A four-day working week at Biedronka? “If People Eat Four Days a Week”
Jarosław Sobczyk, member of the management board of Jeronimo Martins, the owner of Biedronka, was asked by Business Insider about the possibility of introducing a four-day working week in stores. – If consumers eat 4 days a week, we will work 4 days a week – he replied, then said it was a joke. However, the proposal to shorten working hours seemed “risky” to him.
Jarosław Sobczyk, member of the management board of the owner of the Biedronka chain, was asked by Business Insider about the greatest difficulties that trade in Poland is facing or will soon face. In his opinion, these are neither price wars nor the uncertain fate of the Sunday trading ban or the announcement of the introduction of a four-day working week, but the decreasing demographic growth, which translates into a decreasing number of customers and employees.
A four-day working week at Biedronka
– Demography is a strategic challenge that trade cannot cope with on its own, it is a challenge that faces the entire country – says Jarosław Sobczyk.
The interlocutor talked about additional benefit programs that employees can count on. In his opinion, this is one of the reasons why the company can still choose from many job candidates. He revealed that over 15,000 employees have been working for more than 10 years, there is also a group of people who were employed 25 years ago, when Biedronka entered Poland.
One of the questions concerned the possibility of introducing a four-day working week.
– If consumers eat 4 days a week, we will work 4 days a week. Of course I'm joking, but please remember, we meet very basic consumer needs. Hospitals don't work 4 days a week either. Even if we don't work on Sunday, there is a logistics machine behind it that ensures that fresh products appear in the store on Monday morning. There are industries in which a four-day working week seems quite risky to me. At least for today. For us, the most important thing is what the consumer wants, he said.
