Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 108 posts

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

#91

Post by stuaxo »

sbuk wrote: post #80
dkdbejwi383 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

I absolutely hate it when parents respond to questions like this, but… Do you have kids? I love mine completely and unconditionally, but a day off being an employee and a parent (well half the day at least) sounds like bliss!

It's also just easier to do some of the boring chores work without kids in the house.

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

#92

Post by Joeboy »

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.

See also Basic Income (a bit of free pocket money vs enough to subsist in a first world city, including accommodation).

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

#93

Post by luckylion »

ornornor wrote: post #85
luckylion wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would all employers say "I don't want to make more money if it means having to change this one thing"? And if they do, they'd surely be outcompeted by those adopting these policies.

This is happening every day in most businesses. How much waste is incurred from not listening to frontline workers who know about problems/bottleneck and instead enact policy from clueless higher ups, or the proverbial “the beatings will continue until morale improves”, or the “strategic” decisions based on politics/the CEO’s gut feeling… Just as people are very good at voting against their interests, businesses are…

But an employee saying "hey boss, we should do this differently" is something different from "here's a bunch of studies that show you save 10% on average if you do it that way". Your employee could be wrong, or their suggestion would only work with them specifically because they're very talented at sliding with their forklift etc.

Unless there's some conspiracy going on, we should see someone change the policy, get significant returns, and either outcompete the others, or at least have a higher profit, which should lead to investors pressuring other CEOs to also adopt the new, better systems. Like Just In Time production did, surely there was some guy who said "no, I prefer to have my year's worth of supplies in my storage on site", but they'd have much higher capital requirements and would be very inflexible for virtually no upside (supply chain breakdowns are rare).

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

#94

Post by raspberry1337 »

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.

This is essentially what Musk did to twitter and HN was FURIOUS. This place can be so paradoxical in nature.

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

#95

Post by atom058 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #88
t344344 wrote: post #36

On paper it seems nice, but in reality it will just decrease salaries and people will have to work two jobs for the same money. Better to support work from home. It should be considered misogynistic and "anti green", if employer demands work at office.

>"anti green", if employer demands work at office Tough to argue an environmental stance when it’s heating/lighting/carbon emissions for deliveries and couriers to 50 buildings vs 1.

Do you turn off the heat at home when you go to the office? Lighting is negible with modern technology. How often do you get stuff delivered at work?

WFH would also mean you'd need smaller/no offices

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

#96

Post by randomuser26491 »

barryvan wrote: post #4

Although 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

Rather highlights that restaurants won't get by on a four day week.

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

#97

Post by [deleted] »

luckylion wrote: post #93
ornornor wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is happening every day in most businesses. How much waste is incurred from not listening to frontline workers who know about problems/bottleneck and instead enact policy from clueless higher ups, or the proverbial “the beatings will continue until morale improves”, or the “strategic” decisions based on politics/the CEO’s gut feeling… Just as people are very good at voting against their interests, businesses are…

But an employee saying "hey boss, we should do this differently" is something different from "here's a bunch of studies that show you save 10% on average if you do it that way". Your employee could be wrong, or their suggestion would only work with them specifically because they're very talented at sliding with their forklift etc. Unless there's some conspiracy going on, we should see someone change the policy, get s…

[deleted]

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

#98

Post by dsq »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #84

I'm getting old; I can't tell if trail is a typo for trial or if it is a new meaning for the word trail .

It’s not you. It should indeed have been “trial” and it is a typo.

Inside the article the word trial appears:

“…mid-point survey by the trial’s organisers…”

Sloppiness by the Economist. Not surprising as their best editors have probably gradually been canceled or diversified out.

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

#99

Post by corobo »

randomuser26491 wrote: post #96
barryvan wrote: post #4

Although 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 Rather highlights that restaurants won't get by on a four day week.

Pick a different 4 days like they do for weekends.
Post reply on HN