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List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

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Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#21

Post by chgs »

benjamoon wrote: post #2

Do 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.

My company works 24/7. I don’t. Nobody does. Vast majority work “office hours”. Those working shifts tend to do 3 or 4x 12 hour days, those working flexible hours work when required. I might work on a Saturday morning to deliver a specific part of a project, or get a fault escalated at 11pm after the runbooks have run out, but then I will obviously be off for a day or two in the week in exchange.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#22

Post by lukan »

scarab92 wrote: post #17
MortyWaves wrote: post #11

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.

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 addres…

"What employers want to know is not what happens in poorly managed offices, but what happens in well managed offices where employee workload was already optimised."

What I want to know is, whether we can manage a society, where one part is not always overworked and the other part bored to death. But rather a healthy balance. 4 days workweek might help as a step in that direction, but I agree that there is way too much wishful thinking involved in those studies proposing them.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#23

Post by yurishimo »

herghost wrote: post #20

Speaking 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?

Personally, I don’t see how it helps in their current political climate. Inflation and energy costs are a huge problem in the UK right now and that would lead to the assumption that people need to earn more. Going to a 4 day work week seems counter to the idea of earning more. Perhaps at the very high end (corporate management, etc) where companies can afford keep salaries the same without expecting more output, but at the low end of the workforce, there’s no way in hell that employers will pay employees for “unworked” days.

So some people might have an extra day off, but if they can’t pay their rent, it doesn’t really help anything. Those workers will pick up a 3rd or 4th job and nothing will change.

Unfortunate, but I think the UK has still a ways to sink before it comes to grips with the current reality and starts to climb out of it.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#24

Post by djtango »

Personally, I think some of the reality is that in a dual income household if both individuals work full time there's limited time to do life admin and some life admin can only be done during business hours. So in aggregate, many companies aren't getting 5 full days of work from their employees. Sure when you're in your twenties it's easy to give 6.5 days a week. But when you're two working parents with no help? Good luck getting 10 days of work consistently out of that family. I think parents in a 4 day work week probably have better focus because they know they have one day ring fenced for catching up on non-work things (when the weekend then becomes full time parenting)

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#26

Post by varispeed »

4 days week sounds great, if you hate your job and you already earn less than you deserve. If you feel like you are underpaid, 4 days for the same money may actually sound like a win, until after a while you realise you are still underpaid and extra day is probably not enough to do proper moonlighting.

Depend of work, 3 days break often means a lot of effort to catch up and refresh memory on Monday, that could lead to staying late anyways and probably create false economy.

Almost like being smacked with a carrot.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#27

Post by varispeed »

djtango wrote: post #24

Personally, I think some of the reality is that in a dual income household if both individuals work full time there's limited time to do life admin and some life admin can only be done during business hours. So in aggregate, many companies aren't getting 5 full days of work from their employees. Sure when you're in your twenties it's easy to give 6.5 days a week. But when you're two working parents with no help? Good…

It always amazes me that, for example, shops are open when everyone is at work.

In my town, the shopping high street closes at 5pm. So when I finished work, I'd be back in my town at 6pm, where everything is dead. The only way to do any shopping is to drive to a supermarket that’s open until 10pm or shop online.

It's like everything is catered to people who don't work.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#28

Post by varispeed »

yurishimo wrote: post #23
herghost wrote: post #20

Speaking 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?

Personally, I don’t see how it helps in their current political climate. Inflation and energy costs are a huge problem in the UK right now and that would lead to the assumption that people need to earn more. Going to a 4 day work week seems counter to the idea of earning more. Perhaps at the very high end (corporate management, etc) where companies can afford keep salaries the same without expecting more output, but…

There is also aspect of having 1 extra day and no money to do anything meaningful with it.

UK wages are already poor and cost of living is insane.

Are you going to spend that day in your sorry mould ridden flat with other housemates also skint with nothing else to do?

Where do you even go? Shops are dead, public transport is unaffordable and state of it resembles soviet union near its collapse, entertainment, attractions out of reach. Sure there are some free things, but how many times you will go there before it is boring?

So I don't know, 4 days at main employer and 1 day doing Deliveroo? Selling weed? Only Fans?

You can tell UK is going downhill fast.

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#29

Post by barnabee »

varispeed wrote: post #27
djtango wrote: post #24

Personally, I think some of the reality is that in a dual income household if both individuals work full time there's limited time to do life admin and some life admin can only be done during business hours. So in aggregate, many companies aren't getting 5 full days of work from their employees. Sure when you're in your twenties it's easy to give 6.5 days a week. But when you're two working parents with no help? Good…

It always amazes me that, for example, shops are open when everyone is at work. In my town, the shopping high street closes at 5pm. So when I finished work, I'd be back in my town at 6pm, where everything is dead. The only way to do any shopping is to drive to a supermarket that’s open until 10pm or shop online. It's like everything is catered to people who don't work.

It's almost like rigidly enforced hours and a requirement to be in a specific building the whole (or most of) the time don't make sense…

Re: List of 200 UK companies that moved to 4-day working week

#30

Post by truckerbill »

varispeed wrote: post #27
djtango wrote: post #24

Personally, I think some of the reality is that in a dual income household if both individuals work full time there's limited time to do life admin and some life admin can only be done during business hours. So in aggregate, many companies aren't getting 5 full days of work from their employees. Sure when you're in your twenties it's easy to give 6.5 days a week. But when you're two working parents with no help? Good…

It always amazes me that, for example, shops are open when everyone is at work. In my town, the shopping high street closes at 5pm. So when I finished work, I'd be back in my town at 6pm, where everything is dead. The only way to do any shopping is to drive to a supermarket that’s open until 10pm or shop online. It's like everything is catered to people who don't work.

It never changed from the single-income household era. And people wonder why the high street is dying.
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