This pilot was actually not 6-hour workday, but 30 hour workweek. Yes, it is true that the politicians that decided it called it for 6-hour workday, but in reality is was 30 hour workweek and nothing else, because of how the facility works with scheduling and so on (regulations etc).
Nurses worked between 5 to 7 hours on day shifts resulting in a 30 hour workweek. Night shifts was 6 to 8 hours.
I think it is important to stress this fact that it was about workweek and not workday. Almost all media reporting on this (Swedish as well) misses this fact. You have to read the report to get that.
Personally I rather work more one day and less the other. It is the flexibility over a week that is more interesting than over a day.
Seeing as how even the PDF you link says in the first sentence "6-hour workday" ("6 timmars arbetsdag"), I can see why there is some confusion about the specific details.
Wait, hold the phone. That's not really accurate according to the article nor the paper he linked. The trial was 6 hour work days, as the article claims.
After downloading the aforementioned paper and uploading the to google translate, since I don't speak Swedish:
> Summary 18 months with 6 hours
> 6 hours of trial
> City of Gothenburg decided in 2014 to conduct a trial with 6-hour day with follow-up research. The trial started 2015-02-01 and 2016-12-31 terminated after 23 months. The trial will answer the question about the effects of reduced working hours have for nurses, tenants and the economy / jobs.
> The trial has been shortened working hours to 6 hours per day and 14.9 full-time employees, 17 nurses have been hired to compensate for reduced working hours. Consequential changes have made of schedule at Svartedalen center for the elderly. To provide a high comparability has no other changes made by different senior housing from others. In follow research studies 100 % Of nurses participated.
...
> There are 29 sessions on a six-week period in the new schedule. Three of the six weekends included. Employees at Svartedalen work in the trial between five and seven hours on daily schedule. In practice, between 6 hours and 6.25 hours (6 hours and 15 minutes). That it not exactly six hours per day due to scheduling must answer received business needs.
> Night schedule is at least six and no more than eight hours. Before the experiment was working nine hours on overnight.
So yeah, the resulting full-time hours were 30, but the study was specifically interested in 6-hour work days, according to the report. The only reason it wasn't exactly 6 was for business/logistical reasons.
We call a standard work day 8 even though it isn't exactly 8. If indeed the idea was to shift a standard work day from approximately 8 hours to approximately 6 hours, it seems reasonable to refer to it as the "6-hour work day". (I haven't read the report, so won't comment on whether that was indeed the focus, as opposed to a more flexible 30-hour week.)
Everywhere i've worked that has actually cared about hours meant 8 when they said 8. My current job (as stupid as I think it is) requires me to be at work and not on lunch for 8 hours a day.
TL;DR the study is a 30 hour/week study and in practice the employees work 6 to 6.25h a day. When you speak about the study in laymen terms, you can say 6 hour/workday pilot because that is what it is in practice , however to be scientifically correct it is 30 hours/week pilot.
Full explanation ->
From the report with Google Translate
> Full-time dimensions in the study is 30 hours / week compared to normal working hours at 38.25 hours in the daytime alternatively 37.00 hours (depending on working agreement at the time of appointment) and 36.33 hours for the night.
So the report clearly states 30 hours/week as "heltidsmått" (a measured full-time). Not 6 hours/day.
What about "in practice"? If you look at the first report after 6 months
Page 6, two tables of example schedules, one to the left before the pilot and the right during the pilot. Remember that a work day includes a free 30 min lunch break so there is a difference between the two columns Period and Timmar (Hours) for 0.5h except the night shift, no free lunch there!
As we can see all day shifts are either 6h or 6.25h during the pilot.
So what about the 5 to 7 hours? I think that is the range what the pilot accepts as "6-hour" workday measurement, i.e you have to have min-max otherwise you could put everything on two days.
New note: one of the political parties behind this pilot, the Left party, calls the pilot "six hour working day/30 hours working week". That should keep it covered!
Nurses worked between 5 to 7 hours on day shifts resulting in a 30 hour workweek. Night shifts was 6 to 8 hours.
I think it is important to stress this fact that it was about workweek and not workday. Almost all media reporting on this (Swedish as well) misses this fact. You have to read the report to get that.
Personally I rather work more one day and less the other. It is the flexibility over a week that is more interesting than over a day.
report after 18 months 2016-10-11
https://sverigesradio.se/diverse/appdata/isidor/files/104/75...