LDLC to move to 4-day week in 2021

The French group specializing in the sale of computer equipment will switch to four-day weeks in 2021, by increasing wages and without affecting the daily hourly volume.

Work less and earn more. This is the bet that will make the LDLC company specializing in the online sale of computer equipment, reducing the work week to four days and maintaining the annual increase in wages. Laurent de la Clergerie, the head of the Lyon group, announced the news internally to his staff and later confirmed it to the press.

This shift towards a new organization of working time will not be compensated by a greater volume of hours than the four remaining days. Employees will continue to work a maximum of eight hours a day, for a weekly total of 32 hours. However, employees will have to wait a little longer before seeing this change, because its implementation is planned for 2021.

In this area, LDLC is following in the footsteps of a few other companies that have already tried the four-day week. Besides, the group recognizes being inspired by whatdid Microsoft in Japan : with one less working day, productivity jumped 40%, savings in electricity and paper were made, and morale improved. The test started in mid-2019, without a decrease in salary.

Other experiments exist, not always conclusive

Other similar experiments exist, with there too various benefits highlighted (less stress, more concentration, better balance with private life). Tests have also explored the idea of ​​a five-day week, but with barely five or six hours of daily work. These tracks could even have positive effects on the fight against unemployment, according to the thesis of a sharing of working time.

There are, however, counterexamples. For example, the founder and director of a firm dedicated to learning programming tried the four-day, 32-hour week for his staff, before reversing. In addition, it should be borne in mind that these are isolated experiments: the effects of generalization in all branches remain discussed.

But in this debate, a new variable now appears in the equation: pollution.

As part of the fight against climate change, reflections explore the idea thatby working less, we would also pollute less (what observed at the time of confinement, even if it was done in a haphazard way). But there is also a risk of transferring pollution: instead of polluting with your car on the way to work, you could just as pollute by going to the shopping center instead and participating in the passage a little more to the society of consumption.