In Korea, there is a consensus on the introduction of a ‘four-day workweek’ to improve productivity and quality of life. According to a survey of 604 office workers on the corporate information sharing platform ‘Job Planet’ in March 2021, about 97% supported the introduction of a four-day workweek. Europe is the most active region to introduce the four-day workweek. Iceland began to reduce the actual working hours after successfully experimenting with the four-day workweek from 2015 to 2019. Many European countries, such as Spain and Denmark, are also increasing financial support to companies that implement a four-day workweek system. Recently, the number of companies implementing remote work and flextime[1] has increased significantly due to COVID-19. As a result, there is a strong trend towards introducing a four-day week work around the world.

          Korea, which recorded the second-longest average working hours, after only Mexico among OECD countries, is going through serious discussion about the introduction of a four-day workweek. This is to protect workers' health as well as the right to rest and to increase corporate productivity. In particular, young generations are very interested in the four-day workweek system since it places great importance on ‘work-life balance'. They are confident that as long as there is no change in wages with four-day work, they will work harder since they have to complete the same number of tasks as a five-day workweek. They also believe that they will have more time for leisure and self-development with extra time off. Therefore, for the young generations who value work-life balance, the four-day workweek can be an attractive working condition when choosing a job.

        I also have a positive viewpoint on the introduction of a four-day workweek for three main reasons. First, it can be highly valued considering labor productivity. The critical problem with the implementation of the four-day workweek is whether labor productivity increases by the same amount when wages rise due to shorter working hours. Several pilot trials of developed countries demonstrated that it could achieve improvement of productivity and life quality at the same time. In 2019, Microsoft Japan announced that after testing a four-day workweek with 2,300 employees for 5 weeks, productivity increased by 40% while working hours decreased by only 20%. Another reason is based on the climate and environment. According to Platform London, the British environmental organization, 127 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions can be cut annually by 2025 if the British introduce a four-day workweek. This is equivalent to 21% of the UK's total greenhouse gas emissions. A four-day workweek can also contribute to environmental development by reducing the car mileage due to people commuting to the office. Furthermore, the introduction of a four-day workweek is necessary considering job creation. As a society’s aging accelerates there is no choice but to reduce the number of jobs, so work-sharing should be accepted naturally while reducing working hours. For this reason, the government needs to provide incentives and support to companies that create jobs by introducing a four-day workweek. Meanwhile, as leisure time increases, this system will become a driving force for the domestic economy and job creation through the activation of leisure, sports, and tourism.

          The recent trend is already heading toward the harmony of work and life. The problem of introducing a four-day week is the way to determine the subject, time, and method. The success of the introduction depends on how well companies can improve labor productivity with reduced labor. The ultimate goal would be the sustainable growth of the companies. As a result, rational and planned Human Resource (HR) management reorganization focusing on duties and performance is becoming very important. The goal of the IT industry, which is currently interested in introducing a four-day workweek, is to attract talented employees. As employee welfare in small and medium IT startups and large IT companies are poor compared to other large companies, they are actively using four-day workweek to secure talents. However, most SMEs, especially factory workers in the manufacturing industry, do not like the reduction of working hours since overtime pay is dependent on total working hours. Therefore, as a prerequisite for a four-day workweek, it is necessary to expand and implement it in stages regarding the type of industry and the scale of the company. Also, developing various working hours reduction models, and providing incentives and customized support to companies that have adopted four-day workweek are essential.

At this point, we need to keep ‘two obvious truths’ in mind. First, in a market economy, all resources (labor, capital, technology, etc.) vary depending on price. This is the so-called price indicator; as water flows from high to low, valuable resources are concentrated toward the high price. In the current labor market, a price indicator including a social value ‘work-life balance' will function beyond the traditional price indicator. In other words, it is necessary to remember that the most excellent talents would be concentrated in companies that offer work-life balance and appropriate wages. Second, the recent trend is changing to reflect not only economic values ​​but also social values. At this moment, a dichotomous approach to economic or social values ​​will only cause conflict; a win-win approach is desirable in which both values ​​can be increased. Considering that the introduction of our current five-day workweek system took about 12 years from legislation to implementation in the past, we have sufficient time. Therefore, collective wisdom to figure out a reasonable plan to transform the work culture while improving both life quality and productivity is necessary.