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Log in using your social network account OR Log in directly with The Independent {{message}} ____________________ Please enter an email address Please enter a valid email address Please enter a valid email address ____________________ Please enter a valid password [ ] Keep me logged in (BUTTON) Submit Forgotten your password? Try Independent Minds free for 14 days See the options Hi {{fullName}} * My Independent Minds * Account details * Help centre * Logout News > Business > Business News What happened when Sweden tried six-hour working days Participants felt healthier, happier, had more energy and were more productive - so why has the trial stopped with no plans to revive it? * Ben Chapman @b_c_chapman * Friday 10 February 2017 18:45 * {{#singleComment}}{{total}} comment{{/singleComment}}{{^singleComment}}{{total}} comments{{/singleComment}} * Click to follow The Independent Stockholm, capital of Sweden. The country is the best place for an expat family to raise children, a new survey has shown ( Ola Ericson/imagebank.sweden.se ) A six-hour working day with full-time wages sounds like a dream for most people, but for a group of 70 Swedish nurses it has been a reality for the past two years. They were part of a trial aimed at testing the benefits of less work, which gained a huge amount of attention around the world. But is the nine-to-five really going to be a thing of the past? The results of the trial released so far are encouraging. Nurses working shorter hours took less sick days, felt healthier and were more productive. They also said they were 20 per cent happier on average and had more energy at work and in their spare time. This allowed them to arrange 85 per cent more physical activities with elderly residents, the study found. Join Indpendent Minds For exclusive articles, events and an advertising-free read for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month (BUTTON) Start your free trial Get the best of The Independent With an Independent Minds subscription for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month (BUTTON) Start your free trial Get the best of The Independent Without the ads – for just £5.99 €6.99 $9.99 a month (BUTTON) Start your free trial Assistant nurse Emilie Telander, who has now gone back to eight-hour shifts, told the BBC: “I feel that I am more tired than I was before.” Read more * Sweden’s six-hour working day is ‘too expensive’ and could be scrapped “During the trial all the staff had more energy. I could see that everybody was happy.” Despite the positive results there was one big problem: the cost. The city of Gothenburg spent £12m kronor (£1.1m) on the trial, largely because, despite productivity gains, it had to hire 17 extra nurses to cover the lost hours. Even in Sweden, famed for its generous welfare state, this is apparently too much to bear. “Could we do this for the entire municipality? The answer is no, it will be too expensive,” Daniel Bernmar, a Left Party councillor who has backed the Gothenburg pilot scheme said. However, Bernmar says the trial has “put the shortening of the work day on the agenda both for Sweden and for Europe, which is fascinating." Read more * Sweden scraps six hours work day despite improved staff wellbeing * Sweden’s six-hour working day is ‘too expensive’ and could be scrapped * Six-hour days 'make workers happier and more productive' * Six-hour working day 'boosts productivity and makes people happier' While the idea may not be viable in face-to-face work such as nursing, where lost hours still have to be covered anyway, in more flexible working environments such as Sweden's booming tech start-ups, some companies have reported more success. Linus Feldt, chief executive of app developer Filimundus told The Independent that sick leave dropped by a quarter when it shortened working hours. Meanwhile, employees produced the same amount in six hours as they previously had in eight. "The biggest effect was that people were happy when coming to work and leaving work. There was not that fatigued feeling after a long workday. The employees felt more happy overall," Feldt said, adding that there are now less conflicts at the workplace and better focus. Employees simply cut out distractions such as "social media and the little things we tend to do when we are bored or fatigued and instead focus for 6 hours," Feldt said. While it may have captured many headlines, as well as the attention of overworked people around the globe, the idea of a six-hour working day has struggled to gain widespread political support in Sweden. The Left Party is the only party in the country that backs shorter working hours and won just six per cent of the vote in the last general election. Attempts to prove the economic efficiency of reduced hours have produced inconclusive results so far. A handful of trials in the 1990s and 2000s were scrapped due to a lack of definitive data. Another recent Swedish trial at a retirement home in the town of Umeå found that sick leave actually rose, from 8 per cent to 9.3 per cent. One success has come at Toyota’s Swedish service centre where shifts were cut in 2003, sparking an immediate boost to productivity and increased profits. The company has kept the shorter hours ever since. If a six-hour day isn’t catching on in Sweden, with its famously generous welfare system and emphasis on work-life balance, there seems little hope for workers in “Anglo Saxon” economies like the UK. But some companies have taken up the idea. Liverpool-based Agent Marketing first trialled shorter days for two months in early 2016. Created with Sketch. Business news: in pictures Show all 8 Created with Sketch. Created with Sketch. (BUTTON) Created with Sketch. Business news: in pictures 1/8 Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA 2/8 A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA 3/8 Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty 4/8 Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks. AFP/Getty 5/8 Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty 6/8 The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. 7/8 Phillip Rasmussen, finance chief of technology company IQE, was killed in an accident while on holiday over the weekend. The company confirmed the 47 year old man had died while cycling in Menorca. A 25-year-old American man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, after failing a roadside breath test. 8/8 The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. 1/8 Coca-Cola has paid £3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA 2/8 A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA 3/8 Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty 4/8 Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks. AFP/Getty 5/8 Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty 6/8 The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rue’s contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. 7/8 Phillip Rasmussen, finance chief of technology company IQE, was killed in an accident while on holiday over the weekend. The company confirmed the 47 year old man had died while cycling in Menorca. A 25-year-old American man was arrested on suspicion of drink driving, after failing a roadside breath test. 8/8 The Beast from the East wiped £4m off of Flybe’s revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airline’s estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year. Speaking to The Independent, Agent’s managing director Paul Corcoran said: “There were loads of really great benefits. People were refreshed and more creative. It was good for effectiveness and efficiency.” Clients also noticed the happiness of the employees which helped win business, Corcoran said. Agent stuck rigidly to the six hour format at first which led to some impressive changes. Corcoran said one hour meetings have been cut to fifteen minutes because of the imperative to save time. But he added: “There were challenges surrounding it. Surprisingly it sometimes actually brought about more stress, because people feel they’ve got to get their work done more quickly in order to go earlier,” Corcoran said. Eventually, the company settled for a compromise - every Friday is a six hours and employees can each choose another shorter day each week. The other three are normal business hours. But the benefits have remained, with happier, more productive employees, Corcoran said. The company also provides meditation, pilates and a monthly massage to all staff. But even this seemingly perfect workplace can’t avoid commercial realities. “In the end, the most important thing is getting the work done for our clients otherwise we’ll be doing zero hour working days because we would have no clients,” Corcoran said. 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