UK UK to try new 4-day workweek program

Article: https://longisland.news12.com/uk-to-try-new-4-day-work-week-program
Archive: https://archive.ph/dbilp
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Thousands of UK workers are starting a four-day workweek from Monday with no cut to their pay in the largest trial of its kind.

The pilot program, which will last for six months, involves 3,300 workers spanning 70 companies, ranging from providers of financial services to a fish-and-chip restaurant.

During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity.

The program is being run by the nonprofit 4 Day Week Global, Autonomy, a think tank, and the 4 Day Week UK Campaign in partnership with researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College.

Sienna O'Rourke, brand manager at Pressure Drop Brewing, an independent brewery in London, told CNN Business that the company's biggest goal was to improve the mental health and well-being of its employees.

"The pandemic [has] made us think a great deal about work and how people organize their lives," she said. "We're doing this to improve the lives of our staff and be part of a progressive change in the world."
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[Dark Edea]

I really like a four day work week.

 

[JULAY]

This is a sensible idea that will get no traction because business owners everywhere won't like it even if it benefits them and their companies. Just look at how hard these faggots have been pushing people to go back to the office even when it's been conclusively demonstrated that nearly all white-collar workers are more productive working from home.

Shitty managers can't "manage" without constantly hovering over their workers in an office environment in order to hide the fact that they are literally useless and have no true purpose in an organization. If they can only hover for 4 days instead of 5 they won't like that one bit...

 

[Meat Target]

I wish this would catch on in the US. Are you working to live, or living to work? How much life are we missing out on, stuffed in cubicles staring at computer screens all day?

 

[Celebrate Nite]

How much life are we missing out on, stuffed in cubicles staring at computer screens all day?

I feel bad for parents specifically.

With almost every office job I've worked in, you have bosses with sticks so far up their ass issuing things like "mandatory overtime", which is worse if you're short staffed because you wind up having situations where they don't wind up going home until like 7 or 8 at night, and at that point who the fuck wants to do anything after work besides go to bed?

 

[XYZpdq]

What the fuck sort of do-nothing job do you have if you only need to do it four days a week?
It's a bunch of shit to setup in advance if I want to only come in five days of a week instead of my usual six.

 

[Queen Elizabeth II]

Really don't understand this. If you could do five days worth of work in four days in my employ, you'd be getting four days pay and a through investigation from me quietly on the side as to what exactly you were doing the rest of the time previously and helicopter observation to make sure you were working after that.

I'm seeing a lot of redundancy ahead. After all, maybe I'll sack a few and get everyone back on five days when they've shown me they can do things faster.

 

[Youtube Celery]

Four day work weeks sounds wonderful, imagine having a life beyond work and recuperating so you can go to work again.

 

[Coolio55]

I am naturally suspicious of such things. There's GOT to be a catch.
See: UBI, guaranteed jobs, "free" healthcare etc.

 

[Kheapathic]

I'd be down for a four-day work week. Even if companies want to keep the 40 hour week, I'll do 4-10s, it was one of the best schedules I ever had.

 

[libRT]

I wish someone would tell my company

EDIT:

During the program, workers receive 100% of their pay for working only 80% of their usual week, in exchange for promising to maintain 100% of their productivity.

yeah they're gonna want 125% productivity.

Shitty managers can't "manage" without constantly hovering over their workers in an office environment in order to hide the fact that they are literally useless and have no true purpose in an organization. If they can only hover for 4 days instead of 5 they won't like that one bit...

Yet these are the guys who will fervently tell their bosses that no productivity losses will occur from this. Then flip their shit and kick over tables when productivity drops.

 

[Dark Edea]

I don't mind taking less pay for a four day week.

 

[Velvet Sedan]

Been regularly working four 10 hour shifts the last few months. It's nice, but my workaholic brain still isn't use to it.
But I feel pushes like this will open more doors for the bigger companies to pay less or justify removing higher paid staff and just bring us right back to where we started.

 

[Daddy's Little Kitten]

Did they up their hours? Because that only makes sense if you have 10 hours per day.

 

[teriyakiburns]

I've been working 4-day weeks for years. It's great.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

But I feel pushes like this will open more doors for the bigger companies to pay less or justify removing higher paid staff and just bring us right back to where we started.

Of course it will. Companies hate anything that benefits their employees. There's always going to be some loophole these fucks will take.

Then again I'm a cynical asshole that's only worked in jobs with shit management, so what do I know.

 

[urr13 account]

This kind of thing depends heavily on the type of work involved, some jobs just need someone there, some require specific skill sets.

Shifting from 5-day work weeks to 4-day work weeks as the standard for a "full time job", meaning 32-hour weeks instead of 40 is tricky.

Most people are paycheck to paycheck at current hours, so would this mean everyone gets a raise? and if so how do businesses handle having to pay more while also hire new people and restructure their entire employee schedule.

The standard work-week in the early 19th-century was 6-days a week and 14 hours a day, right? So society has made dramatic changes to the standard work week before, this isn't without precedent but in a system where people can barely get by with families that have two full-time incomes, I just don't see how you go about making a change like this if the intention is to roll it out nation-wide in the UK, with other nations potentially following the lead in the following years.

While hours of work have decreased slowly in the U.S. since the end of World War II, they have decreased more rapidly in Western Europe. Greis (1984) calculates that annual hours worked per employee fell from 1908 hours to 1704 hours in the U.S. between 1950 and 1979, a 10.7 percent decrease. This compares to a 21.8 percent decrease across a group of twelve Western European countries, where the average fell from 2170 hours to 1698 hours between 1950 and 1979.

 

[Kendall Motor Oil]

Didn't labour do this decades ago and it was a disaster?

 

[Gar For Archer]

yeah they're gonna want 125% productivity.

See, the secret is, for a lot of white-collar workers, “100% productivity” is maybe 60-70% productivity on a good day.

 

[Celebrate Nite]

See, the secret is, for a lot of white-collar workers, “100% productivity” is maybe 60-70% productivity on a good day.

That depends on whether or not you have a supervisor hovering over your shoulder to where they micro-manage constantly.

If yes, then they are going to make damn sure you finish every single thing, even stuff that isn't time sensitive, and they are going to nag you about it till it's done.

If no, then you have some breathing room, and if you're lucky, they only give a shit about the important day-to-day shit and not care about anything else.