Great: Work 4 days, get paid for 5

New Zealand, July 23: In a shocking news, A New Zealand Company, that let its employees work four days a week while being paid for five says the experiment was so successful that it hopes to make the change permanent.

The firm, Perpetual Guardian, which manages trusts, wills, and estates, found the change boosted productivity among its 240 employees, who said they spent more time with their families, exercising, cooking and gardening.

The firm ran the experiment - which reduced the working week to 32 hours from 40 - in March and April and asked two researchers to study the effects on staff.

Andrew Barnes, the founder of NZ's largest corporate trustee company, Perpetual Guardian, says the four-day work week would provide greater productivity.

Perpetual Guardian staff said the change motivated them to find ways of increasing their productivity while in the office.

Meetings were reduced from two hours to 30 minutes, and employees created signals for their colleagues that they needed time to work without distraction.

"They worked out where they were wasting time and worked smarter, not harder," Prof Haar said.

Mr. Andrew Barnes, the company's founder, said he believed he was the first business in the world to pay staff for 40 hours when working 32.

Other firms have allowed employees to work shorter weeks by compressing the standard 40 hours into fewer days or allowed people to work part-time for a reduced salary.

Mr.Barnes said he came up with the idea for a four-day work week after reading a report that suggested people spent less than three hours of their workday productively employed, and another that said distractions at work could have effects on staff akin to losing a night's sleep or smoking marijuana.

He said the results of the trial showed that when hiring staff, supervisors should negotiate tasks to be performed, rather than basing contracts on hours that new employees spent in the office.