Employer here. I get it... challenges to work through though:
What about holiday allowance and accrual, and parity for those that already work part time?
Continuity of service for a 24/7 business
What about those already working 4 day/wk contracts (matter of fairness)
What will this do to the flexible culture we've nurtured - we'll actually be putting in place more structure/need more from less time
A lot of work is still going on on Mondays and Fridays that we can't control - events, conferences etc
I have seen instances of people working second jobs (in other businesses) when they went down to 4 days - and then become burnt out
What about those who want to work 5 (or more!) days
And to echo Hels's point how do we support each other on live work and keep the pace up on days of absence.
None of this is insurmountable, but a lot to work through for a small org before making the leap.
What about those already working 4 day/wk contracts (matter of fairness)
They get a 25% pay rise!
I took a 20% pay cut when I went part time, but I can't see our company every going for 4 day week. However, if they did, I'd like my missing 25% back..
A lot of people have been brainwashed into accepting that 5 days a week is just what we do. Colleagues I have discussed it with just don't get it and can't see that an arbitrary 5 days a week could just as easily be an arbitrary 4 days a week. What is pretty obvious where I work is that everybody is doing **** all on a Friday anyway (no meetings, very little email etc,.) so may as well not be working.
A lot of people have been brainwashed into accepting that 5 days a week is just what we do.
Well it used to be 6 days! You only got Sunday off to maintain the power the Church had over society...
The company I contract to have gone on a 4 day week, staying shut on a Friday which started in January.
They still expect employees to do 37 hours per week so have changed the hours in a working day from 8 to 9.25 hours to make up for Friday shutdown.
It makes sense. Speaking as someone who did shifts with 7 day weeks for years. 7 on 2 off. 7 on 2 off. 7 on 3 off. An extra day off every so often brought it down to 40 hours average.
When I did a spell in a dept where I worked alt 6 day weeks and 4 day weeks it fely likea holiday.
Even if there is no reduction in hours it makes obvious sense to me to work 4 x 10 hr days.
Even better is my current 3 day 22 hours job of course with an irregular pattern which gives me full weeks off every so often without using holidays.
I was fortunate enough to have set up a small business (grew to 15 people), and being mine, could make decisions (not always fun). I moved to 4-day week - critically not compressing 5 into 4, not reducing pay/benefits, but mostly because I really wanted to and I hoped the team would benefit and as a business, we'd be OK. This was 10 years ago. The business did well, I exited recently and it's now 30+ people, doing really well and strict on the 4 days.
for me, it'll only work if it's a top down approach, and really disciplined about it. Becasue I was lazy and wanted it, it meant the team believed it would really be 4 days ... and it was. And our clients were positively intrigued so no downside there.
Huge fan of it.
The point of this trial is that they all got the same amount done. They worked faster.
Becasue I was lazy and wanted it,
You're lazy and indecisive, and used this as a basis to build a successful company? PLease tell us more. That would be the kind of management book i might actually want to read!
What about holiday allowance and accrual, and parity for those that already work part time?
Continuity of service for a 24/7 business
What about those already working 4 day/wk contracts (matter of fairness)
Holiday time doesn’t change, 24/7 business just spread the days across the week like they do now. Those working 4 day contracts still can but they could do longer days or keep their sort days.
4 day week is being talked about where I work. We currently work 4 full days Mon-Thurs and 4hrs on Fri, 4 days would just mean an extra hour a day Mon-Thurs. We clock in and out so never do any un-paid hours.
Who walks in the office at 9 and walks out at 5? Simply doesn’t happen in my experience.
This has become a worrying thing for me. In previous jobs I’d work my contracted hours with any overtime resulting in pay or hours in lieu. It seems to be getting more common for people to work beyond their contracted hours or be expected to perform work related tasks with no remuneration.
A lot of people missing the point of 4 day week. You do the same hours on the four days as you would have before you don't do extra hours to make up for the lack of a fifth day (that is compressed hours working).
The theory being that you get as much done in the 4 days as you previously did in the five due to better mental state, prepared to work a bit harder as better 'deal' with employer and so on. The companies that have done it properly have seen no noticeable loss of output but it clearly won't work for certain jobs where a person can produce n things per hour already working as best they can.
I'm pretty flexible with my working but generally prefer to work 5 (or even 6) days and then take more days off together to make a 4 or 5 day weekend or extra weeks of holiday. It probably averages out to a 4 day week.
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Think it depends on the type of work and stress. Having recently gone down to 3 days a week (less pay) the stress of the job is still there in the background, however the extra days off to live more is worth it. The older I get, the more I realise work is not life. Life is outside of work and I just want to get home without being tired.
It would be great if companies gave their staff and teams the option to work with more flexibility but for a lot of jobs, this isn't possible.
We once had a lad mention sabbatical. The mob turned up at his house that night, he and his family were never seen again, run out of town they were.
