Unhappy With Employees Performance, Sikkim Govt Revokes 5-Day Workweek, Declares Holidays on 2nd, 4th Saturdays

Unhappy with the performance of its employees, the Sikkim government has rolled back the five-day workweek system and declared that they will get holidays only on second and fourth Saturdays.

The new system will come into effect from April 1, according to the goverment circular. After coming to power in May last year, Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang introduced the five-day workweek for state government and public sector units employees instead of the previous six-day workweek.

A government official aware of the recent development informed that the Sikkim Karantikari Morcha government was not happy with the performance of the government employees despite providing holidays on Saturdays.

S C Gupta, the Chief Secretary on Monday modifying the last year's circular said that government employees will only receive holidays on second and fourth Saturday from April 1, 2020.

The decision has come at a time when several organisations are trimming their workdays to provide a better work-life balance to its employees. Recently, the Maharashtra government announced five-day workweek for state government employees. The government workers earlier in the state used to get second and fourth Saturdays off every month.

Few of the private organisations have even tried four working days a week and observed a gradual rise in productivity. Latest in the line was Microsoft. The company in its Japan office in August practised a four-day work-week experiment. The American multinational found that employees were happier and more productive.

The project called – Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2018 gave Microsoft Japan's entire workforce of 2,300 people five Fridays off in a row without decreasing pay. Throughout the month it was found that the meetings were more efficient, workers were happier, and the productivity rose by 40 per cent.

Also Read: Maharashtra Govt Bonanza: Five-Day Working Week For Its Employees From Feb 29