What are the chances of companies implementing a four-day working week in Hong Kong where long hours are a way of life?
- Globally, the ideas of a shorter work week is gaining ground, with companies that have instituted them showing a marked improvement in employee productivity
- In Hong Kong, cigarette maker Philip Morris’ 350 staff work 42 hours over four and a half days, compared to the city’s average of 55 hours per week
Hong Kong companies could be ripe for a change to a shorter work week, according to Brett Cooper, general manager of the Hong Kong office for Philip Morris International. The 350-person office, which oversees the highly lucrative Asia-Pacific region for the cigarette maker, works four and a half days a week, with most staff calling it quits by 1pm on Friday afternoon.
Philip Morris Hong Kong adopted the policy in 2015, just as Cooper, a 20-year company veteran, arrived from the London office. Normal working hours are any nine and a half hours between 7:30am and 7:30pm, Monday through Thursday, with any four hours between 7:30am and 1pm on Friday.
A measure to establish the number of hours in a standard work week in Hong Kong has been delayed for nearly a decade. The Labour Department has said that it may offer guidelines to the government about working hours in 2020.
Globally, the idea of shorter working hours, even a four-day week at the same pay, is gaining ground.