Soon You Will Be Working 4 Days A Week

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Have you imagined a 4-day work week? In the China Leisure Development Report (2017～2018) published by Social Sciences, it suggests that around 2020 to 2025, the Spring Festival vacation could be increased to 8 days. Making sure workers get paid holiday, some enterprises in the Eastern area can experiment with a new schedule, in which workers work for 4 days a week and 9 hours a day.

From 2025, certain industries in Middle East China can start the 4-day schedule.

From 2030, everyone in the country can start work for only 4 days a week. By that time, the government will be able to cancel the holiday currently scheduled now. Employees will also be able to negotiate with employers about when to take days off.

For most people right now, working late is the daily routine. According to the Chinese Financial Life Research, an average Chinese worker has about 2.27 hours every day for leisure, once work and sleep time are accounted for. This number is lower than the 2.55 hours from 3 years ago. Among all cities, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Beijing are the four cities where people get the least amount of leisure time. On the contrary, some Western countries’ citizens get about 5 hours of leisure time, twice of that enjoyed by Chinese people.

Although in most employees’ contracts, it says you need to work from 9 am in the morning and 6 pm at night, most people don't get off from work until 10 pm at night. According to research, Chinese employees work 2000-2200 hours every year.

These are the average work hours in a full year for some other countries:

United State, 1790 hours.

Holland, 1419 hours.

Germany, 1371 hours.

Japan, 1719 hours.

If you work 8 hours a day and 238 days a year, that would be 1904 hours in total. That’s the case if you work 8 hours and 5 days a week. Thus, we can tell that most people in China either work for 6 days a week or work into overtime late at night. According to research by Renmin University, only 34.2% of people can enjoy all of the holidays scheduled by the government. 62.9% of people have paid holidays, and 75.2% people have full weekends off.

According to the Regulations of Paid Annual Leave of Employees, employees who have worked in the same company for more than a year should have at least 5 days of paid holiday. Furthermore, research also shows that 90% of people need to deal with work issues during vacation. They need to respond to messages and emails from work, and sometimes even attend meetings over the phone.

After the China Leisure Development Report was published, some people on internet wishes that they can have 4-day work week starting tomorrow. However, some others didn't count on that, for they only wish to have two days off for weekend. 

Why can't we have 4-day work week right away?

What is your opinion? Let us know! Comment below！

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