Honestly, people keep running trials like this and time and again they have the same results and then no-one does anything. Because, just like the whole WFH thing, these decisions aren’t made by the numbers, but by the personal preferences of employers.
A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
21–30 of 108 posts
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#22Although I'm in Australia, I work for a UK-based edtech company (Wonde) that operates a four-day workweek -- having joined just over three months ago. I know that I can only contribute anecdata, but from my perspective I've not seen any reduction in output. Indeed, I've seen fewer meetings, and meetings defaulting to thirty minutes, rather than sixty. I've also seen more async communication -- not once have I receive…
> I love that I [..] can (shock!) go out to lunch with my wife during the week while the kids are at school (Genuine question) but why wouldn't someone be able to have lunch with their OH while working a traditional 5-day week? Surely a lunch break is something everyone is entitled to even when they're working that day?
If you home and workplace or your partners workplace is even a short distance apart the travel time can make it impractical
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#23If they blasted middle management, management and process consultants, HR and ancillary corporate fluff staff into the sun we’d get 6 days of work done in 3 days and never have to suffer a Monday or Friday again. But that doesn’t create jobs or indicate growth to investors. Shaking the wrong end of the stick as always.
All early stage companies with few resources to spare are like that. Maybe more bootstrapped start ups is the way to go
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#24Unfortunately this is very unlikely to be politically acceptable to the current UK government. The prime minister and various other ministers (e.g. Rees-Mogg) have been publicly opposed to post-pandemic working from home, so I'd expect some pushback on this too. In the end it's up to businesses what they do, but the government can hinder improvements to our lives through their control of the laws and the tax system.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
> People aren't always available, so you have to work around or wait. I would have thought if everyone moved to four-day workweeks, they would all take the same day off, essentially extending the weekend.
It mentions a fish and chip shop and an education facility. I’d guess that the bulk of fish and chips are sold outside 9-5 Monday to Friday, and that there would be rioting in the streets if school days were reduced 20%.
> there would be rioting in the streets if school days were reduced 20%
Why not move schools to a four-day week, too? If it works for adults at work, I'm sure children would see similar benefits. We already know that typical school hours deprive children of much needed rest.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#26Although I'm in Australia, I work for a UK-based edtech company (Wonde) that operates a four-day workweek -- having joined just over three months ago. I know that I can only contribute anecdata, but from my perspective I've not seen any reduction in output. Indeed, I've seen fewer meetings, and meetings defaulting to thirty minutes, rather than sixty. I've also seen more async communication -- not once have I receive…
> I love that I [..] can (shock!) go out to lunch with my wife during the week while the kids are at school (Genuine question) but why wouldn't someone be able to have lunch with their OH while working a traditional 5-day week? Surely a lunch break is something everyone is entitled to even when they're working that day?
Not the OP, but I suspect it's more a question of time. My my wife and I work on opposite ends of town, so if we where to both hop on a bus, meet in the middle, enjoy a nice and leisurely lunch at a nice restaurant (as opposed to just grabbing some fast food) and then hop on a bus back to our respective offices, we're probably looking at at least 2 hours door to door.
Hell, even if I'm just going for lunch by myself there are lots of restaurants I cannot really go to, simply because it takes too long to get there, eat, and get back. Basically, while I always have time to eat lunch, but very rarely have time to enjoy lunch.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#27If they blasted middle management, management and process consultants, HR and ancillary corporate fluff staff into the sun we’d get 6 days of work done in 3 days and never have to suffer a Monday or Friday again. But that doesn’t create jobs or indicate growth to investors. Shaking the wrong end of the stick as always.
All early stage companies with few resources to spare are like that. Maybe more bootstrapped start ups is the way to go
Yes I’ve been in three now. Running a corporate like a collection of bootstrapped startups with trusted, invested staff and autonomy is the sweet spot.
That dies the moment a large enterprise client makes risk demands. Of course the large enterprise client is a shit show inside almost universally.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#28More coverage from today on the same trial:
- https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/feb/21/four-day-week-...
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#29Although I'm in Australia, I work for a UK-based edtech company (Wonde) that operates a four-day workweek -- having joined just over three months ago. I know that I can only contribute anecdata, but from my perspective I've not seen any reduction in output. Indeed, I've seen fewer meetings, and meetings defaulting to thirty minutes, rather than sixty. I've also seen more async communication -- not once have I receive…
> People aren't always available, so you have to work around or wait. I would have thought if everyone moved to four-day workweeks, they would all take the same day off, essentially extending the weekend.
If you work on the factory floor and produce all your widgets in 4 days instead of 5 then it doesn't matter what day you take off - it probably makes sense for everyone to take off the same day.
If you're talking to customers 5 (or 7) days a week (restaurants, sales, helplines, healthcare), then the company needs to provide continuous cover.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#30Earlier quoted context omitted.
If this were true, those roles wouldn't exist to begin with. Do you think perhaps there's a reason why those roles have come to be?
Yes they exist because it’s the status quo of corporate structure. I haven’t seen any evidence that adding these staff to a problem actually have a measurable impact on productivity, ROI or decrease organisational risk.
"they exist because it’s the status quo of corporate structure"
This is circular which may have been your point, but do you have a theory as to how they originated?