Reply to: Four Day Working Week

[NotAllThere]

Most people can cope with two buttons - Ban / Don't Ban. even 3 days a week.

There's a Don't Ban button? Too complicated for me. I'm going for a little lie down while I try to get my head around this.

[DoctorStrangelove]

Some unis now do lectures at odd times.

Er, yes, I know that.

But not as odd or as full a timetable as he had to endure.

[vetran]

Well, the idea of weekend is an early 19th century idea, but it gained momentum, and just over 100 years later, it became the norm.

The point is that change is gradual, and that society as whole gets rich, it becomes affordable. A 3 day week would be a step too far in my opinion - it would lead to deskilling.

Most people can cope with two buttons - Ban / Don't Ban. even 3 days a week.

[courtg9000]

I'm not so sure about this
I can see than some people want more leisure time or less hours worked.
Reading this thread made me think about my own situation.
Until 1999 I worked mainly 35/ 37.5 /40 hour weeks.
Then I went into contracting - usually 40-50 hours/week.
Then I bought additional businesses 70+ hours a week.
Then Feb 2018 (Some people here know what happened) happened.
Then retirement for 3 months.
Then I went back to work.

I am mostly successful in limiting my work to 30 hours week. I did this by changing a lot of things around and outsourcing even more.

The key thing is depending on other people I can be much more productive in those 30 hours than I sometimes was racking up 70+ hours/week. This only works if there isn't a workshy die hard card carrying member of a trade union anywhere near anything I am doing - a small drawback.

I remember working on a project with a big 4 consultancy. These guys (perms) would arrive before 7 am and some would not leave until near midnight. This was every day. The contractors were generally arriving between 8 and 9 am and finishing about 6. I did often wonder what they were doing in the other hours aside of presenteeism to bump up billable hours for the employer.

[NotAllThere]

My first job was 16 hour shifts from 8 - 24. You would work Mon, Wed and Fri, weekend free then Tue and Thu. This then changed to 8 hour shifts, 3 days and 2 nights followed by 2 days and 3 nights plus you had to be 15 minutes early and stay 15 minutes late for tulip handover. We then changed to 12 hour shifts...

But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won't believe ya'.

[darmstadt]

My first job was 16 hour shifts from 8 - 24. You would work Mon, Wed and Fri, weekend free then Tue and Thu. This then changed to 8 hour shifts, 3 days and 2 nights followed by 2 days and 3 nights plus you had to be 15 minutes early and stay 15 minutes late for tulip handover. We then changed to 12 hour shifts...

[NotAllThere]

When did we work a 6-day week as standard, surely not anytime recently?

The accepted working week has been slowly falling of course, 40 to 37.5 to 35 which is now common and I think our French friends are even lower.
But changing from 5 shorter days back to 4 long ones, not sure about that. Surely increased worker flexibility favours the former - flexitime and so?

Well, the idea of weekend is an early 19th century idea, but it gained momentum, and just over 100 years later, it became the norm.

The point is that change is gradual, and that society as whole gets rich, it becomes affordable. A 3 day week would be a step too far in my opinion - it would lead to deskilling.

[SueEllen]

IIRC my dad worked a 5.5 day week in the 40s & 50s.

The half day was the early closing (Thursday as it happens).

Probably 44 hours/week.

My mate had 5.5 days/week in Uni back in the 60s.

The joy of scientific German on Saturday morning must have been overwhelming for all those so involved.

Some unis now do lectures at odd times.

[DoctorStrangelove]

IIRC my dad worked a 5.5 day week in the 40s & 50s.

The half day was the early closing (Thursday as it happens).

Probably 44 hours/week.

My mate had 5.5 days/week in Uni back in the 60s.

The joy of scientific German on Saturday morning must have been overwhelming for all those so involved.

[d000hg]

That's not how it works. You get paid the same salary, but instead of working a 40 hour week (say), you work a 32 hour week.

There will be many arguments against it, but how do you think we largely changed from a 6 day working week to a 5 day working week? Of course, that only meant a daily increase of 16% instead of 20%.

When did we work a 6-day week as standard, surely not anytime recently?

The accepted working week has been slowly falling of course, 40 to 37.5 to 35 which is now common and I think our French friends are even lower.
But changing from 5 shorter days back to 4 long ones, not sure about that. Surely increased worker flexibility favours the former - flexitime and so?

[NotAllThere]

Reduced working weeks are the way forward. 4 days is great, if you can afford it which basically means those earning a lot.

That's not how it works. You get paid the same salary, but instead of working a 40 hour week (say), you work a 32 hour week.

There will be many arguments against it, but how do you think we largely changed from a 6 day working week to a 5 day working week? Of course, that only meant a daily increase of 16% instead of 20%.

[d000hg]

Post COVID, you should be extremely glad if you earn enough for the tax to be a lot!

[vetran]

We can expect large pay reductions regardless on commodity jobs.

Post COVID there are going to be lots of people without jobs and they are not cutting furlough enough for people to convert to universal credit happily.

Specialists will have more bargaining power - hopefully.

Whatever happens get used to HMRC wearing rubber gloves.

[d000hg]

Entitled thinking you should get 25% more for no reason.

Nobody says you can only have one contract, what are you a permie?

[Andy2]

its bad news for contractors unless they jack up the rates by 25% which is not going to happen