If a worker is able to perform all of his duties that day in five hours, why should he work three more hours that day? Why can't he self-organize his day?
In recent years, new work organization models have been emerging as alternatives to the classic forty-hour day in a fixed place: for example, e-nomads, teleworking or four-day weeks, which "have been a success in countries like Iceland, Sweden, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The reduced and flexible working day seeks to give preference to the achievement of these purposes over the number of hours worked. The purpose is, among other things, to better reconcile family and professional life. It is essential to keep in mind that, even if a flexible working day is established, the regulations require the number of hours worked to be set (with the possibility of flexibility in terms of time and place) and to have a record of the daily working day. Which is a guarantee for the worker that it is not the company that determines when those hours are worked, but the worker. The main benefit of this model is that it increases employee motivation, which can translate into greater productivity. If we look at the figures, the countries that dedicate the least time to work are Denmark and Norway, while Costa Rica and Mexico are the ones that work the most hours (2019 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development). Curiously, if we compare them, those who work fewer hours (Denmark and Norway) manage to obtain a higher GDP per capita than those who dedicate more time to the working day (Costa Rica and Mexico).