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A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

economist.com

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Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#61

Post by Oras »

logifail wrote: post #39

I'm still not really seeing how the 4-day-week, at 5 days pay, is delivering the (almost magical) 20%+ productivity boost that its proponents seem to claim it does. I'm sure almost all people feel better when given the option to work fewer hours for the same money ... I know I would! How does that translate into increased productivity, though?

I suppose it is related to stress. We are more productive when less stressed.

Having extra day to rest, do your hobbies, more time with loved ones ... etc __should__ contribute to less stress.

The extra day is not just about being at work, consider commute and other strings attached to going to work.

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#62

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #12
barryvan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not where I am! Rather, it's a negotiation with your manager to see what works best. That way, we can ensure we have coverage across the week. We're all "on" for Mondays and Tuesdays, and then people take Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday off according to preference and suitability. Yes, more people take Friday than Thursday, but quite a lot of people enjoy the zen-like lack of distraction when they work Fridays. Or so…

The pro tip is to work Monday, and thereby catch nearly all the stat days. Some enlightened countries pro-rata stat days, but New Zealand doesn’t.

[deleted]

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#63

Post by cbzoiav »

pm215 wrote: post #32
lostlogin wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pro tip is to work Monday, and thereby catch nearly all the stat days. Some enlightened countries pro-rata stat days, but New Zealand doesn’t.

The employer can fix up the imbalance -- if there are N bank holidays in the year, give all 80% part time workers 0.8N extra days of holiday allowance above their usual amount (etc), and mandate that they cover the bank holidays with days from their allowance if they would normally work them. (My UK employer does this.)

Or just don't have them off by default and add the days to all employees allowance, but always allow people to book them off if they want.

That way if you have a family and are all off you can spend it together, but if you have nothing to do can use it when it better suits you.

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#64

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #12
barryvan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not where I am! Rather, it's a negotiation with your manager to see what works best. That way, we can ensure we have coverage across the week. We're all "on" for Mondays and Tuesdays, and then people take Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday off according to preference and suitability. Yes, more people take Friday than Thursday, but quite a lot of people enjoy the zen-like lack of distraction when they work Fridays. Or so…

The pro tip is to work Monday, and thereby catch nearly all the stat days. Some enlightened countries pro-rata stat days, but New Zealand doesn’t.

[deleted]

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#65

Post by [deleted] »

lostlogin wrote: post #12
barryvan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not where I am! Rather, it's a negotiation with your manager to see what works best. That way, we can ensure we have coverage across the week. We're all "on" for Mondays and Tuesdays, and then people take Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday off according to preference and suitability. Yes, more people take Friday than Thursday, but quite a lot of people enjoy the zen-like lack of distraction when they work Fridays. Or so…

The pro tip is to work Monday, and thereby catch nearly all the stat days. Some enlightened countries pro-rata stat days, but New Zealand doesn’t.

[deleted]

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#66

Post by recuter »

jpswade wrote: post #15
unxdfa wrote: post #14

If 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.

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?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underemployment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullshit_Jobs

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#67

Post by 2143 »

lostlogin wrote: post #12
barryvan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not where I am! Rather, it's a negotiation with your manager to see what works best. That way, we can ensure we have coverage across the week. We're all "on" for Mondays and Tuesdays, and then people take Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday off according to preference and suitability. Yes, more people take Friday than Thursday, but quite a lot of people enjoy the zen-like lack of distraction when they work Fridays. Or so…

The pro tip is to work Monday, and thereby catch nearly all the stat days. Some enlightened countries pro-rata stat days, but New Zealand doesn’t.

> stat day

If you don't know what a "stat day" is (I didn't), it apparently stands for "statutory holidays" which is like public holidays.

During my brief time in the US, I observed that over there the public holidays tend to be something like "nth Friday/Monday of so-and-so month"; that way you get a long weekend. This is how it's done in some other countries as well.

Unfortunately not in my country (where I'm lucky to have both Saturdays and Sundays off! (I should probably move...) ); if a public holiday falls on a Wednesday, you get the Wednesday off. But on the bright side, there's plenty of holidays here.

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#68

Post by cbzoiav »

logifail wrote: post #34
dagw wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> it's more a question of time So, given we're talking about employers offering flexibility, how about allowing people to take a longer lunch break so they can go for lunch with their OH, but either start their day earlier or stay at work later?

Many professional / salaried roles would be fine with that.

I get in early, only take 10 minutes at lunch but then I head home at 3-4PM to miss rush. Sometimes I log back in from home and do more hours (especially if there is a problem), sometimes I leave even earlier and don't, sometimes I WFH on a Friday and spend 3 hours in the middle of the day getting the train out to my parents for a long weekend then the afternoon is half heartedly watching emails while drinking coffee with my parents.

At the end of the day as long as I'm not inconveniencing colleagues then it comes down to does my output make me worth my salary.

Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)

#70

Post by usrbinbash »

gonzo41 wrote: post #53
golol wrote: post #44

There are at least 3 radically different concepts of a 4 day work week: - same hours, same pay - reduced hours, same pay - reduced hours, reduced pay Why is it always so hard to find this information when people discuss 4 day work weeks? The constant vagueness here is extremely toxic to the diaglogue. People talk past eachother.

Employers don't actually use the 40 hours from knowledge workers. If managers planned they'd be able to get better productivity. But as we all know. Bubble in the pipeline cause stalls and then you get meetings and planning days and all staffs that are an hour long which could have been an email. Hopefully they do same pay, Less hours. It's a bit tough out there with inflation

> It's a bit tough out there with inflation

Considering that the economy enjoyed 3 decades of basically uninterrupted growth, including right through all significant financial crisis situations (by massively supporting companies with taxpayers money), I couldn't care less how "hard" it is for companys with inflation now.

Baby-Boomers are going into retirement, the next 2 generations are low birth. The workforce is going to be an increasingly limited commodity. Supply and Demand also apply when it doesn't benefit the companies.

Either companies adapt, no matter how tough it is, or there will be less companies, easy as that.

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