Should the working day be shortened to 5 hours?

Running head: SHOULD THE WORKING DAY BE SHORTENED TO 5 HOURS? 1
Should the Working Day Be Shortened to 5 Hours?
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Institution of Learning
SHOULD THE WORKING DAY BE SHORTENED TO 5 HOURS? 2
A classic 9-to-5 workday has been established as the mark of a normal working schedule
in the majority of countries around the world, especially in western nations. However, other
cultures have different traditions regarding the workday. For example, the Japanese are known to
be workaholics who can stay at their workplaces up to 14 hours. However, recent experiments
performed at a company in Australia showed that there is a possibility of shortening the working
day to 5 hours with no losses in productivity. The idea of reducing the average working day to 5
hours is intriguing, and it challenges the traditional managerial perspective on the topic.
Therefore, a review of available evidence about the cases of implementing a 5-hour schedule in
order to critically analyze whether reducing the working day is a viable decision.
To begin with, the idea of shortening a working day is seriously considered by many
companies. This statement is backed up by the fact that popular media outlets suggest that the
reduction of the working day is justified by several factors: an employee working a full 8-hour
day spends too much time doing things that are not related to duties, and the human brain is not
able to concentrate on particular tasks for more than several hours (Weller, 2017). Therefore,
media attention to the topic reflects the interest of the business world in this practice. It is argued
that people that are pushed past their peak productive hours are prone to the development of bad
workplace habits. For example, Weller (2017) states that employees may adopt various
workplace distractions such as social network browsing into their daily working habits, which in
turn affects performance in general.
An increasing number of companies are experimenting with reduced workdays, and the
industry giant Amazon is among them—though the corporation did not release any official
results of the test schedule (Weller, 2017). There are other examples of companies that benefited
from adopting a 5-hour working day for their employees. Aarstol (2016), in his article, explored 
SHOULD THE WORKING DAY BE SHORTENED TO 5 HOURS? 3
a story that features an enterprise that is selling stand-up paddle boards, and its owner claimed
that the company enjoyed a considerable boost in revenues that was associated with the increased
productivity of employees. Most likely, the reason for increased productivity lies in the fact that
employees do not have enough free time to be distracted by non-working processes. However,
Aarstol (2016) also gave some pieces of advice in order to make the 5-hour schedule productive,
and the main tips include a selective choice of employees, making focus on output rather than
hours, and using technology to an advantage.
Considering all the information featured above, it is possible to suggest that a 5-hour
working day is mostly beneficial for businesses. Employees have less time to wander off from
the working process, they are motivated to perform because of reduced hours, and they can enjoy
a better work-life balance. All of the positive effects of reduced working hours seem to be clearly
evident, but there is a natural question: why do businesses not adopt this practice everywhere?
In order to answer this question, it is required to review other examples of companies that
tried adopting a 5-hour working day. To be more specific, the successful experience of the
Australian financial advice company, Collins SBA, showed that a 5-hour working day resulted in
a rapid increase in productivity (Turek, 2018). As a result, the case of Collins SBA reinvigorated
talks about a reduced working day in Singapore, and a Swedish aged-care facility tried
implementing a 6-hour schedule (Chan, Field & Cheng, 2018). The latter’s results were mixed
because of contradicting conclusions that may be seen as consistent with the idea but, in fact,
have their shortcomings. According to the article, the facility began to enjoy increased
productivity due to reduced hours, but the policy required the aged-care home to hire more
nurses in order to cover lost hours (Chan, Field & Cheng, 2018). Therefore, it is possible to state
that the 5-hour working day comes with its advantages and disadvantages.
SHOULD THE WORKING DAY BE SHORTENED TO 5 HOURS? 4
Considering the evidence, each company should carefully evaluate whether a reduced
working day yields more benefits than losses. Apparently, this kind of schedule is applicable
only to some types of businesses. Companies that provide services tied to real-world events are
not able to effectively implement a reduced working day for their employees because of a need
to cover up “empty” hours. As a result, these types of enterprises will have to hire more