This document summarizes the key findings of a study on a Belgian women's organization that experimented with reducing full-time employees' weekly working hours from 36 to 30 over the course of a year. Most employees chose to take an extra day off each week, typically a Wednesday or Friday. The study found that with fewer working hours, employees spent more time on leisure activities, household tasks, childcare, and having quality time with family without multitasking. However, some teams reported a decline in work atmosphere. Overall, employees were more satisfied with their work-life balance and experienced less stress.

1. Towards a new
organisation of
working times
Regulating working times:
Lessons learned and future perspectives
Time Use Week
Barcelona Time Use Initiative for a Healthy Society
Barcelona, 26 october 2022
Vrije Universiteit Brussel  Sociology Dep.  Research Group TOR
International Association for Time Use Research  IATUR
Ignace Glorieux

2. Life Magazine – 14 & 21 februari 1964
The advent of a leisure society?

3. John Maynard Keynes (1930)
“there is no country and no people, I think, who can look
forward to the age of leisure and of abundance without a
dread. For we have been trained too long to strive and
not to enjoy.”
The advent of a leisure society?

4. Labor productivity per hour
Productivity is measured as gross domestic product (GPD) per hour of work
Data adjusted for inflation and for differences in the cost of living between countries

5. Average working hours per worker
over an entire year

6. Average working hours per worker
over an entire year – Belgium 1956-2012

7. 1958-59
Average working time married laborer : 58u27’
married employees: 54u00’
(< 45 jaar - including commuting)
2013
Average working time co-habitating
full time employed men (18-44 j.): 41u30’
(including commuting)
Paradox: working less,
more time pressure

8. • Increased labor market participation of women
• The activity rate of women in Belgium increased from 30,2%
in 1953 to 70,8% in 2021
• Evolution from breadwinner family to dual earner family
Important evolutions during the last 7 decades

9. 2013
Co-habitating men (18-44 y.): 40u26’
Co-habitating women (18-44 y.): 29u33’
Total working time of a jong
co-habitating couple: 69u59’
(including commuting)
We spend more time on paid work !

10. Paid
work
Houshold
work
Child
care
Total
workload
Men 23:49 13:52 1:44 39:25
Women 16:36 19:50 2:58 39:24
(exclusive travelling)
unpaid work 40%
unpaid work 58%
TOR’13
The traditional division of work between
women and men (18 - 75 years)

11. Men Women
Paid work 23:49* 16:36
Household work 13:52* 19:50
Childcare 1:44* 2:58
Education 3:27* 4:27
Productive time 42:45 43:52
Pers. care + eating & drinking 15:55* 18:00
Sleep and rest 59:30* 61:08
Reproductive time 75:25* 79:09
Social participation 7:54* 8:29
Leisure 29:47* 23:47
Recreative time 37:41* 32:17
Waiting 0:16 0:18
Travelling 10:24 10:44
Transfer time 10:40 11:02
Unspecified 1:17* 1:38
Total 168:00 168:00
* significant differences (p≤0,05)
TOR’13
Time-use of men and women
(18 – 75 year)

12. 2021
11,6%
42,1%
Part-time work increases …

13. • Women’s organization of about 60 (female) employees
• Concern work-life balance and time for unpaid work
• One full calendar year in 2019
• Full-time: from 36h to 30h/week
Research:
• Time-use research: 7-day diaries and surveys: 5 waves
• March and October 2018
• March and October 2019
• March 2020: Covid-19
• Focus group and in-depth interviews
Lessons learned from an experiment with the
30-hours work week in Belgium

14. Employees were free to choose how to reduce working time on weekly basis:
• Shorter days
• Day off
• Combination?
• Most (around 80%) chose the option of an extra day off
• Mainly Wednesday or Friday
• Choices and preferences depend on macro, meso and micro factors
• Household composition & life stage: (young) children
• Work circumstances: choices other colleagues
• Temporal structures (schools, shops, …)
• Time availability of others (partner, family members, friends, …)
• Gendered norms
• Preferences are not static
Lessons learned from an experiment with the
30-hours work week in Belgium

15. • more me-time, rest and in-home leisure activities
• less fragmented leisure, more focused leisure
• more shared time with family members; also reflected in a better quality of time and
relationship with the children
• more time was spent on household-related activities, as well as care-related activities
• many of these household and care tasks were done with more pleasure, and were
less frequently combined with parallel activities (less multitasking).
• division of work between partners: some are as satisfied as before, while others are
less satisfied
• a decline in quality of the work atmosphere and the pleasure in work for some teams
• in their private life, employees experienced a decrease in pressure and stress
• in general, employees were more satisfied with their work-life balance and
experienced a reduction of work-to-life conflict
Lessons learned from an experiment with the
30-hours work week in Belgium