Sweden seems to have become the chosen proving ground for replacing the 40-hour week with the 6-hour workday. Reports are that employees can focus better for six hours instead of eight and so productivity compensates for the shorter day. People are supposed to avoid social media at work and the extra free time is supposed to be for spending more time with family, pursuing projects outside of work, and getting exercise:
I think the 8-hour work day is not as effective as one would think. To stay focused on a specific work task for 8 hours is a huge challenge. … We want to spend more time with our families, we want to learn new things or exercise more. I wanted to see if there could be a way to mix these things. … My impression now is that it is easier to focus more intensely on the work that needs to be done and you have the stamina to do it and still have energy left when leaving the office.
Sweden Is Shifting To A 6-Hour Work Day ? Why The Rest Of The World Should Consider It Too | Collective-Evolution
Sweden is also pledging to go completely fossil-fuel free. Will car-free living grow in popularity with shorter working hours and less fossil-fuel use as well?
If successful will this model spread beyond Sweden? Why or why not? Will this become yet another badge of superiority reserved for elite welfare states and eschewed by others who view things like human free time as costly privileges to be reserved for social utopias and kept out of reach for everyone else?
Sweden is shifting to a 6-hour work day - ScienceAlert
http://www.fastcoexist.com/3051448/why-sweden-is-shifting-to-a-6-hour-work-day