A 4-day work week does not reduce the risk of burnout

A 4-day work week does not reduce the risk of burnout
A 4-day work week does not reduce the risk of burnout

“While it’s crucial to disconnect from your work, our research shows that compressed work schedules are not a miracle cure for burnout.”comments Professor Stijn Baert, from the “UGent @ Work” department of the Flemish University.

“The findings are consistent with other recent research we have conducted, which shows that part-time employees are just as likely to suffer from burnout as their full-time colleaguesdevelops Kristen du , lead author of the study. Finding a good balance between job demands and support [aux travailleurs] seems more judicious to avoid burnout than working fewer hours.”

To arrive at these conclusions, the researchers – Kristen du Bois, Louis Lippens, Stijn Baert and Eva Derous – conducted a field study at Ikea Belgium. They followed 204 employees, including 140 on compressed schedules, over a period of 10 months and collected data before and after using compressed schedules. More specifically, employees responded to questionnaires in three areas of well-being at work: psychological disconnection from work, work-related exhaustion, and the risk of burnout.

The four-day week is the subject of debate in Germany: “What makes you happy at work is not its duration, but the degree of autonomy”

“The importance of quality work”

“Our results indicate that employees working in a compressed work week are more able to psychologically disconnect from work. This means, among other things, that they think less about work during their free time. The study shows that it “It is an important aspect of recovery after work and can contribute to better well-being.”writes the scientific team.

“Nevertheless, we saw no correlation between working a compressed schedule and a reduction in work-related exhaustion or a reduction in the risk of burnout. This suggests that although employees are more able to mentally disconnecting from work is not enough in itself to reduce their risk of exhaustion or burnout.”

“These results underline the importance of quality work […]. The compressed work week may contribute, but it is only one factor.”conclude the researchers.

Professor Stijn Baert recalls that this measure was presented by political actors as a solution to the phenomenon of burn-out. “I hope the next federal government will move away from this way of working based on intuition and cabinet ideology and replace it with evidence-based policy ( evidence-based)he concludes.

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