Letters on a Sunday - get ready

[mjd24]

Seventy companies across the UK are set to take part in a pilot of a four-day week starting today.

The trial, which will include more than 3,300 workers, is the biggest ever of its kind to date anywhere in the world.

The pilot will see no loss in pay for employees working one fewer day a week. Instead they will be asked to maintain 100% productivity for 80% of their time.

From a local fish and chip shop to large corporate companies, a wide range of businesses are taking part.


Interesting times ahead. We are going full steam ahead with 7 days service whilst many other sectors are looking to cut it back to 4.
Is 4 on 4 off they way to do it?

Whenever 4 on 4 off is brought up, someone will ask how its possible other than to increase delivery length, as we’ll be doing longer days and theres less indoor work etc

But surely the companies taking part in this pilot study wont be expecting their staff to work longer days on the 4 days they work? Isnt the whole point of this that its thought workers can be more productive or equally as productive working 4 days instead of 5?

Obviously there are differences between what we do and for example many office jobs.

Not sure if ive made any sense with what im saying, not much sleep last night

I think one of the main obstacles of 4 on 4 off is like you said, the need for roughly 9 hours of work per day. That would be a huge challenge for offices that are majority staffed by full time members.

The pilot study the begins today is focussing on compressing the 5th days work across days 1-4, so not only are people only working 4 days, they only need to work their standard hours on those 4 days - how that pans out will be interesting.

Yes thats sort of what i was attempting (badly) to say. Why cant we work 4 days instead of 5 but no more hours per day.

I already know the answer to this i suppose. Perhaps its easier to be “more productive” doing office type jobs compared to what we do.

[mjd24]

Also, the nature of what we do means we have a set amount of “work” arriving each day and its down to each office to clear that work. So if that work is not getting done, its sat there in front of us in yorks, trays and sacks. Where as in many jobs, the work isnt a physical thing that can be easily seen and measured, so its perhaps easier to believe youre being equally productive on 4 days vs 5.