A Hundred UK Companies To Adopt Four-Day Working Week With No Pay Cut

[Iroh]

I think this would be great for both employers and employees as it would be beneficial to both parties.
The employees, obviously would be overjoyed at the prospect of working just 4 days of the week and getting 3 off with no pay cut as well. And this, in my opinion would be a huge motivating factor to the employees to put in more enthusiasm in their duties at work. I think those companies trying to adopt this would see a huge spike in the productivity of its employees. A happy and satisfied employee would strive to always put in his best in the workplace. I think it’s a great move for both the employees and the employers.

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[Gyfts]

Everything is strategically done to increase worker productivity, so I see no issue for a pilot test of 2,600 workers to see if a 4 day work week would work out better for the company and the employee. There are some tough labor shortages and seemingly a lot of workers are planning on leaving their current employer for reasons like returning to the office after working from home for over a year.

This might be a viable strategy to retain those WFH employees. I've seen some companies also adopt a WFH hybrid, where employees might only be required to show up to the office on certain days of the week.

[Rruchi man]

Does it make sense to rollout a 4 day work week without cuts in pay? Or without businesses sustaining significant losses. Where does the money come from. Is it a good business model for the future.

It makes a whole lot of sense to me and I think businesses can survive with some little adjustments not necessarily in reduction of workers pay but rotating workers schedule so everyone gets to have the three days off, but not the same time, so some people's off will fall on weekends and others on weekdays so that your business  running and operations will not be affected. it is also a good business model as it will provide workers with an extra time to indulge in other activities that can be profitable to them.

[buwaytress]

I like that, I wish the same can be applied in my country. workers will have 3 days off work to take care of personal business. This will mostly be beneficial to working mums, juggling between work and taking care of the family can be stressful but an additional 1 day can be a lot helpful.

Think the major fight where I am now isn't about work hours or pay but about recognising many "freelance" workers are doing as much as part timers or full timers.

Freelancers don't get any benefit because they are not exactly employed they work based on commission and at their convenient time which is not the same as employed staff who need to work at specified working hours by the company.

That is why they are referred to as freelancers; their time is not the same as that of an employee, which is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; their time is determined by the client, as it is mostly per project or task. However, remote workers such as virtual assistants can really benefit from this because they do the same work as employees, although remotely. I'm hoping that this has a positive impact on everyone, whether you're a freelancer or an employee, because we're all working to pay our bills. 

Might have lost my point sorry if I didn't make that clear.

The freelancer today, and its legal definition, is so loose that modern employers take advantage of this. So where I live for example, it will soon be illegal for companies to hire their workers as freelancers -- when they expect the same working hours as a normal employer. Food delivery companies were the most guilty of this but I'm saying also many crypto companies who will only hire remote like this.

So they save money because they don't pay benefits and employee tax -- but in practice are hiring full-time employees doing way more than 40 hours a week. And these guys need the job, so have no choice but to take them, while paying their own insurance and health, pensions, etc.

So was responding to the topic, but putting in relation a different sort of fight in some places. On one hand great to hear about workers rights... but what about those who aren't even recognised as employees?

[el kaka22]

This is good that companies are doing it themselves and not forced by others. The reality is that the last place I worked for made it 7 days a week for a whole month at 12 hours of shift because they didn't had enough workforce, and instead of hiring someone right away, they made us work and paid extra shift money.

By the time I resigned from there, I had so much money and time in there that they paid me nearly 2000 dollars for just half a year's extra work, and in my nation that's a lot, that's basically half a years salary for half a years extra work. But of course, my mind couldn't take it anymore and I quit as well, it was unreal and definitely a horrible situation.

[Davidvictorson]

While I like the idea, does this apply to organizations where their employees work remotely? I think that companies that would To adopt four-Day working week will soon stagnate or lose ground to the competition. The only competitive advantage these companies will have to be able stay in business will be through automation. The downside of it is that once machines take over, workers are very likely to lose their employment.

[so98nn]

This is fine for the information technology field or what they call it a white collar job; but I highly doubt that it is going to be Share of Manufacturing companies! For them it is impossible to tackle the need of world whether it is car production, clothe production or simple paper production company they are going to run 24x7 due to the fact that they need to keep feeding their distribution channels, retailers and the pipeline is always moving. In fact many truckers would do overtime just to catch up with the Timeline.

I am not sure how 4 days of work would -work! This is definitely not possible in the Asian countries. The clock is literally insufficient for the amount of work that’s done here. May be Europes gonna be lucky one to tackle this.

[South Park]

Nearly everything relating to the UK in news cycles has been doom and gloom for the last few years now. It was surprising to see optimistic UK headlines: 4 day work week with "no loss of pay" rollout. Of course this is available on a limited trial basis for only 2,600 employees.

Given recent trends where many believe billions in student debt should be forgiven by governments with no fallout or damage to the economy and financial insitutions. Does it make sense to rollout a 4 day work week without cuts in pay? Or without businesses sustaining significant losses. Where does the money come from. Is it a good business model for the future.

The american equivalent to this would probably be efforts to raise minimum wage or to unionize large corporations like amazon or apple. Its difficult to tell which direction public opinion is leaning. Or whether people are taking steps to learn more about business and finance to help them support what is best for them.

I really doubt this is going to become common and my reasoning is simple, even if they are not being given a raise in monetary terms, effectively this is a 20% raise in their salary compared to the hours they work, and if anyone has ever tried to get a raise from their boss they should know how hard is to get even a 5% raise, so while interesting and this could be good for employees, boss owners are not going to be happy if at some point this became mandatory.

[noorman0]

Are they being forced to adopt here because if they don't they will face consequences?
Well, if this is good for both parties without sacrificing the whole budget of the company they its better. Just make sure that those employees will not look for other job while they are being paid during their off, many might abuse this new system so let's see how they will implement this one. This could be a good news to those who wants to spend more time with their family and balance their social life.

It's just a campaign, all the companies that support it means they know the consequences.
UK has a maximum rule of 48 hours for the industrial sector with certain conditions that can be counted as "work". Yes, it may have something to do with the average employee's job type not meeting this standard so the company chooses to cut it if the rules allow it. cmiiw

[alastantiger]

There is a direct correlation between productivity/efficiency with well-being. Some organizations wouldn't mind labouring their employees to "death" because they want to be productive and we know how counter productive this is as it leads to high turnover.

I am glad that some companies  are adopting the four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay. Nonetheless there are some caveats to be considered and one of them is, this still approaches human beings as equal, meaning it does not account for each individual.

For some people a 4 day week would be fantastic, while for others it will mean they would have to deliver a kind of productivity they just can't. There is a need for government incentives because not all companies can adopt this model as it increase the gap between skilled and unskilled workers.

[DrBeer]

Great solution!
In fact, there are a few facts to be aware of:
1. Work efficiency is not measured by hours of wiping office chairs. It is measured by completely different indicators! As in other things, and not the time of work
2. More free time is a good extra motivation! And the employee will be happy to work a little harder, to do a little more work during working hours, and not stretch it out for 5 days! Provided that in return he gets 3 days off, and maintaining the level of income!
3. After the start of a new round of terrorist aggression from Russia, many of us switched to the format of either completely remote work or partially (for example, Monday - office, the rest of the days - online). The effect was surprisingly positive. People do not spend time on the road, it is from 2 to 3 hours a day, sometimes they are ready to start working earlier or continue later. People are so comfortable!