Europe's economic powerhouse tests a shorter working week

BERLIN, Nov 01 (AFP): Maximilian Hermann's weekend starts on Friday morning, when he puts his motorcycle helmet on and takes his bike out for a ride to the southern German Alps.
Like all his colleagues, the 29-year-old project manager shifted to a four-day week at the beginning of the year and is making the most of it.
His new, shorter working hours are part of a trend that is gaining traction in Germany, where companies are looking to balance between worker shortages and the need to stay competitive. Among the pioneers of the four-day week is Hermann's employer KlimaShop, a purveyor of heat pumps and air-conditioning systems based near Augsburg in southern Germany.
Instead of working 40 hours a week across five days, Hermann now spends a total of 38 hours at work over four working days.
Otherwise put, each of KlimaShop's 30 employees works an hour-and-a-half more for each day they are in the office, while having an extra day to themselves each week.
Hermann's colleague Michael Pankoke sees the shift switch as "big progress". "You work much more intensely, everything you do is more precise," the 58-year-old customer advisor told AFP.
Management consultancy Intraprenoer is leading the first large-scale experiment with the shorter schedule in Germany together with the organisation 4 Day Week Global, which has already run similar trials in other countries, such as the United Kingdom.