Working shorter hours, same pay: AFAS definitively introduces four-day working week

Since January of this year, AFAS's more than 700 employees have been working four days a week, with full pay. The company has designated Fridays as a "development day." This means the office remains closed, giving staff time to do other things.

AFAS says they commissioned the study from independent cultural anthropologist Jitske Kramer. She concludes that employees feel more energetic, but that the shorter week also requires more discipline and focus. Some employees experience increased workload.

"Those four days are pretty full, but that Friday is worth its weight in gold," adds Britt Breure, director of HR and organizational culture & employee happiness at AFAS. She acknowledges that those four days are more intense, as there's 20 percent less work. She expects this pressure to decrease in the near future, once employees are more accustomed to the new way of working. She also believes that AI can take some of the work off their hands.

Stef Molleman, labor market advisor at the UWV (Employee Insurance Agency), questions whether a four-day workweek is beneficial if the five-day workweek is crammed into four. Nevertheless, he finds AFAS's move "interesting," partly because there are increasing numbers of dual-income households in the Netherlands. "This could potentially free up time for homework and perhaps provide more peace of mind. I think this also makes an employer very attractive."

Labor economist Ronald Dekker of TNO agrees. He believes that a better work-life balance could likely help people get more done in 32 hours.

Stan van den Heuvel, a marketer at AFAS, doesn't feel like he has to work much harder now. "Since January 1st, we've been taking a critical look at our schedules. You realize you can work much smarter and that meetings can be a bit shorter." On Fridays, he often acts as a caregiver for his neighbor. Although he admits he sometimes does nothing.

AFAS is an IT company founded in 1996. It provides business software, for example, for managing payroll and other accounting matters. AFAS, headquartered in Leusden, made a profit of €127 million on a turnover of €325 million last year.

The company is known for its main sponsorship of AZ football club, the Circustheater in Scheveningen, AFAS Live in Amsterdam, and the AFAS Theater in Leusden. Since September, the Antwerp Sportpaleis has been renamed AFAS Dome. The company also operates in Belgium and the Antilles.

The company also has its own social foundation, the AFAS Foundation. Founder Piet Mars is Christian. The company's ideals align with Christian values ​​such as charity, current CEO Bas van der Veldt previously told de Volkskrant , but are equally shared by all non-Christian colleagues. He himself says he is a non-practicing Catholic.

Not every employer can afford to offer a four-day workweek, Molleman believes. "There are already many people in the Netherlands who work part-time." Given staff shortages, for example, he believes it's not always feasible for companies to have full-time employees work fewer hours.

Not even if productivity increases, because in some sectors, it's simply not possible to close for a day, Dekker adds. But even there, he believes, it's possible to rethink work processes. "For example, by no longer doing things that don't contribute to good education."

So what if the phone rings at AFAS on that free Friday? "We're not off, but we call it a development day. But if there's an escalation during the weekend or on Friday, we'll handle it," says Breure. In other words: if there's panic, work continues. She also says that a small support team is present on Fridays to contact customers. "This team has a development day on Wednesdays."

Breure herself isn't sitting idle on her development day either. She finds she enjoys being able to "get through" her email in an hour. But she does so at home in her sweatpants, so she can also exercise and take the kids to school. "It's about taking responsibility."

According to Breure, the Leusden-based company measures a lot. Based on these measurements, she states that employees are working less and less on development days. This is something the company applauds. According to AFAS, the development day itself doesn't entail any hard and fast responsibilities. It's not necessarily intended to require someone to take a course or do something socially responsible.

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