A seven day economy

purch

kabayiri wrote: »

I want the UK to outcompete Europe for any work that is on offer; by being more flexible; more responsive; more in tune with the fact that our 9 to 5 is not going to match the 9 to 5 in other parts of the globe.

Ultimately the issue has to be, are we more productive if we become more flexible with working hours ?.

I don't know that necessarily we will be.

princeofpounds

Thrugelmir wrote:

The real danger is that some vocations will simply no longer be appealing. Seems as GP's have had enough. With many planning to retire in the next 5 years. You don't these overnight.

I remember these GP shortage scare stories going decades back.

The truth is that you simply have to look at medical school applications to see that the enthusiasm for the vocation is huge, a multiple of those who actually get to practice it.

Any shortage in GPs has largely artificial causes.

wymondham

I do think we need to get out of the 9 to 5 mentality. All that strain on public transport for short bursts. Why does everyone need to be at the same place at the same time?

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Night shifts certainly do. And if it does off us all off early, your probate solicitor might well need to put in more hours . In seriousness, what might happen is, clerks/ paralegals might be able to do shifts to fit in better with their families, and clients be able to see the solicitors at times more convenient to them. I.e their days off, not just 'working days'. You might not need to see a probate solicitor at midnight, but it might be more convenient to fulltime workers to be able to make appointments with other professionals without taking time off work.

But it wouldn't have to be changing shifts. I'm certainly not proposing a 'fair for fairs sake' system. I'm thinking a system where MORE people work and most people work fewer hours and days to combine to provide a full coverage system.

I didn't think you were proposing "fair for fair's sake" - that was in response to a different post by another poster.

I do understand the value of flexibility. After all, half my job is flexible - the bit in the classroom has fixed hours, and the rest of it I can do whenever I like, as long as it's all done to deadlines. I frequently do marking, report writing, exam setting etc very late at night, although I prefer to do lesson planning during the day because it's easier to do it on school premises.

However, I can also see problems with having lots of people in a work place all working at different times of day and week. It will make it harder for them to communicate with each other. Just yesterday I was talking to a part time teacher at my school (although not in my department). With this year's timetable, it wasn't possible for her department's weekly meeting to be on a day when she's in school, so she misses it every week, and although she tries to keep up by reading the minutes etc, she sometimes doesn't know everything she needs to know, and she has diminished input to shared decision making. This kind of thing has always been a problem for part timers, but if more and more people are working different patterns over a longer and longer week, then they'll overlap with each other less and less. Mitigating that would take some careful thought.

CLAPTON

wymondham wrote: »

I do think we need to get out of the 9 to 5 mentality. All that strain on public transport for short bursts. Why does everyone need to be at the same place at the same time?

one wonders what percentage of people actually work 9-5 any more?

purch

43....................

Generali

wymondham wrote: »

I do think we need to get out of the 9 to 5 mentality. All that strain on public transport for short bursts. Why does everyone need to be at the same place at the same time?

Somewhere (Sing/HK?) they have staggered start times: offices start at one time, schools another, shops open later. Sounds quite sensible to me.

Using assets more (e.g. using a GP surgery 16 hours a day with 2 GPs using an office on a rotating basis) is on the face of it pretty sensible. However, as companies like Tesco and Sainsbury are discovering, physical assets aren't always as in demand as they were.

lostinrates

CLAPTON wrote: »

one wonders what percentage of people actually work 9-5 any more?

Compare traffic at weekends to weekdays in school holidays?

bugslet

CLAPTON wrote: »

one wonders what percentage of people actually work 9-5 any more?

I've been working for 33 years ( next month) and in all that time, I've had one job that lasted for four months that had those hours, the rest of the time, it's been much longer standard hours or variable hours.

Generali

bugslet wrote: »

I've been working for 33 years ( next month) and in all that time, I've had one job that lasted for four months that had those hours, the rest of the time, it's been much longer standard hours or variable hours.

The cry of defiance in City offices after 7/7 is that they were about 3 hours late to get anyone with a decent city job.