A four-day work week

To be honest, I worked five days a week my whole life until I had children. And I still clock those 40 hours, only they are more spread out over seven days instead of compressed into five. I have been lucky enough to always do enjoyable work and never had the Monday morning blues or the relief that some people feel when the week is cut in half on Wednesday. Come on, say. When I started working at Sanoma, I suddenly got ATV days. It sounded intensely bourgeois to me with an extremely high debtor-creditor ratio. I came from the TV world where, if you dared to go home around 6 PM, you would definitely get the comment thrown at you whether you were taking a half ATV day.

I initially had some hesitation, but once I got into it, well, what can I say, it went particularly well for me. Every two weeks, I logged out for a day and had time for all those things you normally have to squeeze in between your work: dentist, hairdresser, buying a gift, exercising, buying flowers. And then I slid so seamlessly into that wonderful weekend. I quite liked it, this four-day workweek. And now I suddenly have science on my side, because a four-day workweek is what it should be.

1. Goodbye burnout

If you are not running around on burning coals all week to get everything done and then have a packed weekend agenda filled with all the things you couldn't get to during the week, the chance of burnout is much smaller. A day at the sauna, a long walk, blowing off steam in the dunes, that rejuvenates a person. Is there someone in your vicinity who has a burnout and are you struggling with how to deal with it? Here a suggestion.

2. Less polluting

The ecological footprint per person would be smaller with a four-day workweek. You wouldn't take the car that day, for example. You might think it's a drop in the ocean, but if we all do it, it really has an effect...

3. Good for gender equality

Look, if he also works four days, you also distribute the household tasks more and we achieve more balance in that area. Did you know that you clean seven hours more if there is a man in the house?

4. More work for everyone

The workload is not fairly distributed. There are people who work a lot and people who struggle to find work. If one works a little less, you create space for others. Exactly the idea why ATV was ever introduced. I truly understand that not every profession lends itself to being performed by multiple people because it is so specialized that you don't have enough suitable candidates, but for many jobs it can be done and where there is a will, there is a four-day workweek.