Balancing free time and time dedicated to work is difficult. Could things soon change in an Italian region?
Work five days a week having only two for rest it doesn’t make it easy to reconcile free time and time dedicated to one’s job. The problem complained by many is linked to the fact that on Saturdays we are usually very tired and when, on Sunday, we start to ‘take back’ the time available to organize extra-work activities is already running out.
In recent years, various companies around the world have therefore tried to revolutionize the ‘basic’ idea of the working week, reducing it to four days in order to guarantee its employees a better balance. But what is the situation like in Italy? Well there is a region in whichalbeit in small steps, things are starting to change.
4 day work week? The Italian region that is trying
It all started from a survey conducted among the workers of this region, from which it emerged that a large majority of those interviewed, in order to benefit from the short week that is, reduced to just four days, he would be willing to work even ten hours a day. In this way he could benefit from three consecutive days dedicated to rest and free time. Well, although at the moment it is only an investigation, at a territorial level there are some companies that they started to change things.
Two in particular have already led the way for some time by introducing the short week or opening the factory from Monday to Thursday. We are talking about Luxottica and Lamborghini, two well-known brands internationally that have brought the four-day week to their production lines. The ‘revolution’ therefore starts from Piedmont, the area in which the investigation was conducted and the region whose companies have modified their working model, giving shape to a new organizational reality of which it is already possible, to date, to obtain an initial assessment linked to its functionality but also to the satisfaction of the employees.
The operating mechanism the Filmca Cisl unions explained this by explaining that as far as Luxottica is concerned it is an experiment involving 600 employees who will work four days a week, giving up 5 days of leave and receiving the same salary. At the end of 2024, any benefits will be verified by deciding whether to follow up on the measure and whether to proceed broaden the range of beneficiaries.
