

A few years ago I went back from 40 hours per week to 36 hours per week. In practice this means one five day week, and one four day week with Fridays off, giving me a long weekend. A few colleagues do this too, and some others opted for a 32 hour week, with four days each week.
It has been a pleasant experience for me, and I would preferably not go back to a 40 hour week.
I finally feel like I have time to enjoy my weekends again. Leaving me enough time to do chores, fulfill social obligations and engage in my hobbies.
It is also helpful that after taxes the wage difference between working a 40 hour week and a 36 hour week is not that significant in the Netherlands. So I would easily trade the wages for the healthier work-life balance.



Lunch having to be paid is not an EU rule. It just happens to be that multiple countries in the EU have such rulings.
In the Netherlands lunch can still be unpaid unless your union has agreed otherwise in the collective labour agreement.
My job has unpaid lunch according to the employment contract (But thankfully they aren’t too picky about working exactly 8 hours in a day)