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Businesses United Kingdom IT

Dell Trials 4-Day Workweek In Netherlands (theregister.com) 36

Posted by BeauHD from the work-schedules-of-the-future dept.
Dell employees in the Netherlands will be able to work four days a week from this month, a director of Dell Technologies Netherlands has confirmed to The Register. From the report: The news comes just weeks before what is touted to be the biggest ever 4-day working week trial begins in the UK. Isabel Moll, newly appointed vice president and general manager at Dell Netherlands, told us the part-time pilot has already been rolled out by the Dutch and Argentinian operations. "On April 1 we welcomed our first starter, and we're currently in the late phases of the interviewing process with [another]. We're hoping to welcome many other candidates in the near future, once the word spreads more and more." She noted that the scheme was also open to existing employees, with pay corresponding to hours worked.

Speaking to local financial news daily Financieele Dagblad, Dell GM Moll described the April Argentinian and Dutch pilot as addressing both the issues of scarcity in the labor market and a way to bring in a more diverse group, including women and younger people, who are no longer interested in working until "they drop" or have other obligations. She said such people often end up leaving the sector, to its detriment, or use their technical skills in other sectors which have less intensive hours, telling the paper: "Working harder won't pay off, because the pond is empty..."
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Dell Trials 4-Day Workweek In Netherlands More

Dell Trials 4-Day Workweek In Netherlands

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  • 4 Days (Score:3, Funny)

    by ISoldat53 ( 977164 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @05:55PM (#62441748)
    I know some Dell employees that don't work 4 days now.
    • I don't work four days a week now and I don't and would never work for Dell.

    • One thing that all these weird work-week modifications have in common is that they are PRE-Announced.

      It is always, "We are going to do X, and it will be wonderful."

      It is never, "We tried X for several years, and it is working wonderfully."

      Six months from now, when Dell realizes that productivity and profits are declining, they will quietly shelve the project and tell everyone to get back to work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        Remember that this is Europe. In the Netherlands they have 3 public holidays in April anyway, so many people are doing mostly 4 day weeks this month no matter who they work for.

        This story is much less interesting because they are reducing pay based on hours worked. In the UK and Japan they are keeping pay the same. I expect they will see productivity remain the same or increase.

  • 4 days on paper with 5 days with OT being your real work time.

  • So... one employee? (Score:3)

    by dgatwood ( 11270 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @06:07PM (#62441778) Homepage Journal

    My first question was how many employees were affected. If I read the article correctly, they have a whopping one employee on this new plan, and others are theoretically eligible to apply. Wake me up when the numbers are big enough to notice. ;-)

    • Wake me up when the numbers are big enough to notice

      What's interesting in NL is the sheer number of people who already only work 4 days a week. It makes for some much more peaceful Friday rushhours.

  • Every time I see one of these 4-day articles & realise I don't understand what they mean by a 4 day week & have to scour the article for specific details which may or may not be clearly stated in it. Why are we talking days, which don't mean much, when we should be talking about hours, which is what we get paid for? If a typical working 5-day week is 35 hours (excluding overtime), then a 4-day week should mean 28 hours per week, right? So we should be reading headlines that state "28-hour week."

    • ... 28 hours per week

      I know one government department that changed from a 5-day week to 4.5-day week but the hours were the same. They now did an hour of 'overtime' for 4 days, most likely reducing their efficiency. To be fair, maybe the department did it because everyone was leaving early on Friday, while still 'on the clock'.

    • then a 4-day week should mean 28 hours per week, right? So we should be reading headlines that state "28-hour week."

      No, that's not how it works. You still work the same number of hours per week, it's just compressed into fewer days.

      • No. They found that people were just as productive only working 32 hours instead of 40. So the pay stays the same, you get an extra day off, and everyone is happy. Well maybe not managers...

        • They found that people were just as productive only working 32 hours instead of 40.

          Citation?

          So greedy profit-seeking capitalists just never noticed that they could generate far more profit by reducing labor by 20%?

          That seems highly implausible.

          So the pay stays the same, you get an extra day off, and everyone is happy.

          Why would pay stay the same? They would be able to hire other workers for less, so why would they pay you the same?

          Well maybe not managers...

          Why would managers be unhappy? It is less work for the same pay for them as well.

        • You mean executives listen to those studies? The whole 10 hours 4 day l, rotating schedules, and this is just a cook the frog technique to trick employees to go back to the office and to minimize bad PR. I agree with you as most studies say a dmininishing return starts at 6 hours. The guys don't care.

      • The summary says "with pay corresponding to hours worked", which would imply that they are working fewer hours per week, but also getting paid less.
      • I'm doing that at the moment, i.e. a full week compressed into 4 days. Take it from me, it's worse, not better.

    • Quite easy. HR jargon to English translation is "waah. Mr. Gray hair phb wants to micromanage his employees and can't handle change and justify their expenses office lease. But the PR and HR departments don't want bad releases and employees quiting. I know let's announce this as flexible 4 day and slowly cook the frog so by fall everyone is in full time without them knowing and we can still advertise as a modern diverse employer! Chaching!"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jbengt ( 874751 )

      If a typical working 5-day week is 35 hours (excluding overtime) . . .

      Where do you get that idea? 40 hours is the typical work week. The only time I worked 35 hours a week was 2009-2010 during the recession, and my pay was cut to match. Personally, I'm on salary, but I've never had a job where I'm paid for lunch. Lately (pre-pandemic) my typical week was 8:00 to 5:25 with an hour off for lunch. (It just wasn't worth it to rush out of the office to catch an earlier train when the later train was less

  • So? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by OYAHHH ( 322809 ) on Tuesday April 12, 2022 @06:24PM (#62441828)

    In the early 90s my Father worked at a factory where they worked 3 days on, 3 days off, 4 days on, 4 days off, rinse and repeat. 12 hour work days.

    You people act like alternative wok schedules are something new when it is far from it.

    • I have worked that sort of schedule, but that is factory work where you have multiple shifts working around the clock. Generally speaking, these "4 days a week" schemes involve office workers -- people who can take an extra day off because they don't do much of anything when they are "working".

    • Factory work is all over the shop especially to cover shifts and continuous production. 3 on 3 off, 4 on 4 off, 2 days 1 off 2 nights 3 off, all sorts of variants exist. IN A FACTORY.

      Yes alternative work schedules are very much something new for many office jobs, *especially* those owned by large American companies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jbengt ( 874751 )
      I had a job where I got every Sunday off, plus another day that rotated from Monday thru Saturday, so every 6 weeks, I had a 3-day weekend, and other weeks I had one day off on a weekday. It was kind of nice, but it sucked to work on Saturday if there was a party Friday night.

  • You can still have 5 day coverage with 4 day work weeks. One group works Mon-Thurs and the other group works Tues-Fri. Back in those days we did 4 - 10 hour work days so it still added up to 40 and management seemed OK with it given that there was Mon-Fri coverage.

    The world is changing. Remote work is no longer something that had to be done because of Covid. After 2 years it has become an accepted way to work for many people. Some people want to go back to the office - some don't. Nearly everyone I work wit

    • In Europe they work 35 hours a week, or less, and I don't see their economies falling apart as a result.

      Per capita GDP in the EU is about half that of America.

    • I see this as a big pushback. Not everyone is blessed to work in IT or executive positions. America is very very stubborn, old fashioned, and competitive. Working hard but not hard on work and warming the seat at certain times with politics is the way to get ahead.

      Personal time is weakness and society in the west is not ready for work at home sadly. We still have employees who show up to work 48 hours after giving birth! Employees maybe ready but the culture is backwards and not. Call me cynical but

  • Is it 4 days with the same pay as when working 5 days? if not, then it's just working parttime and nothing special.

    • including women and younger people, who are no longer interested in working until "they drop"

      I always cringe when I read something like that, as a lot of people I know always say they don't have any money, but expect to be able to do anything they want, buy the new console, have an expensive mobile(subscription), go on holidays, go out and more of those things that cost a lot of money. But they don't want to work for it, but no, they should have more time for leisure instead of earning the money so they can actually do what they want, and in the meantime increase their debt.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tsqr ( 808554 )

      Here's a novel idea: Try reading TFS beyond the headline.

      She noted that the scheme was also open to existing employees, with pay corresponding to hours worked.

      • So there really isn't anything special as people can (almost) always opt to go work for 4 days instead of 5.. Especially when you've got a contract for determent time (here in the Netherlands).

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jbengt ( 874751 )

      Is it 4 days with the same pay as when working 5 days? if not, then it's just working parttime and nothing special.

      If it's working part time with the same benefits, then I'm all for it, even if the pay is proportional to the hours. Otherwise, it's nothing special.

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