Rheingans Digital Enabler introduced a five-hour working day last year.

The working day is shorter but employees are still expected to execute eight hours of work.

There is no paid overtime yet the model still has good feedback — and similar models are garnering popularity elsewhere.



It's quiet in the office of Rheingans Digital Enabler. Just shy of eight o'clock, the first employees are already sat at their desks on the sixth floor in the old town of Bielefeld, beavering away. Which is little surprise when you consider that they have five hours to complete what the average employee has eight to do.

Lasse Rheingans, head of the digital consulting agency, has been making waves in the media with his model since the end of 2017, when he introduced the 25-hour week at his advertising agency. Whoever works for Rheingans works only five hours a day, from 8am to 1pm. No overtime. No weekend work. No targets. Full payment.

'Do I still have time?'

Mornings start with a meeting to discuss the day's tasks. The meeting, conducted standing, is where tasks are confirmed and delegated, and where each task's priority is assigned as well as its deadline. Studded with phrases such as "I'd like a period of one week to implement this" or "Do I still have time to do XYZ?", one can't help but notice a sense of urgency, and that the meeting is kept short with no private conversations whatsoever.

Lasse Rheingans appears unaffected by the pressure. He's the kind of man you might envisage as a laid-back young head of an advertising agency: he's motivated, is passionate about his job, aims for a flat hierarchy and is relaxed. After the meeting we sit in the small modern conference room. There he leans back in a white plastic chair, with one arm over the backrest and his legs up on a chair, then he starts talking about his project.

Rheingan Digital Enabler / UrbanYards

'Some thought I was mad'

Rheingans came up with introducing the 5-hour day in a previous job at another agency. With a full-time job, two children, a busy social schedule and various hobbies, it became increasingly hard for him to balance work with his private life — so he took two afternoons off a week to make more time for his children. And it was then that he realised it was feasible to carry out a week's workload of one week, despite an entire working day being missing.

Consequently, Rheingans began looking into studies and researching the the subject, reading — amongst other things — "The Five-Hour Workday" by Stephan Aarstol. After taking over advertising agency Digital Enabler, rechristening it "Rheingans Digital Enabler", he decided he would immediately be implementing a five-hour day. In October 2017, he spoke to his workforce of his vision for team spirit and good communication, introducing the five-hour day from the first week of November.

"I think some thought I was mad," he said, "And weren't actually sure whether or not to burst out laughing. In agency business, it's the norm to leave only when it gets dark." But Rheingans is convinced this sort of work approach leads to overexertion and burnout in the long term.

The facts speak for themselves: a study by the Federal Institute for Occupational Safety and Health suggests the risk of health problems increases with longer working hours.

"In my experience, there is nothing to gain from working longer," said Rheingans, "In software development, for example, you end up making more mistakes, you have to go back over everything and in the end you invest more time than would have if you'd worked shorter hours and focused harder."

Employees' responses to the announcement were mostly of elation, albeit peppered with a little scepticism. It may initially sound like a bed of roses, but then there's the small issue of having to execute an eight-hour workload within five hours.

But Rheingans was aware the changeover would be difficult at the start: "I told them I expected us to keep failing for the time being."

To help save time, employees write down tasks and tick them off. Rheingans Digital Enabler

The beginning is always the hardest part

The first step was to identify and do away with whatever was draining time. Maybe you know what wastes our time most from looking at your own working day: you go for a meeting and what was scheduled as a half-hour meeting soon turns into over an hour. "That might be feasible with an eight-hour day but not for us; we reduced the length of meetings and usually get together for a quarter of an hour rather than an hour."

As Rheingans explains, you can always find new things to cut out: "What equipment are we using? Do we need a headset instead of a telephone? Do we need different hardware? It never stops, you're learning all the time."

You can also see how time is being saved by observing how employees communicate with one another: if there's a problem, they just go directly to their colleague's table rather than beating around the bush.

'We don't drop our pens 1pm sharp'

If everything gets done on time, you can clock off at 1pm. But what if you're needed beyond that?

"When an emergency arises, of course it's ideal if I can reach you," said Rheingans. "I know I can get hold of my employees if necessary — but I don't want to, and usually it isn't necessary."

If everything isn't done by 1pm, Rheingans Digital Enabler will keep you longer. "We don't just drop our pens at 1pm on the dot. We want to do the best we can."

And as for overtime? There is none. That's a price employees are willing to pay to work 15 hours fewer per week than most employees, according to Rheingans.

How do five hours of highly focused work affect the atmosphere at work?

We were interested to see whether the interpersonal aspect of work was affected: surely, if you have five hours to plough through eight hours of work, you're hardly going to have time for a chat with your colleagues?

Rheingans openly admits: "A five-hour day is definitely a little too short for the likes of that."

And yet, there was still a quick chat at the coffee machine and a little back and forth between employees. Rheingans considers privacy to be "totally essential in the job".

"Some still sit here until 4pm, to chat and catch up on what they've missed," he said.

We wanted to talk to an employee to get a different perspective but due to the basic EU data protection regulation they have their hands full and have to use every minute of their time wisely. After a short discussion Rheingans reappears in the conference room saying someone would have time to speak with us in an hour or so.

What do the employees say?

An hour later we sit at the table in the small kitchen with Luca Anzaldo, a web developer at Rheingans Digital Enabler. Luca is 26 and joined in August 2017.

When asked what he thinks of the five-hour day, he replied: "For me, it's perfect — I like to focus for five hours then do something else rather than constantly getting coffee and chatting".

However, the transition from eight to five hours was not a smooth one. "It was weird at first. We had to make the work easier and faster, which didn't really work at the start. Now, however, it works and it's getting better and better."

Luca doesn't feel the pressure of having to be ready by 1pm. The fact that overtime isn't paid doesn't bother him either: "If it doesn't work out, you just work a little longer. Is it really that bad having to stay until 2pm?"

Luca Anzaldo works as a web developer for Rheingans Digital Enabler. Rheingans Digital Enabler

If work is over at 1pm — then what?

The biggest problem Luca has with reduced working hours is something many people would love: "What do you do after 1pm? Sometimes it's a little boring. Sometimes I stay a little longer or try to distract myself with sports."

Of course he enjoys the afternoon off anyway, he adds with a laugh.

"I used to be in the office for nine hours — sometimes a little longer," he said, "You don't want to be taking your work over into the evenings. Besides, a lot of my friends are students and like doing things at 4pm. I never used to be able to get involved but now, I can do it all."

The reduced working hours haven't altered the working atmosphere for him. "Fridays after work, we eat together, have a chat, and sometimes go for a drink."

After talking with Luca, we were hoping to speak with Lasse again but he was in a meeting and wouldn't have time for another few hours. To pass the time, we mingled with employees. The space is home to a pleasant silence, broken only by the rattling of keyboards or, occasionally, someone getting up to speak with a colleague, quickly and effectively.

'I think this discussion is vital for the middle class'

Rheingan's vision is greater than simply reducing working hours, he explains when he returns to the office a few hours later. It would be about a bigger problem, which faces the middle class today.

"Some say they're not getting a look-in when it comes to fresh talent but they're working as though we're still in the '50s," he said. If you work like you're stuck in the 1950s, you're missing out on digitisation and forgetting that there's an informed customer who can easily access comprehensive information about products using the Internet — which makes shop consultants, for example, pretty redundant."

"We need fewer and fewer people, be it in trade, medicine or production. But the people you do need have to be creative, motivated, well-rested, satisfied and they have to be damn good. You need more and more at the peak of their cognitive performance. And you can't ask that of someone you're keeping in an office over eight hours. You don't need an eight-hour day in a society like ours anymore."

In Sweden there have already been several experiments in which the six-hour day has been introduced, including one in an old people's home in the city of Gothenburg. After two years, it was established that employees were healthier and happier as a result. And yet the project had to be terminated: it was too expensive.

Further employees had to be hired, as the residents of the old people's home have to be looked after around the clock. In other industries, for example in a Toyota workshop in Gothenburg, the shorter working hours model proved successful.

With the help of the market research and data analytics firm, YouGov, Viking conducted a study among German workers in February 2017 to find out how this would compare to a working time model of six hours a day and the associated lower earnings. The response was predominantly positive: roughly 53% of the study's participants responded that they would prefer a shorter working day, even without full wage compensation. The most common reasons cited were less stress and more family time.

So with his project, Rheingans is simply following a social trend. "Shortages of skilled workers, the digital revolution, work-life balance and cultural changes — these are all topics that are very relevant," said Rheingans. "And this also demonstrates we've definitely done something absolutely right."

'The five-hour day is merciless'

The trial at the advertising agency was originally planned to end in February 2018. Now in June, they still work five hours a day. So what happens with Rheingans Digital Enabler?

"I feel absolutely no pressure to change anything," Rheingans answers, despite the fact that he works far more than five hours. The reason for this is that after four months of testing, there was still insufficient data to support the model. "I'd heard enough from naysayers and made it my personal mission to dispel these criticisms with valid data," Rheingans said. And so, the project will continue indefinitely.

Even now it doesn't always run like clockwork. Rheingans says: "This is a constant learning process that never stops. In an eight-hour day you can mask problems and cheat yourself. This simply isn't possible within a five-hour day. It's merciless. It highlights exactly which areas aren't working and what to take care of — it's like holding a magnifying glass to every flaw."

When we leave the office at 12.30pm, the employees wish us a pleasant afternoon, and even if they'll be sitting in the office for a little while longer, they'll still be able to enjoy a good part of the afternoon.

Working three hours less a day at full pay may still sound like a fairy tale in most companies. However, the fact that shorter working days are becoming a more frequently raised topic of discussion shows that change is taking place. There will soon be more to follow in Lasse Rheingans' footsteps.