The 4 day week

[Omegstrat6]

See that a trial has begun to see if increased productivity will enable people to work 80% of their hours but be paid 100% of their wages still.

How long have we been listening to stories of advances in technology leading to us all having a lot more leisure time? That didn't really work out did it. But this isn't about tech. It's about productivity and surely that involves a whole range of things including work ethic, best practices, people management etc.
I think a 4 day week would be good as far too many people still struggle to get a work /life balance and this could have potential to improve both life quality for individuals and their families but...

As someone who was a salaried manager I regularly worked 60 plus hour weeks for many years and this undoubtedly took its toll and whilst being fully productive for all of those 60 hours was not achievable or sustainable the work load could never have been achieved if I had stuck to 40-45 hours a week.

Reading up about this experiment much is made of staff using their "downtime" better as an incentive to work harder to get their extra day off.I don't doubt that for a great many this is the case but it isn't true for a lot of businesses. In my own sector there has been a massive reduction in staffing levels over the past decade or so. Some of this is down to better tech. and systems but mostly it has been down to The company being forced to cut costs and making staff and managers work harder and smarter. The pendulum has now swung too much the other way now though with too few staff and that then creates its own problems such as stress and more sickness. The situation of staffing numbers allowing for downtime is long gone and there is no way we could achieve the same with 20% less hours. I'm not saying that some staff could not still work harder or be better managed within the business as a whole but the impact of this is minimal.

It is tempting to ask when reading the views of some of those involved in this experiment why they aren't already working harder or better managing productivity if they think that this 20% increase can be found

[DaveP67 is back!]

I have been part time now for a while, slowly winding down work wise, it certainly helps with stress and relaxation, not so sure the younger 20 year old me would have really needed it tho..

[mickd1961]

Lots of businesses such as mine cannot work in this way unless the staff get paid for 4 days.

The reason for this is that we have to work to strict deadlines each day and it requires experienced, well trained staff.

We would need a few extra staff who would be prepared to work part time and the existing staff would have to accept their contracted hours to be reduced.

It’s a non starter at my place.

[Albionic68]

Don't know about anyone else but I haven't even got time to access the internet let alone pass considered comments on a four day working week. As busy as a busy bee can be is me.