It smells of rain on the platform in Wiesthal. "That's the forest," says Ute Adelmann. "We have a lot of it here in the Spessart." She laughs and leads the way to her car. A two-minute drive to the Wenzel company. Visitor passes are prepared, lunch is ready. “One can tell that this is not the first time you have received press.” Yes, the requests have been increasing lately, says Adelmann, the marketing manager. Several journalists have wanted to come along. Not to find out about industrial measurement technology, the business of the Wenzel Group. But because of the four-day week.

At the beginning of 2022, the company reduced the standard working week from 37.5 to 36 hours, spread over four days, with full pay. In the production department, with around 60 employees, Fridays are now weekends, while in the other departments the teams decide individually on the day off.

Working four days a week instead of five is currently the subject of much debate. SPD leader Saskia Esken, for example, has spoken out in favour of it, and IG Metall is also pushing for it in negotiations. In Belgium, there is a legal right to a four-day week from November 2022, but the 40-hour week remains in place. In the UK, around 60 companies have been trialling a four-day model with reduced working hours for six months. A similar pilot will start in Germany in February 2024.

At Wenzel in Wiesthal, the four-day week has long been part of everyday life. "We were trendsetters," says Heiko Reinosch, 46, team leader in production. It is remarkable that the new working time model was introduced so early here, in a medium-sized family business in a rural region of Bavaria. And in the manufacturing industry, which is often accused of being inflexible.

"We have to offer people something," says Daniel Eisler, 46, Head of HR, "in order to be an attractive employer.” Especially in an industry where skilled workers are in short supply: Wenzel's products include coordinate and gear-measuring machines. These may sound like niche products, but the equipment is indispensable in many industries, such as aviation, the automotive industry and medical technology. With Wenzel's machines, parts can be precisely measured — be it turbine blades for aeroplanes or the smallest components in a Thermomix.

The Wenzel Group employs 522 people, 305 in Wiesthal and the rest in subsidiaries and agencies in more than 50 countries worldwide. "In order to retain our employees and attract new ones, we had to think about something," says Eisler. "As a medium-sized company, we can't pay exorbitant salaries.” Location is not necessarily an advantage either: the nearest major city, Hanau, is a 50-minute drive away. Eisler saw the four-day week as an opportunity to improve the company's image.

"During the coronavirus pandemic, we were forced to reduce production hours," he says. "In the end, many people wanted to keep the reduced hours." To have more time for family, volunteering and cycling. For most of the team, more free time was more important than a higher salary.

So in October 2021, Daniel Eisler suggested to Heike Wenzel, the managing director, that they switch to a four-day week. For him, it was important to reduce working hours overall — as opposed to the Belgian model, which involves working ten hours a day over four days. "In my eyes, that's not a real four-day week," says Eisler. Wenzel's employees were given 1.5 hours a week as a gift — indirectly a four per cent pay rise. Paid out in good time.

To ensure that the four working days don't become too long, the model also includes shorter breaks: the one-hour lunch break has been reduced to 30 minutes. This is the minimum required by the Working Time Act. Is that enough? Reinosch from production nods: "Have a quick cigarette, a coffee, something to eat. If you want to take a longer break, you can clock off and on again.”

As a member of the works council, he looks after the well-being of the team. Initial concerns about long working days have been allayed. He says: "In the end, we only work half an hour longer from Monday to Thursday. From 6am to 3.30pm. Friday feels like a day gained.”

Eisler's suggestion was immediately welcomed by the managing director. "If it doesn’t work, no harm done,” says Wenzel. The 52-year-old is sitting in a conference room with a dark wooden table, a display case and a portrait of Wenzel Senior. "My father always said that. And I internalised it." Werner Wenzel founded the company in 1968; his daughter, who has a PhD in business informatics, has been managing director since 2018.

"I would never say that a four-day week is the best solution for every company," she says. But it works for them: "We don't have an assembly line; people set the pace in production. And when you work with more motivation, you get more done in less time.”

Complex implementation

There is still a lot of manual work in the company. A number of measuring machines are made from granite, a particularly hard and durable material. The large blocks of granite are delivered, ground and lapped by hand — in other words, processed to remove any irregularities from the surface. The team also has to cut and weld raw steel, build cable harnesses and controls, assemble parts and prepare the machines for transport.

When the idea for the new working time model first came up, Heike Wenzel heard a lot of scepticism from her colleagues: How can the work be done in four days? Can you concentrate for nine hours? Won't some jobs go unfinished? But she was confident: "You just have to turn ideas into reality.”

But it wasn't that easy, she admits. The HR department had to hold individual meetings with all employees in Germany — where the four-day week is unique — because there was a need for clarification. For example, many were confused by the fact that the new contract provided for 24 days' holiday instead of 30 — the number of days' holiday had simply been adjusted to reflect the reduced number of working days.

Another point was that some workers were on 40-hour contracts. They could choose to keep it or reduce it to 37.5 hours with a pay cut and then work 36 hours over four days. Initially, many stayed on 40 hours: "There was envy when some went to the weekend earlier," says Wenzel. In the meantime, many of the 40-hour workers have also switched to the new model.

After almost two years, Wenzel concludes: "The four-day week is a win-win solution for us.” What exactly have they gained?

"More applications," says the boss. According to HR manager Eisler, an average of 5.4 people used to apply for an advertised position; now it is around 17. In interviews, the four-day week is often cited as a reason for applying. Another positive effect is that employees take less sick leave. The model is also good for the environment. Employees no longer have to drive to work on Fridays, and the company saves electricity because the lights and machines are switched off. For the same production output, 10 to 15 percent less energy is needed.

The model is not for everyone

Productivity and sales have remained about the same, says Wenzel. She only observes the usual fluctuations, which she does not associate with the four-day week. In 2022, the Wenzel Group achieved a global turnover of 73 million euros, an increase of 29 percent compared to 2021.

Even though the new working time model is a success in her eyes, Heike Wenzel is not in favour of making it compulsory. "It should remain a company decision.” She is also in favour of individual solutions within the company. In Wiesthal, more than a quarter of the workforce still works five days a week. For various reasons.

Marketing manager Adelmann, for example, says: "For me, mobile working is more important than a day off.” If she were away from her desk for three days in a row, she would feel she was losing the plot on some issues. According to Eisler, the four-day option was not available to some employees in sales, service and applications technology — because it was not practical due to the processes involved. Customer training, for example, lasts five days as standard. To ensure that those affected were not penalised, they received a pay rise and were allowed to work more flexibly.

Another exception is apprentices under the age of 18. They are not allowed to work more than eight hours a day and must have at least one hour for lunch. This is regulated by the Youth Worker Protection Act. For the eight underage apprentices currently working at Wenzel, this means that they are working less hours. To compensate, they have to work on Fridays once a month.

It's Thursday afternoon, 15.35. Five minutes after closing time. The assembly hall is no longer a hive of activity. But Volker Ulrich, 52, is still there. If a customer's order is urgent or there is only a little time left before completion, he says, he sometimes stays a few minutes longer. He seems to be in a good mood. He has plans for the evening: Thursday is his regulars' table. "And I don't have to look at the clock because I can sleep in the next day. Pure luxury.”

A few metres away, Thilo Fleckenstein from Quality Management is standing at a gear measuring machine. He too is completing the last tasks of the day. "I'm checking the results of a test measurement," he says. What does he think of the four-day week? He looks as if it's a strange question. Of course he thinks it's good, he says.

If only because it saves him having to commute on Fridays. "One hour there, one hour back — for the five and a half hours I used to work on Fridays, it was hardly worth it". What does he do with his Friday off now? Whatever comes to mind, he says. "Shopping, doctor's appointment, free time." He shrugs his shoulders. All said and done. Right, it's already four o'clock. And Thursday. Well then: "Have a nice weekend."

Working time models over the centuries

At the beginning of the 20th century, a six-day week with a ten-hour working day was common in Germany. In 1918, the eight-hour working day was introduced by law, and from the mid-1950s individual industries introduced the five-day week.

However, standard working hours are not set in stone. There are now numerous models such as annualised working hours, job sharing — where several people share a job — or modular working hours. In the latter case, working time is divided into blocks, which employees divide among themselves.

The three classic models in Germany are

1. part-time work

The alternative to full-time work with fewer hours per week has been around for a long time. Part-time work has been around since the 19th century, when many people began to work in factories — in shifts, often for just a few days or weeks. Today, it is mainly women who work part-time, especially mothers. Since the introduction of the Part-Time and Fixed-Term Employment Act in 2001, there is a right to part-time work.

2. flexitime

Deciding for yourself when to start and finish work — within a certain time frame — has been a familiar model for over 50 years. Opinions differ as to who introduced it. Wilhelm Haller is often cited: his Stuttgart-based company, Interflex, developed time recording systems for the European market in the mid-1970s. However, the first companies to introduce flexitime are said to have been the aircraft manufacturer Ludwig Bölkow GmbH in Ottobrunn, Bavaria, at the end of the 1960s.

3. trust-based working time

At the beginning of the 1990s, Siemens AG introduced "trust-based flexitime.” This developed into trust-based working time, which does away with formal time recording — traditionally via a time clock. Employees are responsible for organising their own working hours and completing tasks independently and flexibly. However, this often leads to self-exploitation. For this reason, the European Court of Justice ruled in May 2019 and the German Federal Labour Court ruled in September 2022 that employers are obliged to systematically record working hours. This calls into question the working time model based on trust.