The weekend starts on Thursday

Charles Chaplin in 'Modern Times' (1936)Bettmann (Bettmann Archive)

Seemingly cryptic concepts often slip through the Twitter trending list.

A few days ago the following caught my attention: “38%”.

With the figure, reference was made to this headline from

"62% of Spaniards would take advantage of the four-day work week without loss of salary", a data that came from an Infojobs survey.

The comments expressed a clear surprise: @Malamente suggested that the remaining 38% had not understood the question, @SiberetSiberet pointed out that these people needed a hug and @Aquel_Coche answered with screenshots of a Pantomime Full video that satirises addicts to alcohol. worked.

The remaining 38% did not understand the question.

pic.twitter.com/Yw2GrLa02A

— 🔻Malamente®🔻 (@MalaMalamente) December 16, 2022

38% pic.twitter.com/S0MUMdLQ9t

– That Car (@Aquel_Coche) December 14, 2022

The surprise is understandable: why would someone turn down the offer?

One of the bases of the capitalist economy is to achieve the maximum difference between what is sold (in this case, working hours) and what is obtained in exchange (salary).

Shortening the working day is not a recent idea.

Richard Nixon, one of the people least suspected of philo-communism in history, assured in 1956 that we would work four days a week "in the not too distant future."

The "not very distant" is a broad and diffuse concept, but after almost 70 years we continue more or less the same, except for some isolated experiences.

For example, in Japan, with Toyota and Microsoft, or in the United Kingdom, where a hundred companies joined this initiative in November.

Also in Spain, in some marketing and software companies.

It is true that Telefónica employees recently refused to work one less day, but this change entailed a reduction in salary.

The resistance draws even more attention if we remember that the reduction of the working day has been positive throughout history for companies and employees: in an article published in the

the journalist Sarah Green Carmichael wrote that when After going first to ten and then to eight hours of work per day, managers were surprised to discover that production increased and errors and accidents decreased.

And there is room to continue cutting.

In his book

the journalist Johann Hari talks about the experience of the New Zealand company Perpetual Guardian, a pioneer in implementing the four-day work week.

The entity's director, Andrew Barnes, decided to give it a try after reading a study that said the average British worker only spent three hours a day actually working.

Not only that: 46% spent extra hours in the office just because his colleagues did it too, a clear example of how contagious face-to-face work is.

Of course, as is the case with teleworking, there are jobs in which these changes are not so easy.

More than 90% of Spanish companies are SMEs, many from the service sector.

It is possible to organize to spend fewer hours in an office (or in a newsroom).

But it is more difficult for a small business or a bar to assume the costs of hiring personnel to compensate for the reduction in hours, not to mention the so-called "shared economy" of delivery men and drivers at the service of platforms.

The Government has approved aid of up to 150,000 euros to SMEs that implement the reduction in working hours, but it remains to be seen if it is enough.

Perhaps we also have to learn to respect the rest of others and not only to defend our own.

A few days ago, statements by José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of Madrid, were criticized on Twitter, who in an interview published in

He said that he was surprised that in Bilbao everything was closed on Sundays, something that is not so rare outside the capital.

In the same way that we can do the work of five days in four, surely we are capable of doing the purchases of seven days in six.

Or less.

Especially if we have an extra day of rest.

José Luis Martínez Almeida is very surprised that people in commerce do not wear chains in Bilbao.

pic.twitter.com/7Y6DFMskWs

— Grouchico (@El_Grouchico) December 11, 2022