Sweden Introduces Six Hour Work Day
Sweden, one of the world's most advanced countries, has started to introduce a six-hour work day for its employees. Around the country, companies are making this change in order to make workers more productive and happier. At the same time breaks and meetings are kept to a minimum at work, so that workers can concentrate on their job and not get distracted.
Labour experts say that the traditional eight-hour work day is very hard to endure. Workers cannot focus on their job for such a long period of time. On the other hand many workers have a hard time going through their private life after a hard day at work. Health experts say, that after six hours of focused work, people still have enough energy to do things at home.
The change comes at a time when many employees around the world work 50 to 60 hours and more a week. Some of them are in danger of burning out after a certain time. Working long hours raises the danger of heart attacks, strokes and other illnesses. The Swedish model hopes for workers to be able to work through to a higher age and not retire 65.
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Words
- advanced = well-developed; rich
- break = pause from work
- burn out = to work so hard that you get very tired and cannot work any more because you are not able to think clearly
- certain = special
- concentrate = focus on; put your attention on
- distracted = unable to concentrate because you are thinking about something else
- employee = a person who works for a company
- endure = to be in a difficult situation for a long time without complaining about it
- heart attack = when you heart suddenly stops beating
- labour = work
- productive = to produce a lot in a certain time
- raise = go up
- retire = stop working because you have become too old
- stroke = when a blood vessel in the brain suddenly breaks apart or is blocked; people who suffer a stroke may not be able to move parts of their body or cannot talk any more