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Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

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Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#71

Post by jjcm »

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well.

I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.

What remains to be seen though are if the efficiency gains are good enough to justify less hours. Are employees more productive? That's the question that remains to be answered or objectively measured here. Less burnout and better mental health means higher quality work for sure, but is output as a whole better with a 4 day work week versus a 5 day work week? That's what shareholders will care about more than anything else.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#72

Post by malux85 »

lzmibes wrote: post #67

Employer and employee should be free to negotiate whatever arrangement is mutually agreeable. I don't think there needs to be any more to it than that

Except most employers just do what everyone else does - and one might say “the market forces them to” but that’s total nonsense.

Look at remote work, it was fairly uncommon in programming and very uncommon outside of programming.

Then everyone was forced to do it with Covid and now it’s much more common because it works. Everyone was free to negotiate at any time before and after Covid, but anything that was even mildly radical would be met with a hard no. Simply because nobody else does it that way.

I agree that it shouldn’t be mandated with laws, but I don’t agree that it should be left totally up to employer / employee because the power balance of negotiation still sits with the employer too much.

Unfortunately I don’t know what the solution is, we need some external force that’s not as firm as a law to push a large number of companies to 4 days, what could that be I wonder… ?

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#73

Post by bb123 »

jjcm wrote: post #71

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well. I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.…

I’d happily take a 20% pay cut for a 4 day work week, if it was offered.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#74

Post by piva00 »

lzmibes wrote: post #67

Employer and employee should be free to negotiate whatever arrangement is mutually agreeable. I don't think there needs to be any more to it than that

Let me know when both parties have equal power to come to the negotiation table on equal grounds, until then, nah.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#75

Post by totololo »

bb123 wrote: post #73
jjcm wrote: post #71

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well. I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.…

I’d happily take a 20% pay cut for a 4 day work week, if it was offered.

I think that's common in Switzerland. They call it 80% contracts.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#76

Post by vundercind »

lzmibes wrote: post #67

Employer and employee should be free to negotiate whatever arrangement is mutually agreeable. I don't think there needs to be any more to it than that

When my failing to find a job for three months is no more painful to me than an employer failing to fill a role for three months, and when applying and interviewing takes so little of my attention that I can also do several other things at the same time (as a company is not paralyzed by conducting some interviews and reviewing some applications), sure.

Since that will never happen—no.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#77

Post by whatyesaid »

jjcm wrote: post #71

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well. I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.…

If most companies become 4 day work week, that would be the new floor and not a perk no more?

You might still have 5 day work week employees who get paid more but to them the perk is money/earlier retirement.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#78

Post by beastman82 »

zooq_ai wrote: post #69

This study is a perfect fit the HN crowd who won't question the methodology and incentive systems because it fits their narrative. Of course employee are going to report happy. What next? a study saying "Employees love more money for the same work?"

Sadly it's a reflection of this reporting. They quote exactly 1 of these leaders and couch the failures with suggestions of a failed methodology.

Re: Study: 61 UK firms tried a 4-day workweek and after a year, they still love it

#79

Post by EForEndeavour »

whatyesaid wrote: post #77
jjcm wrote: post #71

There's no doubt that there's a benefit to the employee, but for corporations to adopt this there has to be a measurable benefit to the company as well. I do think there is one clear benefit as measured in the article - employee retention. It's an extremely strong incentive to stay with the current company, and domain knowledge gained over decades really is a competitive advantage if your employees commonly have it.…

If most companies become 4 day work week, that would be the new floor and not a perk no more? You might still have 5 day work week employees who get paid more but to them the perk is money/earlier retirement.

That's true for all perks: if all firms offered the same perk, that becomes the new floor. But this does not stop companies from offering perks.
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