Reasons Government Chooses Friday WFH, Still Monitors to Ensure Civil Servants Don't Turn It into a Holiday

The Indonesian government has assured that the implementation of a work-from-home (WFH) or off-site working policy every Friday starting from 1 April 2026 will not lead civil servants (ASN) to exploit it as an incentive for long weekends ahead of the weekend. Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Airlangga Hartarto, stated that this policy has been carefully considered, as several ministries and agencies have already been applying a four-day workweek mechanism since the Covid-19 pandemic until now. Therefore, he believes that public services will not be disrupted. “Because indeed, several ministries have already implemented four days of work per week post-Covid,” said Airlangga during a press conference on Government Policies in Mitigating Risks and Anticipating Global Dynamics, held online, quoted on Wednesday (1/4/2026). The official designation of Fridays starting from 1 April 2026, he added, is due to the effective working time on that day not being as long as regular days from Monday to Thursday. Thus, according to him, this designation will be more effective in encouraging efficient work without disturbing the performance of civil servants. “We chose Friday because Friday is half a day, meaning not full like from Monday to Thursday. But public services will continue to run, and productive activities, including banking, capital markets, and others, will still operate,” he explained. Minister for State Apparatus Utilization and Bureaucratic Reform (PANRB), Rini Widyantini, added that through this uniform WFH or work-from-anywhere policy one day per week on Fridays, the government will actually tighten supervision of ASN performance via the E-Kinerja application, which is directly monitored by the leaders of respective agencies, namely personnel development officials (PPK). “For all ASN, we will continue to evaluate, and each PPK needs to evaluate performance, and we have provided E-Kinerja from each government agency that has a direct link to assess performance through the E-Kinerja provided by the State Civil Service Agency,” Rini emphasised. As information, the government is implementing a one-day WFH policy per week every Friday as a step in transforming work culture to encourage more efficient, productive, and digital-based behavioural changes in work. This step is intended to respond to the increasing economic turbulence due to conflicts in the Middle East that affect pressure on global crude oil prices. This policy also encompasses digital-based government governance transformation, mobility efficiency, including a 50% restriction on the use of official vehicles except for operations and electric vehicles, and encouraging the use of public transportation. Furthermore, the government is implementing efficiency in domestic business travel by up to 50%, and international by up to 70%.