Work Four Days a Week, Get Paid for Five

Auckland Harbor, New Zealand

If you like working with wills and trusts, head for New Zealand, where you can work four days a week and get paid for five.

A few years ago, Andrew Barnes combined two trustee companies, Perpetual Trust and Guardian Trust, to form Perpetual Guardian. According to its web site, Barnes decided to move the company away from financial advice and wealth management and back to a pure fiduciary services model.

Inspired by a report finding that workers were actually productive less than three hours a day, Barnes also launched a bold experiment: Employees would be paid for a five-day week but would be required to work only four days.

According to The New York Times, the experiment is a success. Employees love the extra day off, of course, and they have found ways to do their full week's work. They work smarter, they don't allow themselves to be distracted by personal stuff, and two-hour meetings now take 30 minutes.

OK, which U.S. trust company would like to grab a great idea and run with it?