and retain skilled workers for their many open positions.”
According to Maschmeyer, the unstoppable advance of the four-day week is likely to lead to companies making work more efficient and shortening or completely eliminating long, unproductive meetings. In addition, they should increasingly pay their employees based on performance and not based on how much time they spend in the office.
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Maschmeyer compares the current discussion about the four-day week with the debate about Saturdays off, which he experienced as a child. According to the 64-year-old, he still had to go to school on Saturdays as a child. His stepfather worked every Saturday. When demands for a five-day week were raised and finally implemented, there were also warnings of “a slump in production, yes, of an economic crisis.” Then the opposite happened. Similar to the debate about Saturday work, the current four-day week will be forgotten in a few decades, Maschmeyer predicts.
Source: Stern
