Energy crisis: an SME switches to a four-day week to save money

In Atelier Panel, an SME that manufactures furniture from Longvic (Golden Coast)machines as imposing as they are energy-intensive are running at full regime. In his workshops 3,000 m² heated, around twenty employees work full time. And if the director of the company is delighted to see his order book filled, he also fears to see his energy bill explode.

So, to reduce the next energy bill, the company innovates. As of October 1, it will adopt the four-day week. Employees will continue to come to work 35 hours a week. “We saw that every Friday, we only worked four hours, so we launched all the machines for four hours of work, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m.”explains David Butetmanager of Atelier Panel. From now on, employees will work an hour earlier. An early wake-up call for a sweeter weekend: the argument quickly convinced the employees. The experiment will be conducted until the end of March 2023.