Berlin Business: The Four-Day Work Week Picks Up Steam
By Michelle McConnell
On a recent Friday in Berlin, the office of DigitalService, the federal government’s software development unit, feels deserted. Sunlight shines through large windows, falling on rows of starkly white desks, a minimalist decor intensifying the emptiness. The usual lively conversation between co-workers has disappeared. No coffee machines are brewing, leaving only the low hum of the fridge.
Welcome to the four-day workweek, which German unions and an increasing number of local economists are hoping will soon become the norm.
Every Friday, Carl Julius Gödecken, 28, finds himself one of the lonely few employees in his office on Prinzessinstrasse. He loves his job as a software developer, but he misses working alongside other software developers who are as passionate as he is. DigitalService employees can choose to split their hours between the office and home, as well as pursue a four-day week and be paid 80% of the normal salary. Gödecken estimates about 20–30% of his coworkers have adopted this working model. Even his boss occasionally takes Wednesdays off to go sailing.
“I like a culture that enables such a four-day workweek like this — companies who are focused on their employees’ wellbeing,” Gödecken said.
Work culture in Germany, already considered generous by global standards, has changed in the last few years. After COVID-19 lockdowns were lifted around 2021, many companies embraced a hybrid working schedule split between the office and home. In addition, four-day work weeks have grown in popularity. The four-day work week is one of two key policy initiatives pursued by the government to spur hiring amid a nation-wide shortage of skilled workers, as the older generations begin to retire. The other is encouraging immigration.
Companies hope granting their employees more free time will boost productivity, also boosting the economy. As of now, about 11% of German firms grant their employees the option of working four days a week.
Although he sometimes misses the comradery, Gödecken appreciates that his workplace gives its employees more freedom and agency, and inspires them to build deeper relationships with their coworkers.
“We have coffee chats that are encouraged,” he said. “We use this tool, Slack, to communicate and there’s a Slack bot that pairs up three people randomly every two weeks and asks them to have lunch together.”
Gödecken began working at DigitalService about a month ago. As a new employee, he wants to leave a good impression and works five days a week for a total of 40 hours. But, he is not opposed to having a four-day work week later in his career.
The four-day work week gained momentum in February, 2024 when the New Zealand-based organization 4 Day Work Global (4DWG) and the German consulting company Intraprenör initiated an experiment which would track 45 German companies over the course of six months as they temporarily implement a four-day work week. They hope this will increase levels of productivity and overall employee satisfaction.
4DWG has already undertaken several pilot programs in countries such as the UK, Portugal, Brazil, and South Africa. Not only that, individual case studies in different sectors have shown positive results. Co-founders Andrew Barnes and Charlotte Lockhart founded 4DWG in 2019 as a means to advocate for a better work-life balance without compromising a company’s projected revenue, based on a five-day work week.
4DWG follows what it has coined the “100–80–100” principle, which suggests that 100% of productivity can still be achieved through 100% pay and 80% time worked. Based on their various pilots, they say that 66% of employees have reported a reduction in burnout, 94% of the companies want to continue with this model, and 83% have found it easier to attract new employees.
The BBC examined two work-life balance indices and ranked Germany as the country with the sixth best work-life balance in the world. On average German employees have 25 to 30 days of holiday every year, granting them the opportunity to travel and take care of themselves. Healthcare is also cheap compared to the United States, and premiums are deducted in accordance with every person’s individual salary. Most German stores are closed on Sundays to ensure that all workers get a day off.
These benefits are not enticing enough to assuage the current labor shortage in Germany. Over the years, the birth rate in Germany has decreased. As a result, there are fewer people to fill in the jobs left as older generations retire. In addition, many employers complain of a lack in
motivation among younger generations to work as hard as their parents and grandparents were used to doing.
In Germany, as well as across the world, older generations have attributed the shortage of motivated young workers to COVID-19 and what the World Health Organization dubbed ‘pandemic fatigue’ in 2020. It refers to a decrease in motivation observed across the world in response to the strict safety regulations surrounding lockdowns and the psychological consequences of feeling isolated.
As a cusper, someone born at the tail end of one generation and beginning of the next, Gödecken does not believe young people do not want to work anymore, but that they simply have new priorities. “I guess it comes down to a lack of motivation,” he said. “Maybe, they don’t see the purpose of the work that they do — that it doesn’t have any special meaning to them beyond paying them a salary.”
Tin Wegel, resident director of Duke University in Berlin, finds herself reminding her colleagues that COVID-19 affected not only the younger generation, but people of all ages and nationalities. “From my point of view, I find it interesting sometimes when I talk to my colleagues and often
everyone says ‘Oh my goodness, young people have changed, young people this and that…’ I mean, I’m turning 52 and I’ve also changed from COVID. I don’t claim to be the same person,” she said.
Wegel says it’s also a reaction to the rigidity and traditionally patriarchal aspects of German culture. Something she remembers vividly from her childhood was when grocery stores began closing at 8:30 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. She remembers her father’s frustration with the closing time shift, arguing that it forced people to work longer hours. Her older sister, however, saw this as an opportunity for women to work and have sufficient time to buy groceries. “I remember my sister was like, ‘That can only come from you, as a man who never had to go grocery shopping.’”
A Strict Workplace Culture
Joshua Shelly, 35, is an American currently working at the University of Potsdam’s library. While he enjoys having a total of 30 days of vacation in addition to public holidays and weekends, he also acknowledges the downsides of working in Germany, compared to the United States. In his public sector position, he does not have the opportunity to work four days a week. Still, he has reservations about how positively Germans would adapt to the change based on his experiences navigating the strict code of conduct and expectations in the German workplace.
“In Germany, it’s a lot more strict — you need to have this sort of training, or this particular degree, and you can’t possibly do anything more than that. It’s very black and white,” he said. “Do you fit in the box? I have my areas that I’m responsible for and I only do these things and if anything falls outside of that area, then I just say ‘Sorry, I don’t do that’.”
Shelly has observed that Germans strictly separate their personal and professional lives. Texts or calls to family members and friends are for after-hours while the working day is meant to be productive. If an email is sent past working hours, it will most likely not be answered until the next day.
While Shelly appreciates the strict boundaries surrounding professional and personal life, he is frustrated with what he perceives closed-mindedness toward solution-oriented change. “There have been a couple of times where I’ve proposed solutions because people weren’t happy with
something. So let’s try to fix it. ‘Oh no, we couldn’t possibly do that. We have to keep it the way it is’.”
Shelly fears potential repercussions from working fewer hours, since it would result in the need to work even more efficiently during the working hours, instead of also having time for “coffee chats” with his colleagues.
While there may be downsides, the campaign for four-day work weeks has the backing of German unions, which play a large role in shaping society and culture. IG Metall is the largest individual union in Germany with a total of 2.27 million members. It protects the rights of metalworkers, electricians, IT workers, and technicians.
Christian Meyer, spokesperson for the Berlin branch of IG Metall, says the union is pushing for the normalization of four day work weeks. Meyer strongly disagrees with critics such as the Confederation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA) who fear the move will weaken the German economy.
“Significantly less work with full pay compensation — economically, that’s a naive calculation,” BDA general manager Steffen Kampeter told the Bild Am Sonntag newspaper.
To Meyer, the well-being of employees is infinitely more important than making as much profit as possible. “We at IG Metall fight for a decent living, and not just for working conditions. We fight for a decent life for everyone.”
IG Metall has concluded that working four days a week instead of five will benefit the overall health of workers. If employees rest more, there are fewer work absences due to short term and long term illness, he says. As a result, people will be able to elongate their professional life without needing to retire due to poor health. In addition, working one day less a week means commuting one day less, thereby lowering the nation’s carbon footprint.
Meyer is certain that this movement will end up filling jobs that currently go begging. “If you want skilled employees, you have to offer attractive working conditions, attractive contracts.”
Ulf Heinsohn, a former economics lecturer at Humboldt University in Berlin and the School of Economics and Law, believes humanity has evolved and adapted in a way to ensure a better life for successive generations. He notes that serfs and indentured servants had to work all day long without any form of compensation. From then on, technology improved and workers began fighting for their rights. Heinsohn says that humans work less not because they have become lazier — they have simply learned how to work more efficiently.
“The mainstream economists always say that if companies are at their absolute best, they cannot react to any changes. That’s bullshit,” Heinsohn said. “All companies stay at a certain stability when their income is stable. So, when wages rise, it change modes of production. Find something that you can increase. Our problem is not that we work fewer hours compared to the olden days when humans basically had no holidays.”
Heinsohn believes the way to successfully decrease working hours is through organization. With advancements in technology, there are now machines that can produce goods and services faster, and give humans relief from any unnecessary work.
Saskia Esken, leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), has expressed her interest in shorter and more flexible work hours. But she has been met with skepticism from other politicians, such as the deputy chairman of the party alliance between the Christian
Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), Hermann Gröhe, who argues that reducing working hours when there is a shortage of skilled workers “would be a disservice to competitiveness.”
At the Berlin-based mega media company Axel Springer, employees are given the opportunity to work just four days a week. But they are paid less, contrary to IG Metall’s campaign for less work at the same pay. In order to improve employee well-being, Springer offers a daycare service as well as the opportunity for workers to bring their dogs to work, which management believes helps mental and physical health. “It creates a better atmosphere. When there are more dogs, they can play together,” said Katja Truss, management assistant at Axel Springer. There are also boardgames spread around the office and foosball tables scattered throughout.
Many groups, politicians and other advocates are now organizing for fewer person hours, though as an economic leader in Europe, Germany feels pressure to stay competitive. The shift towards a work environment that promotes mental and physical well-being is already underway as employers offer more flexibility while trying to maintain efficiency. The IG Metall union spokesman Christian Meyer believes it’s just a matter of time before human perseverance makes conditions even better for everyone.
“History is made by people. It’s the outcome of struggles and discussions,” Meyer said. “The 40-hour week, the 35-hour week, the four-day week — it’s always the outcome of organized action.”
Michelle McConnell is an undergraduate student studying writing and literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara who is reporting from Berlin this summer.
