A German company is letting its staff go home after just five hours of work each day.

At Rheingans Digital Enabler, owner Lasse Rheingans introduced a five-hour work day in 2017. Pay and vacation days did not change, but the company's 16 staff can start at 8 a.m. and finish at 1 p.m.

Rheingans told The Wall Street Journal that people working 40-hour weeks often have little energy, and spend time at work reading Facebook or news stories online. He also told European Business that he thinks breaks are necessary in a normal eight-hour work day.

"No one can concentrate on work for eight hours," he said. "My idea is focusing on the first five hours and then just leave."

However, there are rules for the five-hour day: nobody can use their phones or social media at work, they can only check their company emails twice a day, and they should only talk about work. Meetings are usually 15 minutes or shorter.

Rheingans said that some staff weren't able to finish their work in five hours, but he didn't think this was their fault. Some staff simply had too much work, so Rheingans and his team found ways to make their tasks faster and to share them better.

Although Rheingans had to work more hours himself at first, the shorter working day helped him discover which skills the company was missing. He said that having a short working day helps the company attract good people, and happy staff work better.

出处：头条号 @生活中学习英语