While Brazilian society and the National Congress discuss the end of the scale of six days of work for one day off (6×1) in the country’s legislation, a school of baristas and cafeteria management in the capital of São Paulo changed its schedule to four days of work and three days of rest (4×3) and saw its revenue grow 35% in one year.
Coffe Lab, a company founded in 2004, which currently has two units and more than 30 employees, focused on productivity instead of focusing on the number of hours worked by employees.
According to the businesswoman and founder of Coffe Lab, roaster Isabela Raposeiras, the experience of reducing working hours, which began in 2025 at the school, demonstrates that rest for employees results in greater concentration at work and increased productivity and revenue.
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“Productivity increased dramatically. Because, last year, in 2025, we worked with the same menu and price for the entire year. We were closed for 17 days due to construction work and did not increase the number of seats. We continued with the two stores and the same number of seats. And our revenue in 2025 rose 35% in a year in which the food sector fell 22%”, he said.
The school worked on a 5×2 system and 44 hours of work per week. In July last year, in agreement with employees, it adopted a 4×3 schedule and 40 hours of work per week. There are three days off per week, two on consecutive days.
“The people [os funcionários da empresa] she is more rested. In this sector of commerce, food, especially hotels, concentration, attention, is very important for us to sell more. So, people who are rested, happy with a life beyond work, perform much more, provide better service”, he highlighted.
Employee turnoverIn addition to the increase in productivity, the businesswoman saw a decrease in employee turnover and reduced labor costs. “We have turnover [taxa de rotatividade] Just a ridiculous 8%. You don’t spend more on termination – which is a very expensive thing – no matter how many times the employee resigns, the termination and termination fees are high”, he said.
According to her, with more tired workers, demotivation is greater, layoffs increase and the hiring of temporary employees also increases.
“Here we don’t have to hire frila [do inglês freelancer, trabalhador pontual, sem vínculo empregatício]. At Coffee Lab, we almost never hire frila, because people are no longer absent, they no longer have certificates. This greatly reduces costs and increases sales capacity, because everyone who works there knows the company well, there is no one who is very new.”
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Rest and leisure
Tábata Lima de Oliveira, 35 years old, an employee at Coffee Lab, says that before joining the company, she worked on a 6×1 scale, and that she used her only weekly day off mainly to rest.
“I practically slept my day away [de folga] whole. I couldn’t go out, I rarely went out, I was rarely willing to study. Family time? Very little, in fact, nowadays I consider myself a person super distant from my family because of this. The time I had was just to rest, sleep and do household chores”, he highlighted.
According to her, the biggest problems caused by the 6×1 scale were mainly mental health.
“I already had [síndrome de] Burnout in a previous job. On top of that, I didn’t sleep, I had to go to work and I took a lot of medication, I felt very sleepy during work, and I had a lot of panic attacks.”
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On the 4×3 scale, the employee saw the possibility of taking care of herself, having leisure, and even traveling: “It’s less time on transport, fewer days on public transport. More time to rest, to take care of myself, to take care of my head, to have leisure and to take care of my own home.”
“Now I can dedicate myself to my health, my studies, my close friends and even go on trips when we have three breaks in a row”, he added.
