It is known that the success of a firm depends on the happiness of the employes. Therefore, some people believes that employes should have short working weeks and longer weekend to boost their happiness. However, I disagree with this statement as shorter working weeks negatively impacts the productivity of the company.
On one hand, the shorter working weeks allows employes to have more free time which can be used to do other activities that will boost their extra employment activities. The activities may include spending time with family, fishing, watching movies, working on hobby, and may more. Studies have shown that participating in activities that people like will significantly increase the production of certain hormones such as dopamine and serotonin. These hormones regulate the mood and happiness of a person. There are many proven examples that shows having more free time clears all the stress from the mind of an employe. Norway for example has three days of weekend and because of this, people in the Norway are always happy and peaceful.
On the other hand, having longer weekend make workers deviate more from the actual work, and make them unproductive. What it means is, these workes get so attached with the free time, they completely ignore the assigned task and responsibility. In 2016, a private company called Truel-K decided to give three-day weekend with a hope of increasing the productivity of the company. However, this plummeted the productivity because some of the workers started arriving at office drunk. When asked, he replied, I directly came from bar, and I am not that drunk either. Some workers went traveling hoping to return in third day but never made on time. This led the company manager to immediately switch to old schedule because the company will collapse if this continues on.
In conclusion, while the shorter working weeks boost the happiness of the workers, the consequences of free time such workers being unresponsible has greater negative impacts on the productivity of the company.