Should the UK adopt a 4 day working week ?

lostinrates

The idea of DH being able to get his work on the laptop done in four days when he's curreently working many extra hours on lap top at the weekend too makes me giggle a bit I'm afraid.

tirano

lostinrates wrote: »

The idea of DH being able to get his work on the laptop done in four days when he's curreently working many extra hours on lap top at the weekend too makes me giggle a bit I'm afraid.

I cant see how you find that funny - are you happy that DH has to work at the weekends, where is the work/life balance ?

abaxas

How about a 4 day week for the prudent and a 7 day week of slavery for the bankrupted?

Force people to do what they have already agreed to do.

[Deleted User]

As it stands, you have to work minimum 40 hours.. it's expected that you do a few hours over that (and i've worked at weekends in the past for no extra pay)

If we cut down to 4 days a week, they'd still expect 40 hours out of us, or we'd loose productivity (office drones to 'produce' things - especially when you're installing and configuring IT systems)

lostinrates

tirano wrote: »

I cant see how you find that funny - are you happy that DH has to work at the weekends, where is the work/life balance ?

No, our work life balance is poor He works ridiculous hours and I hate it. My amusement is in the proposal that his work could realistically be contained ion four, neat 9-5 days.

The thing is that there is no reasonable way he, as a non-manual worker, could drop international clients...I presume the whole world won't go 4 day week?. There is a tranche of 'non manual workers' to whom the EU work hours directive has no relevance.

ETA: we have never been able to take the holiday he has booked as planned. Its then I am most grateful that I am not employed, as it would be impossible for an employer to rearrange my holiday to fit in with his last minute altered one.

lynzpower

lostinrates wrote: »

The idea of DH being able to get his work on the laptop done in four days when he's curreently working many extra hours on lap top at the weekend too makes me giggle a bit I'm afraid.

thats the issue isnt it!

I too work for a busy booming company, that really needs more staff, but at the moment, for obious reasons the boss doesnt want to take more people on.

ON a personal level a 4 day week would be fantastic, but who will do the work im not doing? Who will do the work my coleagues arnt doing? To do that means more staffing- and right now, we need to get all our invoices in and paid up, and battening down the hatches to make ourselves survive. Having less staff on less time and being paid less for the privilidge is not something that would work where I work.

[Deleted User]

My firm would do it this way - 4 day week = 32 hours = 6.4 hrs a day in a 5 day week. So, everyone would work 6.4 hours x 5 days (but they'd expect you to stay till 5.30pm like normal and infact do 40 hours). So, we'd get a paycut and do the same work! yay

We'd also pay less NI & tax. Does this mean we'll need to use public services 1/5 less too?

jackieb

My husband works a 12hr shift for 28 days. Then he gets 28 days off. My son works 12hr shifts for 2 weeks, then he gets 3 weeks off. They're part-timers as it is.

Zelie

tirano wrote: »

I cant see how you find that funny - are you happy that DH has to work at the weekends, where is the work/life balance ?

She's laughing at you, dear. You and your crazy ideas. You're a right tonic on a grey day and a clever lad for coming to this thread to cheer us all up. Keep 'em coming. What's next?

tirano

Zelie wrote: »

She's laughing at you, dear. You and your crazy ideas. You're a right tonic on a grey day and a clever lad for coming to this thread to cheer us all up. Keep 'em coming. What's next?

I suppose in the past you would all have been voting for the 16 hour day working six days a week

The eight-hour day movement or 40-hour week movement, also known as the short-time movement, had its origins in the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life and imposed long hours and poor working conditions. With working conditions unregulated, the health, welfare and morale of working people suffered. The exploitation of child labour was common. The working day could range from 10 to 16 hours for six days a week.[1][2]
Robert Owen had raised the demand for a ten-hour day in 1810, and instituted it in his socialist enterprise at New Lanark. By 1817 he had formulated the goal of the eight-hour day and coined the slogan Eight hours labour, Eight hours recreation, Eight hours rest. Women and children in England were granted the ten-hour day in 1847. French workers won the 12-hour day after the February revolution of 1848. A shorter working day and improved working conditions were part of the general protests and agitation for Chartist reforms and the early organization of trade unions