advertisement


4 day working week with no loss of pay

Who decreed that the normal working week should be 5 days? It’s not a law of nature.

If working fewer days improves morale, reduces sickness and absenteeism, and makes staff more alert and effective for the time they are at work, I can quite easily see how productivity could improve and the same work gets done in less time. As we’re paid for output, not attendance (by and large) I see no logical reason why this can’t work. It’s a cultural change, not a revolution.
 
Yup, so we’re strapped to a Victorian notion of what the working man should do. Well, that’s good enough for me, how about you?
 
If a 6-day or 7-day business can get the same output from its staff for 4 days, rather than 5, then it has generated capacity to employ more people for the other days, which could result in 20% more output for the same infrastructure. Surely our business-minded members could see the upsides in that?
 
Ponty said:
I don’t think that’s what is being suggested. It’s less hours for the same money. In the case of the council, 30 hours work for a full weeks pay. In other words, a 25% pay rise. Would never work in the private sector of course, where many would have worked 30 hours by Wednesday afternoon.
Click to expand...

It depends what you count as working, studies in WW1 showed productivity fell if people worked more than a 40 hour week, it’s just management BS that people need to work long hours to be productive. Maybe spending time in meetings talking bollocks can be done for hours on end but problem solving cannot.


https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190912-what-wartime-munitionettes-can-teach-us-about-burnout
 
matt j said:
Problem I see with this is that it won't benefit those who could probably do with it the most- low paid service industry workers. Places that never shut aren't suddenly going to double the amount of employees/wage bill to cover all the extra shifts. Handy if your a 9-5 office bod those I s'pose.
Click to expand...

Exactly this. A recent change saw us with a Rota Line with one long weekend. Every. Six. Weeks.

And split rest days.

Seven days in a row (over two working weeks) is accepted practice in the Bus Industry.

And they wonder why there is a National driver shortage.
 
russel said:
It depends what you count as working, studies in WW1 showed productivity fell if people worked more than a 40 hour week, it’s just management BS that people need to work long hours to be productive. Maybe spending time in meetings talking bollocks can be done for hours on end but problem solving cannot.


https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190912-what-wartime-munitionettes-can-teach-us-about-burnout
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I’d love to know what that council, for example, define as a weeks work and how they measure it. If it can be comfortably done in 30 hours it’s probably not a weeks work.
 
Monitor Gold 10 said:
Exactly this. A recent change saw us with a Rota Line with one long weekend. Every. Six. Weeks.

And split rest days.

Seven days in a row (over two working weeks) is accepted practice in the Bus Industry.

And they wonder why there is a National driver shortage.
Click to expand...
I wonder if anybody has asked themselves: “what would happen if we greatly improve terms and conditions? Might we be able to address that chronic driver shortage?”
 
Ponty said:
Absolutely. I’d love to know what that council, for example, define as a weeks work and how they measure it. If it can be comfortably done in 30 hours it’s probably not a weeks work.
Click to expand...
See upthread - what defines ‘a week’s work’?
 
Viewpoint probably depends on:
* Do you spend your working day sat on your arse on a leather bench
* Sat on your arse collecting rent
* Up a ladder in the cold and rain
*Up at 3 in the morning one week and going to bed at 3 in the morning the following week

See also appropriate retirement dates.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
See upthread - what defines ‘a week’s work’?
Click to expand...

That's the problem, It's easy to measure hours spent in the workplace, but in a lot of work its harder to measure "value". I sort of know what I expect my team to do in a a set period of time, but that won't be common with all team leaders.
 
Tony L said:
Meanwhile the self-employed work 7 days a week 365 days a year…
Click to expand...
Joking aside, the amount of hours put in by self employed people for very little pay (relatively) is a hidden travesty.
It makes me cringe when people say "...it must be great owning your own business and just doing your own thing, bet you make a fortune!"
 
Tony L said:
Meanwhile the self-employed work 7 days a week 365 days a year…
Click to expand...
Brian said:
No, they don't.
Click to expand...

In 21 years of hiring builders, plumbers and electricians, among others., I've yet to meet one which operates on a 7 day week. Come to think of it, can't remember one working Saturdays either. Could never understand my builder taking almost twice as long as scheduled as my thinking was that he could start his next job on time by finishing mine off by sacrificing a weekend day or three.

It's never bothered me working on a weekend when it's been part of my duties or self-employed incentive. Maybe because my father was a 7 day a week shopkeeper and newsagent and I was often called in as a teenager to serve or whatever.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top