Many people – especially Americans – work far more than the advocated 40 hours per week, and, in effect, are experiencing intolerable levels of stress (which inevitably causes health and happiness to decline). Always in quest to obtain ‘more’ and pay off debt, few take time to ‘smell the roses’ and enjoy life, quite simply because they feel they can’t.
But what if a solution was offered that allowed everyone to work only 6 hours a day? It sounds like a far-off dream, but a group of nurses in Sweden now know first-hand how beneficial having even just a couple hours more in the day can be for health and happiness.
As The Guardian reports, a group of nurses working at a nursing home in Sweden decided to institute a six-hour workday, hoping to increase productivity and improve their quality of life. They received the same pay but had two extra hours to their day.
“I used to be exhausted all the time, I would come home from work and pass out on the sofa. But not now. I am much more alert: I have much more energy for my work … You cannot allow elderly people [her clients] to become stressed, otherwise it turns into a bad day for everyone.”