The Four Day Week
Discussion
Lib Dem Council.
White collar staff first up to work 30 hours instead of 37 on full pay in a large pilot.
If successful, it will move to blue collar staff and the specific example is given of a bin man. Which is an interesting case in point. The guy doing the bins will need to empty the same number of bins in 30 hours as he can manage in 37. Seems fairly unlikely to me. But more to the point, if they can do 37 hours of work in 30 hours, why have we been paying them for 37....
Obviously, the six figure chief executive is part of the pilot.
They should start with the blue collar workers as their productivity cannot be fudged.
White collar workers? Not difficult to advance a case for being more productive....Of course in a business it is easier to monitor through metrics like profitability.
In a council......
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/02/li...
You would really say now is the right time to be doing this.
The justification is that they are finding it hard to recruit! So a shorter week will help.....It's just laughable.
"The Government is taking money away from us, if they're not paying for us to do more then we need to think of other more innovative ideas. I have no doubt that lots of others will follow.”
So we have less money, but we are going to pay people more money to work a shorter week than we currently do. So to stand still, at best productivity has to be the same as it is now.
White collar staff first up to work 30 hours instead of 37 on full pay in a large pilot.
If successful, it will move to blue collar staff and the specific example is given of a bin man. Which is an interesting case in point. The guy doing the bins will need to empty the same number of bins in 30 hours as he can manage in 37. Seems fairly unlikely to me. But more to the point, if they can do 37 hours of work in 30 hours, why have we been paying them for 37....
Obviously, the six figure chief executive is part of the pilot.
They should start with the blue collar workers as their productivity cannot be fudged.
White collar workers? Not difficult to advance a case for being more productive....Of course in a business it is easier to monitor through metrics like profitability.
In a council......
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/09/02/li...
You would really say now is the right time to be doing this.
The justification is that they are finding it hard to recruit! So a shorter week will help.....It's just laughable.
"The Government is taking money away from us, if they're not paying for us to do more then we need to think of other more innovative ideas. I have no doubt that lots of others will follow.”
So we have less money, but we are going to pay people more money to work a shorter week than we currently do. So to stand still, at best productivity has to be the same as it is now.
I work a 4 day week... for 4 days' pay.
I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
Countries that have already adopted it - https://www.euronews.com/next/2022/06/06/the-four-...
Johnnytheboy said:
I work a 4 day week... for 4 days' pay.
I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
I guess working thru there break would increase productivity ?I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
There’s a bloke up here in Yorkshire who set up/fronted a marketing agency (or something of that ilk, I wasn’t paying enough attention) with the USP for recruiting being that they only do a 4 day week. This was not long before covid.
I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
ant1973 said:
They've been doing it since June.....
A trial, and the results are "not in".I've worked in a large company with 4 day compressed weeks, all white collar work. Decisions get postponed because someone isn't in that day, and on their next day back everyone is made to recount the meeting content that they missed. You can only get a productivity improvement if those people were best side stepped in the first place!
M1AGM said:
There’s a bloke up here in Yorkshire who set up/fronted a marketing agency (or something of that ilk, I wasn’t paying enough attention) with the USP for recruiting being that they only do a 4 day week. This was not long before covid.
I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Why wouldn't they get hold of anyone on a Friday ?I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Surely you'd have some staff working mon-thurs and some tues-fri maybe include weekends ?
egor110 said:
M1AGM said:
There’s a bloke up here in Yorkshire who set up/fronted a marketing agency (or something of that ilk, I wasn’t paying enough attention) with the USP for recruiting being that they only do a 4 day week. This was not long before covid.
I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Why wouldn't they get hold of anyone on a Friday ?I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Surely you'd have some staff working mon-thurs and some tues-fri maybe include weekends ?
egor110 said:
M1AGM said:
There’s a bloke up here in Yorkshire who set up/fronted a marketing agency (or something of that ilk, I wasn’t paying enough attention) with the USP for recruiting being that they only do a 4 day week. This was not long before covid.
I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Why wouldn't they get hold of anyone on a Friday ?I’m not sure what potential clients think about not being able to get their agency to do any work on a Friday? Always seemed flawed as a proposition to me.
Surely you'd have some staff working mon-thurs and some tues-fri maybe include weekends ?
Edited by M1AGM on Friday 2nd September 20:34
Johnnytheboy said:
I work a 4 day week... for 4 days' pay.
I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
That must be why Liz Truss is suggesting abolition/review of speed limits. White van man at 100 mph instead of 70-80, 5 days travel in 4. Sounds like a great idea. Or perhaps not.I can understand the logic behind this for white collar workers, but when the more manual industries get the same, in most cases there will be no productivity improvement as the work has a maximum speed.
Binmen for example, or posties. Or any driving job.
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