4-day Workweek

[AnBr]

ideas.ted.com/case-for-4-day-workweek/

[LFC]

The UK is about to try a big experiment with the 4-day work week. If successful these companies involved will be able to attract a LOT of the most talented and capable employees.

Companies in the United Kingdom will see how a four-day work week affects their productivity and employee happiness. It’s part of a six-month-long pilot program, the largest of its kind. This means thousands of workers in the UK will be able to savor an extra day off, with no reduction in pay.

Over 3,300 employees from 70 different companies are participating in the UK trial of the four-day work week. This is according to a press release from 4 Day Week Global, the nonprofit that’s organizing the research around this most recent effort to examine cutting one day of work. 4 Day Week Global says this is the biggest pilot program of its kind, where, as long as workers maintain 100% of their productivity, they will also maintain 100% of their salary while working 80% of the traditional work week. Companies involved range from fish and chips shops, to PR firms, to tech companies. 4 Day Week Global is also in partnership with Autonomy, a labor think tank, as well as researchers from Cambridge University, Boston College, and Oxford University.

“The UK is at the crest of a wave of global momentum behind the four-day week,” said Joe O’Connor, CEO of 4 Day Week Global, in a press release. “As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognizing that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a competitive edge.”

[AnBr]

Never happen in the service sector.

[andydp]

A four day 10hour/day work week was floated by the USPS years ago.  Most of us were really hoping for it but guess who put the kebash on it ?

The clerk's union kept insisting if you go past eight hours, you get time and a half.  (Even though the work week would have been forty hours.)

I would have loved it.  Schedulers would have gone nuts.  Most of the people I talked to would have gone for it.