Four Day Week..

[The Lurker]

Many years ago I worked fourteen hour shifts meaning I only worked ten and a half days a month; the working environment was 24/7/365.

It was great and worked well for my employer; it also meant that by canny use of leave and shift pattern manipulation I could structure my leave to take three weeks off with only using about one weeks leave.

I can’t remember the exact maths but I recall that in terms of the breaks I was entitled to my employer got about an extra hour and a half or so out of me each month.

Saved in travel costs; lots of free time to do what I wanted and worked well once we had kids.

It’s a fairly simple proposal and if an employer and employee are both in favour then I see no issue; it won’t suite every job or every role within an organisation but unfortunately we are all in some way trapped by the career choices we made when we were younger.

[Newbie]

1 hour ago, BriT said:

This has got little to do with the private sector. 

Many of the healthcare facilities where this already works well are Care Homes in the private sector

[HeliX]

The same comments were probably made in the 20s(?) when Henry Ford pushed for a 5 day week instead of 6 day. But productivity didn't drop then either, and nobody died of "having too much time for hobbies".

[WTF]

40 minutes ago, Newbie said:

Many of the healthcare facilities where this already works well are Care Homes in the private sector

for what they charge  they can afford it,  at someone elses expense of course

[Newbie]

38 minutes ago, WTF said:

for what they charge  they can afford it,  at someone elses expense of course

I was really responding to the suggestion that such flexibility in work patterns was just something that was relevant to the public sector and not the private sector. That is patently not so. You may feel that private Care Home staff are overpaid (I don't) but you could, however, imagine that the same degree of flexibility might work well in other private sector settings such as hospitality. The point is that the individual employees who might benefit from a more flexible approach to the working week are often amongst the lowest paid (Care workers, cleaners, bar staff etc)

[P.K.]

2 hours ago, The Lurker said:

Many years ago I worked fourteen hour shifts meaning I only worked ten and a half days a month; the working environment was 24/7/365.

It was great and worked well for my employer; it also meant that by canny use of leave and shift pattern manipulation I could structure my leave to take three weeks off with only using about one weeks leave.

I can’t remember the exact maths but I recall that in terms of the breaks I was entitled to my employer got about an extra hour and a half or so out of me each month.

Saved in travel costs; lots of free time to do what I wanted and worked well once we had kids.

It’s a fairly simple proposal and if an employer and employee are both in favour then I see no issue; it won’t suite every job or every role within an organisation but unfortunately we are all in some way trapped by the career choices we made when we were younger.

At certain times I had to do the same. 24/7/365 we never close etc. It was done by 5 shift teams working 13 hour shifts 8 -> 9. Essentially 12 hours with a one hour handover. Alternate day / night of 3, 4 or 5 shifts on rotation. For those doing it permanently it meant a shift allowance / unsociable hours payment of just under 40% of salary. Added to that any part of a shift that was on Saturday / Sunday / Bank Holiday meant the whole 13 hours attracted double time.

It did totally screw up your body clock mind and you missed family / social events but you did get paid for it.

A lot.

[The Lurker]

20 minutes ago, P.K. said:

At certain times I had to do the same. 24/7/365 we never close etc. It was done by 5 shift teams working 13 hour shifts 8 -> 9. Essentially 12 hours with a one hour handover. Alternate day / night of 3, 4 or 5 shifts on rotation. For those doing it permanently it meant a shift allowance / unsociable hours payment of just under 40% of salary. Added to that any part of a shift that was on Saturday / Sunday / Bank Holiday meant the whole 13 hours attracted double time.

It did totally screw up your body clock mind and you missed family / social events but you did get paid for it.

A lot.

Rolling-rotas have their positives and negatives; I’ve done them in the past and liked knowing what I’d be working well in advance but found it quite restrictive in some ways and like you say; the feeling of permanent jet-lag wasn’t fun!

At the time I’m referring to we worked to a rota that was planned and ‘published’ a minimum of one month in advance so there was room for negotiation and compromise; if you needed particular days off you’d generally get where possible; I generally worked day shifts for one month then nights for the next,

Best thing was when we had kids I negotiated to always have Wednesdays and Thursdays off which took the sting out of childcare costs. It meant working more than my fair share of weekend hours but the enhanced rate was welcome.

[Non-Believer]

4 hours ago, Hoops said:

As an aside, seeing what 3 RTC gardeners achieved in a day on the estate I live in, the lack of work ethic,care and knowledge shown ('kin prune back Viburnum tinus this time of year), it's hard to argue that they wouldn't achieve less in 4 days then they do in 5.

It's not just me that notices this then? I saw the aftermath of their attempts to cut the verges of the "new" cycle/footpath on the old railway line with a ride on mower. The bits they couldn't ride on were just left overgrown and cut vegetation was just left strewn over the footpath a couple of weeks back. The people whose properties back onto the path do a better job where they've taken it upon themselves to do it.

A sad lack of standards and knowledgeable supervision.

[WTF]

1 hour ago, Newbie said:

I was really responding to the suggestion that such flexibility in work patterns was just something that was relevant to the public sector and not the private sector. That is patently not so. You may feel that private Care Home staff are overpaid (I don't) but you could,

 

 

 

i don't think private care 'staff' are overpaid, the lions share of the money doesn't get down to them.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[offshoremanxman]

5 minutes ago, WTF said:

i don't think private care 'staff' are overpaid, the lions share of the money doesn't get down to them.  

 

Agreed £12-13 an hour isn’t overpaying anybody and if you’re on an hourly rate then it doesn’t matter when you work as you’re only going to get an hourly rate.