I’m starting to believe the obfuscation and lack of information regarding “four days but actually working longer” or “four days with reduced hours” models is deliberate.
List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
11–20 of 96 posts
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#12Do these companies close on a week day, like they just don’t open on a Monday. Or do the staff just do 4 out of the 5 days, but the company operates all week and the team need coordinating so they have coverage all week? I’d love to do this at my place, but would want to close the whole business and I don’t think our clients would be happy.
Most of my consulting clients do barely any work on Fridays anyway and so wouldn't mind me reducing to 4 days at all.
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#13I guess companies were you already worked 30 hours (6 hours per day of effective work as in many "mental work" jobs). I'm not from UK, are any manufacturing companies on the list?
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#14Rather cynically I see this as "Companies who continue to operate at 100% but with 20% less staff wages"
The subheader claims that they have done this without reducing wages.
When it comes to new positions the reduction in wages bill kicks in.
Those employed during the transition phase benefit from full salary yet work 80% hours.
New employees will get 100% for the four days they work while the company operates for five days.
Employee wages are usually the largest expense in any business.
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#15[deleted]
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#16[dead]
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#17I’m starting to believe the obfuscation and lack of information regarding “four days but actually working longer” or “four days with reduced hours” models is deliberate.
The “studies” surrounding this topic are laughably bad.
The authors almost always have conflicts of interest. The studies are often funded and/or staffed by proponents of the 4 day work week.
The outcomes are mostly subjective and self reported, which is problematic because employees clearly have a vested interest in claiming they are more productive than they really might be.
They’re also short term, and dont address the doubt every executive has which is whether employees eventually mean revert back to their historical hourly productivity levels.
Then there is the fact that they don’t bother controlling for how much work the employees were previously doing. Many white collar workers are underworked. If you cut their hours it won’t impact output, because they were bottlenecking on work availability not time. What employers want to know is not what happens in over resourced offices, but rather what happens in well managed offices where employee workload was already optimised.
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#18Earlier quoted context omitted.
The subheader claims that they have done this without reducing wages.
When it comes to new positions the reduction in wages bill kicks in. Those employed during the transition phase benefit from full salary yet work 80% hours. New employees will get 100% for the four days they work while the company operates for five days. Employee wages are usually the largest expense in any business.
Gee, are you saying wages are somehow tied to output? Why didn't anyone think of this before suggesting a 4 day workweek?
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#19I guess companies were you already worked 30 hours (6 hours per day of effective work as in many "mental work" jobs). I'm not from UK, are any manufacturing companies on the list?
They're either unrecognisable (so quite small), or where they are recognisable they seem to be charities or CIC (community interest companies). That latter group of companies are structured so that profit is not the raison d'être of the organisation, so work/life balance is likely to be considered a higher priority than squeezing every last bit of utility out of an exhausted workforce.
Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week
#20Speaking as a worker this seems like a positive move.
Stepping outside that though - how is this going to impact the wider economy? The UK is in a tough spot. Partially self-inflicted, partially political, partially just the way things are now.
Will this improve things? Will it help or hinder?