🗓 Four Day Working Week

Reasonably serious discussion
1

Who’d be up for a four day working week?

I know I would.

Advances in technology mean that a four-day week working week is a realistic goal for most people by the end of this century, the leader of the UK’s trade union movement will say.

Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), will use her speech to the organisation’s 150th annual gathering to insist that evolving technology and communications should cut the number hours spent at work.

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Not if it involves me only earning 80% of my current wage…

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This policy was something that drew my support toward Caroline Lucas and the Greens, it’s something they have been championing for a few years now.

Most studies suggest that we work far too much, and are not productive for most of that time. Other studies have demonstrated that we are actually more productive when we work for shorter periods. I believe we will move towards a system of shorter hours, shorter weeks and probably, more job-sharing (also demonstrated by the Greens leadership structure atm).

There’s a few points on this:

  1. As I mentioned above, there’s evidence to suggest that it actually makes you more productive - in which case, why should you earn less? Granted I’m not an employer, but I’d rather pay employees to produce more, then be around more.
  2. As mentioned initially by @pap, it is technological advances that are helping to enable this. It’s no coincidence that you see companies making huge profits and achieving huge valuations with very little staff. It’s seen a huge shift in the distribution of wealth in the last few years. I think this will also make it inevitable that a Universal Basic Income will be introduced - again, negating the worry of working so many hours for increasingly diminishing returns.

I know I bang on about him a lot, but this episode of Scroobius Pip’s podcast with Rutger Bregman touches on this in quite a bit of detail, also lots of related issues and is really interesting. I’ve started reading his book too, which is also well worth a look.

Podcast

Book

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I’m in. Though think 3 days would be better. Or early retirement.

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Advances in technology are meaningless. We have been told the same for all new tech and it never happened. It’s a marketing tool, no more.
UBI will probably be introduced, but purely to stop rioting, as just about everyone loses their jobs to the wonders of tech.
AI is already better at nearly all the middle class jobs, that everyone thought would be safe.
Until we dump the madness that is capitalism, we are heading down one path only.
Not trying to be depressing(really) and i agree with much of what @KRG wrote, but the present system will not allow it, as profit trumps all at moment. Change the structures of power and we have a chance, think tech will do it, there is no chance.

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I would love this but sadly I think in the health care sector my time mainly consists of face to face treatment time, working only 4 days would reduce my available appointment slots (by about 14 per week) and likely cause a log jam with people having to wait longer to get seen, and subsequently longer to recover and they tend to grumble about stuff like that :lou_sad:

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To me it’s a no-brainer, especially given the way that work has changed during my lifetime. If, as it appears, the age of the single earner is over, then a four day week would seem like a sensible way to manage childcare.

We all work too much anyway.

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FUCK NO!!

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I am sure I have read (can’t remember where, sorry) a few times that productivity in the UK lags way behind many other countries and has shown little improvement over the last decade. So that means, as a whole, the country is full of quite lazy fuckers, or we are just inefficient, or both.

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Fuck that. I’m not working extra hours.

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We’re inefficient, but through no real fault of the citizen. I’d have expected degradation, not improvement over the last eight years of cuts as well.

It really isn’t a mystery as to why we’re not productive. We live farther away from our places of work that we’ve managed before and the means of getting us to those places is deteriorating.

Anyone that has had to rely on that infrastructure can tell you exactly why we’re inefficient.

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I’d quite happily do fuck all

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Count me in. Three days would be better - Tues, Wed & Thurs for preference.

Actually a jackpot lottery win or an unexpected massive inheritance would be better then I could just give it all up. Trouble is I don’t do the lottery and don’t think I have any ailing cash rich relatives. Donations gratefully received though.

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14

Try poison.

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Thanks for the recommendation @CB-Saint - anything in particular you found worked well for you?

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Or really tired from all the work. I know I am. I work way better at home (less chatty distractions). So a bit more of that and less days I reckon I’d be more productive.

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As people are out mushrooming, deathcap - gives you some deniability.

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We’re inefficient due to a lack of investment by big companies and their desire to relocate where its cheaper, 4 day weeks aren’t new and have been used on 4 on 4 off, 4 on 3 off since the 70’s.
Gimmick

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I do 4 days on average at the moment anyway I’d guess…would that mean a reduction in holiday allowance do you think?

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Over a year i do roughly 4 days a week only they are bunched up to 28 days at a time.

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