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Four-day week finds favour in new survey


Andy Onchan

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8 hours ago, manxman1980 said:

Just worth considering what happens to the frontline workers who may not have the same opportunity to benefit from this.

Quite.

Consistency and continuity from public services may prove difficult due to the requirement to provide 24 hours services. Working 37.5 hours over 4 days instead 5 for full time staff would leave gaps in some areas and given the shortages of staff already would be unworkable. 

Some areas though already have staff working 13 hour shifts for 3 days by choice. 

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6 hours ago, Apple said:

Quite.

Consistency and continuity from public services may prove difficult due to the requirement to provide 24 hours services. Working 37.5 hours over 4 days instead 5 for full time staff would leave gaps in some areas and given the shortages of staff already would be unworkable. 

Some areas though already have staff working 13 hour shifts for 3 days by choice. 

Don't forget Private Sector workers such as those in retail ao care homes.

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1 hour ago, P.K. said:

If you're making widgets it's probably fine.

If customer expectation requires 5-7 day service it's not fine.

Never forget no customers = no company...

I don’t see why it not fine - that is more down to the size of the business than the types of service offered.

Five people can still do 8-6 cover 7 days a week at 37.5 hour weeks and half an hour lunch each day.

Take that down to 5 days a week providing service and it’s a doddle with four day weeks.  
 

My gut feeling is a lot more businesses could adapt to this than people think

Edited by Asthehills
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1 hour ago, Asthehills said:

I don’t see why it not fine - that is more down to the size of the business than the types of service offered.

Five people can still do 8-6 cover 7 days a week at 37.5 hour weeks and half an hour lunch each day.

Take that down to 5 days a week providing service and it’s a doddle with four day weeks.  
 

My gut feeling is a lot more businesses could adapt to this than people think

Most companies do not have spare staff. Which you will need to hire to give the same service levels as before.

Widgets ok. Otherwise...

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3 minutes ago, P.K. said:

Most companies do not have spare staff. Which you will need to hire to give the same service levels as before.

Widgets ok. Otherwise...

That surely only applies to a company where all the staff need to be in at the same time, and I honestly can’t think of many outside hospitality or retail?

People still work the same basic hours in a week and are arguably more productive so what’s the issue?

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47 minutes ago, BriT said:

The idea is ridiculous really. It’s more covid style job apartheid between those key workers who have to work be those who don’t have to work. You couldn’t run a cafe on someone working 4 days a week. But you could a bank.

I do wonder sometimes whether those who opine on the world of work on here have ever stopped to think how the services they use ever operate in practical terms.  Something like a cafe (or a a supermarket) is much more flexible about working hours - and always has been.  Admittedly a small 'Mom and Pop' will operate to the maximum hours that its owners want to do themselves - but even they will be very flexible about any additional employees.  But in anything larger, staff will be used in a wide variety of shift patterns to suit the availability of the worker and convenience of the firm.

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1 hour ago, Asthehills said:

That surely only applies to a company where all the staff need to be in at the same time, and I honestly can’t think of many outside hospitality or retail?

People still work the same basic hours in a week and are arguably more productive so what’s the issue?

The issue is if you have the correct number of staff to run your business, which you should have otherwise you are throwing money away, then if they all do a 4 day week then you have no spare capacity to cover days 5 to 7.

If I buy an expensive laptop or whatever I expect a certain level of support. If it's not there I won't buy from them again.

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1 minute ago, P.K. said:

The issue is if you have the correct number of staff to run your business, which you should have otherwise you are throwing money away, then if they all do a 4 day week then you have no spare capacity to cover days 5 to 7.

If I buy an expensive laptop or whatever I expect a certain level of support. If it's not there I won't buy from them again.

People don’t all have to take the same day off!

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