Instituto do Porto will be part of a four-day workweek pilot project

The Institute of Systems and Computing, Technology and Science (INESC TEC) in Porto will integrate a four-day workweek pilot within six months, becoming the “first research institute” in the country to join the government’s initiative.

INESC TEC said in a statement on Tuesday that staff at the Telecommunications and Multimedia Center (CTM) – one of the institute’s 13 centers – will transition to “new ways of working distributed over four days” in the second half of this year.

The Institute of Porto becomes, according to the working group of this pilot project, “the first research institute [Investigação e Desenvolvimento] join the initiative of the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity and Social Protection”.

Luis Seca, chief executive of INESC TEC, quoted in the communiqué, notes that it is impossible “to continue to look at working hours the way we did 20 or 30 years ago.”

“There are new challenges, mainly related to the new generation entering the labor market, to which we must respond, namely in terms of flexibility, striving to combine professional satisfaction with personal and family life,” he emphasizes.

The Executive Director of INESC TEC believes that the initiative will be able to “maintain or even increase productivity” if it allows “organization and time management in a different way”, namely “to optimize the duration of meetings, prioritize tasks and define goals in a regular and clear manner”.

“We are facing a shift in the way society looks at work,” he said, saying he believes a four-day work week will have a “very positive” outcome for employees.

The pilot program of the 4-day week starts in June and provides for a reduction in the number of hours per week for workers without any reduction in wages or loss of rights.

The statement also mentions Pedro Gomes, coordinator of the program’s working group, who notes that “just like in technology, the world of work also needs innovation, and for this it is necessary to experiment with new ways of working.”

Secretary of State for Labor Miguel Fontes notes that “this study is going to be of great importance in building one of the main pillars of this agenda: reconciliation between professional, personal and family life.”

“On the part of employees, we will measure the impact on well-being, quality of life, mental and physical health, as well as their level of commitment to the company, job satisfaction and intention to stay with the organization. the focus will be on performance, competitiveness, intermediate costs and profits,” he adds.