I wonder how much people are adjusting their behavior for these trials... if and when it becomes the norm, do the long meetings and less productive practices creep back in?
A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
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Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#42I'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'd think it's a combination of two things.
Parkinson's Law says that you'll get your work completed in the time you're given for it. If you're given more time, the task will take more time. I think there is some truth to this.
But also...people burn out and get unproductive. There will be times in the work week where you just get a lot less done or work slower. If you shorten the time working, you can put more effort into being productive all of the time, because you will have adequate time to rest and recover afterwards. If you don't have the recovery time, then you need to take the week a bit slower so you don't burn out.
A lot of these companies in the trial took Wednesday off. So you can smash out loads of work and be productive for two days straight, and then completely relax for a day, rather than having to spend Tuesday pacing yourself for the whole week.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I have 5 different HR contacts: For vacation questions, for overtime regulation, for manual corrections of buggy time accounting software, for general questions and for payslip errors. Forgot new 6th one! For reporting sickness!! They exist and are very real and I must deal with that on daily basis. It’s hard to believe, but that how works big corp.
You request vacation, call in sick, work overtime, mess up your timesheet, don't get paid and have general HR queries every day?
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#44There 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.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#45On 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.
Misogynistic?
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#46Unfortunately this is very unlikely to be politically acceptable to the current UK government. The prime minister and various other ministers (e.g. Rees-Mogg) have been publicly opposed to post-pandemic working from home, so I'd expect some pushback on this too. In the end it's up to businesses what they do, but the government can hinder improvements to our lives through their control of the laws and the tax system.
The vast majority of employers in the UK don't need to ask the UK prime minister (and his dark vizier) for permission to make you work 32 hours instead of 40.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just as bureaucracy expands to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy, so does management. There is a good way to do big management, but what usually happens is managers find themselves with time to spare and invent activities which do not directly add value, but eventually snowball into formidable tasks requiring more management.
That's true for government because they have no competition. In the corporate world, excessive bloat leads to stifled innovation and eventual irrelevance then bankruptcy. Sears could have been Amazon.
Sure, but that happens on the timescale of years or decades. Managers and executives work in quarters -- at best!
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#48Although 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 (Genuine question) but why wouldn't someone be able to have lunch with their OH while working a traditional 5-day week? Surely a lunch break is something everyone is entitled to even when they're working that day?
honest answer: both my partner and I work, but she works four days per week to balance childcare. If I worked four days then we would have a whole day together to enjoy hanging out with our son.
My commute to the office is over an hour (London, England) from my home, so returning home for lunch is not an option.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
It mentions a fish and chip shop and an education facility. I’d guess that the bulk of fish and chips are sold outside 9-5 Monday to Friday, and that there would be rioting in the streets if school days were reduced 20%.
> 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.
Because unless the kids were all off on the same day each week, which wouldn't work for their parents who have to fit in with their employers needs, then everyone would need even more babsitting cover than they already do.
If the kids were not all off on the same day, then teachers would struggle to get consistent teaching because 20% of the pupils would always be missing from a lesson.
Re: A pilot scheme to trail the four-day workweek in Britain deemed a success (2022)
#50On 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.
Surely this is a question of supply and demand and if a 4 day workweek is the legally cheap and good path supported by governments in the same way the 5 day workweek is, the competition for salaries will be nearly identical