Mike Blakey is 48 years old and his resting heart rate is 71 beats per minute. Or it was until last summer. Since then he has been ticking along at an altogether more impressive 60 beats per minute. Almost everything in his life remains the same. He is still a busy director at Outcomes First, a specialist education company based in Bolton. He is still a volunteer in the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, ready to climb a cliff face at the drop of a crampon. He still has two sons under the age of three. The one thing that has changed is his working week. It has shrunk by a fifth.
In June 2022 Mike’s company and 60 others around Britain began a six-month trial of the four-day working week. Employees and employers all signed up to a seemingly impossible equation — 100 per cent of the pay, 80 per cent of the time with 100 per cent productivity. Mike’s week contracted by a day. His weekend expanded by a day. Within four weeks that change could be measured in heartbeats — 11 fewer per minute.
Even over five days Mike’s job already felt pressured. “It would be easy to get carried away and feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders,” he says. “There is a temptation to work every hour every day of the week.” Until the trial began he regularly gave in to that temptation. Office days stretched into evenings. Weekends that weren’t spent on mountain rescues would often be infiltrated by his day job. Mike had read every book on time management out there, but until June he was just another stressed executive trying in vain to find a work/life balance.
The switch changed everything. In order to manage his workload in four fifths of the time, Mike and his colleagues had to shift their mindsets. It began with a bonfire of the diaries. Thirty-minute meetings got cut in half. Monthly 90-minute one-to-ones with his team got crunched to an hour at first and then 45 minutes.
“We drove time out of the working week,” Mike says, listing the time-saving strategies they deployed. The habit, endemic in so many organisations, of measuring success by having as many meetings as possible was kicked. Those meetings that survived had clear agendas and focus — essential if the four-day week was going to be a success.
The result for Mike personally is much more than a slower heartbeat. He spends the extra day off (a Wednesday in his case) with his young family — “it’s time you never get back” — and the tension between his volunteer work and his home life has dissipated. When he is at work, “I’m more focused and I no longer work at the weekends. If I get a rescue call-out, I don’t feel so bad because I’ve got family time in the week.” This Wednesday he’s taking his family to a wildlife park. How lovely for him.
More than 3,300 workers, from architects and lawyers to craft brewers, marketeers and the staff of a chippy in Norfolk, are taking part in the four-day week pilot in the UK. There have been similar trials in Iceland and Japan (when Microsoft Japan implemented it, productivity rose by 40 per cent) but not on this scale. Whether it has been a success or not will be announced on Tuesday — Oxbridge researchers are still crunching the numbers — but 4 Day Week Campaign, the organisation behind the trial, is optimistic that all or nearly all the companies will either extend the trial or make the four-day week permanent. Many already have.
I’ve had the misfortune to spend the past few months interviewing some of the participants about their luxuriously long weekends and their skyrocketing love of life, and I can give you an unofficial answer: yes, the trial has been a success.
Without exception, every employee I spoke to has found the switch life-changing. Also without exception — puzzlingly — so has every employer. Some of them found the transition, to put it mildly, challenging — the level of planning, the management of expectations, the risk of it all going wrong — made for an intense build-up. But six months into the pilot scheme you can hear the enthusiasm in their voices and see it in their bright, well-rested faces.
It is, of course, a self-selecting sample. Those 61 companies applied to join the trial. Many more expressed initial interest and then chose not to proceed — nine signed up but didn’t start. One telecoms company abandoned the idea after concluding it would have to hire more engineers and realising several of its employees thought they were getting a day off without having to provide the accompanying boost in productivity. It “raised alarm bells”, its chief executive told the Financial Times, before adding that it will have another look at it when the economy improves.
Of those who did take the leap, the similarities are uncanny. All the four-dayers I spoke to were happy, organised, on top of things. What is harder to understand is how. How can that impossible ratio — 100 per cent pay, 80 per cent time, 100 per cent productivity — work?
Britain has a productivity problem. Between 1974 and 2008 productivity grew by an average of 2.3 per cent a year. Since 2008 it has lingered at an average of 0.5 per cent. Other advanced economies have also experienced a slowdown since the global financial crisis but not to the same degree. In 2021 £46.92 was generated for every hour worked in the UK. The French managed £55.50, the Germans £55.83 and the US £58.88. “Anaemic” is a word a lot of economic commentators use to describe the state of the UK economy.
One answer is simply to work harder. When she was at the Treasury and before she was, briefly, prime minister, Liz Truss thought “more graft” would fix the economy. When he’s not busy roaming the corridors of Westminster with his get-back-to-work Post-It notes, Jacob Rees-Mogg would no doubt agree. Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP, wants to get rid of the working time directive, which sets a 48-hour limit to the working week, ensures rest breaks and “is responsible for an enormous lack of productivity and potential”. And after inadvertently purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk — who claims to work 120 hours a week — reportedly told staff at the social media company to expect to clock 80 hours.
What if they’re wrong? What if working less is the counterintuitive solution?
“The four-day week focuses the mind,” says Joe Dance, a 30-year-old ecology associate at the environmental consultancy Tyler Grange. When his managing director said he was considering shutting down the company on Fridays, Joe was one of his most vociferous opponents, “purely because working five days was so ingrained”.
“I was already working incredibly hard,” he says. “I just didn’t know how I could lose a day and still deliver the same service. How could we do that if we weren’t here a fifth of the time? A whole day?”
Joe assumed he would experience “a massive drop in work” as clients decamped to competitors that were around every day of the week. In the event Tyler Grange lost only a couple of customers, those who expected Joe and his team to be available round the clock. “And that was OK.”
By explaining the ethos of the trial — the idea of a better work/life balance, the plan to provide the same level of service but in a more efficient way — the rest went along with them. Six months in, Joe is now a passionate advocate of the trial. When I ask if it means he now has to work relentlessly from Monday to Thursday, he says it’s more about time management and organisation. He finds he is more focused when he’s at work and thinks his output has gone up.
At which point those of you reading this after a relentless week may be rolling your eyes. Shave a day off? Impossible. The nation’s barristers and baristas, doctors and nurses, delivery drivers and small business owners (please add your own exhausting job here) may balk at the idea of finding 20 per cent more productivity in their already overstretched days. It is a beguiling idea but it won’t work in every sector, despite what its proponents say. For Joe, though, it has been transformative.
Article continues
I’ve been on a 4 day week (Mon-Thu) for a year now and it’s fantastic. You really get to wind down and relax knowing you have an extra day to get things done.
The company i work for closed all of its offices and switched to 100% remote work. Now i have more time for my family and I’m the happiest i could be.
I’d like to work one day a week and be paid for seven.
I was on a four day week my entire time spent working lol, 4 shifts of 12 hours a week though.
I alternate a 3 day week and 4 day week. I dropped money to do it after I returned from mat leave. When I was doing 5 days I was burnt out and miserable and absolutely hated my job.
Now I work less days I am so much happier, I would say I’m probably a better pharmacist and I have more patience for the shit I deal with from customers and staff.
Working in retail after living in Germany, I really want Sundays off again.
Sunday brings out the grumpiest, most entitled and oblivious people possible. I’m sorry if I’m offending anyone here, but why is everyone in such a shite mood that day?
And why do retirement folks feel the need to come in on Sundays in particular?
It’s like, you’ve got Monday to Sunday off, why do you come shopping the day that EVERYONE WHO STILL WORKS FOR A LIVING DOES THEIR SHOPPING?!
Drives me insane.
I work as a chef in Norway, restaurant closed sun/mon/tues, but Tuesdays are for prep work.
Made a deal with my other chef, we come in earlier on wednesday and do the prep then, bit of a longer shift, but leaves tuesday free.
It’s amazing, stress level cut in half, rest and refreshed level doubled. We’re killing it, and have so much more energy for creating new dishes & putting stuff out on social media.
10/10 made life better
I recently dropped down to a four day week and I love it so far. I’m only getting paid for the four days, so it’s a little less money, but I’m lucky enough to be able to afford it. The extra time more than makes up for it too. As I don’t work Mondays I get to use those holiday days that would usually be used for bank holidays elsewhere.
Tldr but I can guess the big papers don’t like it? Cos they’re worker drones aren’t working so much?
I worked a 4 day week for a year and it was fantastic. More time with the family and more time just for me when I wanted it.
Back on 5 days now and really miss the 4 day week. When I went down to 4 days they kept my wages the same and during the lockdown period I could see the economy being rough for a while. I went back up to 5 days as I knew they’d have to increase my wages, so in essence scoring myself a nice pay rise.
While that worked well and has managed to insulate us from the worst of the price increases I’d go back to 4 days in a heartbeat if I could, even though I WFH 3 or 4 days a week.
The days of pointlessly travelling to an office for a days work that can be done equally as well if not better from home are over. Old fashioned bosses are stuck on the old routine, eventually companies will realise that it makes more sense. They will make more money , they have less overheads. Eventually what makes most financial sense will prevail in a capitalist society. Just the old boys and girls are having trouble adapting. They all will eventually
The brain drain away from frontline careers such teachers, nurses, will only get worse as more incentives like these and WfH get thrown about more and more.
Remember people, it’s a 4 day work week, same hours a day, 100% pay.
I’ve worked a 4 day week now for 5 years and it’s the best! My ady alternates each week so when it’s get to Friday being my day off it means the following Monday is my day off so I have a nice 4 day weekend.
Now if my 4 day week, was not 4 12 hour shifts I might be happy.
Recently switch to a 4day work week and that extra day in mid week to do things is a god send
Once you’ve worked 4 days a week, I promise you’ll never go back. I was given the opportunity after racking up like 80 days of holiday to drop to 4 days for a year. That was two years ago and I just work longer hours now to make the difference. The work-life balance shift is insane even when doing the same hours just thanks to having 3 days to do your own thing.
I charge my clients on a time-spent basis. I’m expected to charge clients for 6 hours of work a day.
I’m paid for a 35 hour week, which leaves 1 hour a day for training, business development, meetings, etc. In reality, I work 48 hour weeks.
My work isn’t easily picked up by colleagues. It’s detail-oriented and needs to be responsive to client demands Monday to Friday.
Has this model been tested in industries that work like this?
We call Wednesday’s; “Wanky Wednesday”, because its…just a bit wanky. Might as well write it off i say.
Down With Wednesday’s!
Plus I heard that Hitler was born on a Wednesday.
Although I agree on it’s benefits, I honestly think it’s bad idea in this era because of two reasons.
One: it will only further friction of the haves and have nots.
Two: It’s vulnerable to abuse to have move more staff onto smaller contracts.
It’ll only be great for middleclass people who aren’t under regular employment pressures and risks.
I wish that were me.
I can 100% do ALL my work for the week in about 10-12 hours of hard, solid work. It gets stretched out into 5x 9hr days somehow. Cant bring it up or they’ll give me more work (absolutely not interested in further promotions as I want to leave and am reeducating on the weekend to an entirely different career path).
I spend more time at work revising japanese and watching tv on my phone than I do actual work, by a long margin. Current working hours for so many jobs are absolutely unnecessary, but instead of rewarding a skilled and efficient worker with more personal time, I’d be more likely to get penalised
As a 4 on – 4 off (2 days then 2 nights) worker for years now I couldn’t ever go back to anything else.
Self employed, switched to 4 day week over a year ago. Best decision I ever made. So much more productive and relaxed.
I do a 4 day week. Thursday – Sunday. I have more time to work on myself. I’m learning German and going to the gym much more than I used to and I feel much healthier mentally
I’m loving it.
I get a rolling day off, so whenever I get Friday one week I also get Monday the next.
I also spread my holiday days out to capitalise on other gaps between weekends, my off days and bank holidays so I’m getting lots of downtime to spend on myself.
I’ve been doing a 4 day week for about 5 years now.
I can say it has been a success. I’m an engineer, I sometimes work on sites where some are working 6 days a week and other times I can be working in offices, hospitals, care homes, retail outlets, factory’s you name it I can be working there. I find that the only draw back is that people (usually in offices) get jealous of my 4 day week when they’re in the office for 5.
Other than the moaning about being a part timer though it’s great. I get a 3 day weekend every week so effectively 47 days holiday a year extra (if you consider you’d usually get about 5 weeks in the UK).
I sometimes I have to do some long shifts to keep up but this is maybe once a month I’ll have to do 4 days of 10 hour days, the rest I can usually keep up with the rest of the engineers.
With pay I’m self employed so I base my pay on a weeks work/day rate or pricing for entire large projects. To date I’ve not finished outside of the deadlines due to any fault of my own and it actually gives the company I work for one day of breathing space per week if there is anything they need get done without me being at work and in each other’s way.
I can’t recommend it enough really. It shifts the work life balance back in place a bit and to be honest before I was doing it I was a bit of a workaholic and needed to calm it a bit due to having children so I get to spend an extra day a week with them now too.
I can totally see that this works, all companies (where feasible) should do it, realising for some small business’s it’d be tricky especially 7 day a week customer facing who’d likely have to employ extra staff. I have some staff on a 4 day week, most are part time, as a boss I can’t cut to four days as we work 60-70 hours a week and do lots of weekends, but I’m very lucky that I work with my wife in the same role and half is working from home and about 20% especially weekends we are together at work, kids all grown up. We can take a day off whenever we wish and spend January, March, June and October remote working in the Canary Islands I’ve just done the calculations and it’s cheaper being there, no cost of electric, gas, fuel, water, half the price of eating out and drinking out. Shops/hairdresser cheaper. There we only work say 7-1 four or five days a week, then lunch with friends, but we love what we do. It’s helping people/families orientated. Can’t beat January in the sun, working outside a cafe at 24 degrees with a €1 coffee!
28 comments
https://archive.is/e5vJW
Mike Blakey is 48 years old and his resting heart rate is 71 beats per minute. Or it was until last summer. Since then he has been ticking along at an altogether more impressive 60 beats per minute. Almost everything in his life remains the same. He is still a busy director at Outcomes First, a specialist education company based in Bolton. He is still a volunteer in the Patterdale Mountain Rescue Team, ready to climb a cliff face at the drop of a crampon. He still has two sons under the age of three. The one thing that has changed is his working week. It has shrunk by a fifth.
In June 2022 Mike’s company and 60 others around Britain began a six-month trial of the four-day working week. Employees and employers all signed up to a seemingly impossible equation — 100 per cent of the pay, 80 per cent of the time with 100 per cent productivity. Mike’s week contracted by a day. His weekend expanded by a day. Within four weeks that change could be measured in heartbeats — 11 fewer per minute.
Even over five days Mike’s job already felt pressured. “It would be easy to get carried away and feel like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders,” he says. “There is a temptation to work every hour every day of the week.” Until the trial began he regularly gave in to that temptation. Office days stretched into evenings. Weekends that weren’t spent on mountain rescues would often be infiltrated by his day job. Mike had read every book on time management out there, but until June he was just another stressed executive trying in vain to find a work/life balance.
The switch changed everything. In order to manage his workload in four fifths of the time, Mike and his colleagues had to shift their mindsets. It began with a bonfire of the diaries. Thirty-minute meetings got cut in half. Monthly 90-minute one-to-ones with his team got crunched to an hour at first and then 45 minutes.
“We drove time out of the working week,” Mike says, listing the time-saving strategies they deployed. The habit, endemic in so many organisations, of measuring success by having as many meetings as possible was kicked. Those meetings that survived had clear agendas and focus — essential if the four-day week was going to be a success.
The result for Mike personally is much more than a slower heartbeat. He spends the extra day off (a Wednesday in his case) with his young family — “it’s time you never get back” — and the tension between his volunteer work and his home life has dissipated. When he is at work, “I’m more focused and I no longer work at the weekends. If I get a rescue call-out, I don’t feel so bad because I’ve got family time in the week.” This Wednesday he’s taking his family to a wildlife park. How lovely for him.
More than 3,300 workers, from architects and lawyers to craft brewers, marketeers and the staff of a chippy in Norfolk, are taking part in the four-day week pilot in the UK. There have been similar trials in Iceland and Japan (when Microsoft Japan implemented it, productivity rose by 40 per cent) but not on this scale. Whether it has been a success or not will be announced on Tuesday — Oxbridge researchers are still crunching the numbers — but 4 Day Week Campaign, the organisation behind the trial, is optimistic that all or nearly all the companies will either extend the trial or make the four-day week permanent. Many already have.
I’ve had the misfortune to spend the past few months interviewing some of the participants about their luxuriously long weekends and their skyrocketing love of life, and I can give you an unofficial answer: yes, the trial has been a success.
Without exception, every employee I spoke to has found the switch life-changing. Also without exception — puzzlingly — so has every employer. Some of them found the transition, to put it mildly, challenging — the level of planning, the management of expectations, the risk of it all going wrong — made for an intense build-up. But six months into the pilot scheme you can hear the enthusiasm in their voices and see it in their bright, well-rested faces.
It is, of course, a self-selecting sample. Those 61 companies applied to join the trial. Many more expressed initial interest and then chose not to proceed — nine signed up but didn’t start. One telecoms company abandoned the idea after concluding it would have to hire more engineers and realising several of its employees thought they were getting a day off without having to provide the accompanying boost in productivity. It “raised alarm bells”, its chief executive told the Financial Times, before adding that it will have another look at it when the economy improves.
Of those who did take the leap, the similarities are uncanny. All the four-dayers I spoke to were happy, organised, on top of things. What is harder to understand is how. How can that impossible ratio — 100 per cent pay, 80 per cent time, 100 per cent productivity — work?
Britain has a productivity problem. Between 1974 and 2008 productivity grew by an average of 2.3 per cent a year. Since 2008 it has lingered at an average of 0.5 per cent. Other advanced economies have also experienced a slowdown since the global financial crisis but not to the same degree. In 2021 £46.92 was generated for every hour worked in the UK. The French managed £55.50, the Germans £55.83 and the US £58.88. “Anaemic” is a word a lot of economic commentators use to describe the state of the UK economy.
One answer is simply to work harder. When she was at the Treasury and before she was, briefly, prime minister, Liz Truss thought “more graft” would fix the economy. When he’s not busy roaming the corridors of Westminster with his get-back-to-work Post-It notes, Jacob Rees-Mogg would no doubt agree. Sir Christopher Chope, the Conservative MP, wants to get rid of the working time directive, which sets a 48-hour limit to the working week, ensures rest breaks and “is responsible for an enormous lack of productivity and potential”. And after inadvertently purchasing Twitter, Elon Musk — who claims to work 120 hours a week — reportedly told staff at the social media company to expect to clock 80 hours.
What if they’re wrong? What if working less is the counterintuitive solution?
“The four-day week focuses the mind,” says Joe Dance, a 30-year-old ecology associate at the environmental consultancy Tyler Grange. When his managing director said he was considering shutting down the company on Fridays, Joe was one of his most vociferous opponents, “purely because working five days was so ingrained”.
“I was already working incredibly hard,” he says. “I just didn’t know how I could lose a day and still deliver the same service. How could we do that if we weren’t here a fifth of the time? A whole day?”
Joe assumed he would experience “a massive drop in work” as clients decamped to competitors that were around every day of the week. In the event Tyler Grange lost only a couple of customers, those who expected Joe and his team to be available round the clock. “And that was OK.”
By explaining the ethos of the trial — the idea of a better work/life balance, the plan to provide the same level of service but in a more efficient way — the rest went along with them. Six months in, Joe is now a passionate advocate of the trial. When I ask if it means he now has to work relentlessly from Monday to Thursday, he says it’s more about time management and organisation. He finds he is more focused when he’s at work and thinks his output has gone up.
At which point those of you reading this after a relentless week may be rolling your eyes. Shave a day off? Impossible. The nation’s barristers and baristas, doctors and nurses, delivery drivers and small business owners (please add your own exhausting job here) may balk at the idea of finding 20 per cent more productivity in their already overstretched days. It is a beguiling idea but it won’t work in every sector, despite what its proponents say. For Joe, though, it has been transformative.
Article continues
I’ve been on a 4 day week (Mon-Thu) for a year now and it’s fantastic. You really get to wind down and relax knowing you have an extra day to get things done.
The company i work for closed all of its offices and switched to 100% remote work. Now i have more time for my family and I’m the happiest i could be.
I’d like to work one day a week and be paid for seven.
I was on a four day week my entire time spent working lol, 4 shifts of 12 hours a week though.
I alternate a 3 day week and 4 day week. I dropped money to do it after I returned from mat leave. When I was doing 5 days I was burnt out and miserable and absolutely hated my job.
Now I work less days I am so much happier, I would say I’m probably a better pharmacist and I have more patience for the shit I deal with from customers and staff.
Working in retail after living in Germany, I really want Sundays off again.
Sunday brings out the grumpiest, most entitled and oblivious people possible. I’m sorry if I’m offending anyone here, but why is everyone in such a shite mood that day?
And why do retirement folks feel the need to come in on Sundays in particular?
It’s like, you’ve got Monday to Sunday off, why do you come shopping the day that EVERYONE WHO STILL WORKS FOR A LIVING DOES THEIR SHOPPING?!
Drives me insane.
I work as a chef in Norway, restaurant closed sun/mon/tues, but Tuesdays are for prep work.
Made a deal with my other chef, we come in earlier on wednesday and do the prep then, bit of a longer shift, but leaves tuesday free.
It’s amazing, stress level cut in half, rest and refreshed level doubled. We’re killing it, and have so much more energy for creating new dishes & putting stuff out on social media.
10/10 made life better
I recently dropped down to a four day week and I love it so far. I’m only getting paid for the four days, so it’s a little less money, but I’m lucky enough to be able to afford it. The extra time more than makes up for it too. As I don’t work Mondays I get to use those holiday days that would usually be used for bank holidays elsewhere.
Tldr but I can guess the big papers don’t like it? Cos they’re worker drones aren’t working so much?
I worked a 4 day week for a year and it was fantastic. More time with the family and more time just for me when I wanted it.
Back on 5 days now and really miss the 4 day week. When I went down to 4 days they kept my wages the same and during the lockdown period I could see the economy being rough for a while. I went back up to 5 days as I knew they’d have to increase my wages, so in essence scoring myself a nice pay rise.
While that worked well and has managed to insulate us from the worst of the price increases I’d go back to 4 days in a heartbeat if I could, even though I WFH 3 or 4 days a week.
The days of pointlessly travelling to an office for a days work that can be done equally as well if not better from home are over. Old fashioned bosses are stuck on the old routine, eventually companies will realise that it makes more sense. They will make more money , they have less overheads. Eventually what makes most financial sense will prevail in a capitalist society. Just the old boys and girls are having trouble adapting. They all will eventually
The brain drain away from frontline careers such teachers, nurses, will only get worse as more incentives like these and WfH get thrown about more and more.
Remember people, it’s a 4 day work week, same hours a day, 100% pay.
I’ve worked a 4 day week now for 5 years and it’s the best! My ady alternates each week so when it’s get to Friday being my day off it means the following Monday is my day off so I have a nice 4 day weekend.
Now if my 4 day week, was not 4 12 hour shifts I might be happy.
Recently switch to a 4day work week and that extra day in mid week to do things is a god send
Once you’ve worked 4 days a week, I promise you’ll never go back. I was given the opportunity after racking up like 80 days of holiday to drop to 4 days for a year. That was two years ago and I just work longer hours now to make the difference. The work-life balance shift is insane even when doing the same hours just thanks to having 3 days to do your own thing.
I charge my clients on a time-spent basis. I’m expected to charge clients for 6 hours of work a day.
I’m paid for a 35 hour week, which leaves 1 hour a day for training, business development, meetings, etc. In reality, I work 48 hour weeks.
My work isn’t easily picked up by colleagues. It’s detail-oriented and needs to be responsive to client demands Monday to Friday.
Has this model been tested in industries that work like this?
We call Wednesday’s; “Wanky Wednesday”, because its…just a bit wanky. Might as well write it off i say.
Down With Wednesday’s!
Plus I heard that Hitler was born on a Wednesday.
Although I agree on it’s benefits, I honestly think it’s bad idea in this era because of two reasons.
One: it will only further friction of the haves and have nots.
Two: It’s vulnerable to abuse to have move more staff onto smaller contracts.
It’ll only be great for middleclass people who aren’t under regular employment pressures and risks.
I wish that were me.
I can 100% do ALL my work for the week in about 10-12 hours of hard, solid work. It gets stretched out into 5x 9hr days somehow. Cant bring it up or they’ll give me more work (absolutely not interested in further promotions as I want to leave and am reeducating on the weekend to an entirely different career path).
I spend more time at work revising japanese and watching tv on my phone than I do actual work, by a long margin. Current working hours for so many jobs are absolutely unnecessary, but instead of rewarding a skilled and efficient worker with more personal time, I’d be more likely to get penalised
As a 4 on – 4 off (2 days then 2 nights) worker for years now I couldn’t ever go back to anything else.
Self employed, switched to 4 day week over a year ago. Best decision I ever made. So much more productive and relaxed.
I do a 4 day week. Thursday – Sunday. I have more time to work on myself. I’m learning German and going to the gym much more than I used to and I feel much healthier mentally
I’m loving it.
I get a rolling day off, so whenever I get Friday one week I also get Monday the next.
I also spread my holiday days out to capitalise on other gaps between weekends, my off days and bank holidays so I’m getting lots of downtime to spend on myself.
I’ve been doing a 4 day week for about 5 years now.
I can say it has been a success. I’m an engineer, I sometimes work on sites where some are working 6 days a week and other times I can be working in offices, hospitals, care homes, retail outlets, factory’s you name it I can be working there. I find that the only draw back is that people (usually in offices) get jealous of my 4 day week when they’re in the office for 5.
Other than the moaning about being a part timer though it’s great. I get a 3 day weekend every week so effectively 47 days holiday a year extra (if you consider you’d usually get about 5 weeks in the UK).
I sometimes I have to do some long shifts to keep up but this is maybe once a month I’ll have to do 4 days of 10 hour days, the rest I can usually keep up with the rest of the engineers.
With pay I’m self employed so I base my pay on a weeks work/day rate or pricing for entire large projects. To date I’ve not finished outside of the deadlines due to any fault of my own and it actually gives the company I work for one day of breathing space per week if there is anything they need get done without me being at work and in each other’s way.
I can’t recommend it enough really. It shifts the work life balance back in place a bit and to be honest before I was doing it I was a bit of a workaholic and needed to calm it a bit due to having children so I get to spend an extra day a week with them now too.
I can totally see that this works, all companies (where feasible) should do it, realising for some small business’s it’d be tricky especially 7 day a week customer facing who’d likely have to employ extra staff. I have some staff on a 4 day week, most are part time, as a boss I can’t cut to four days as we work 60-70 hours a week and do lots of weekends, but I’m very lucky that I work with my wife in the same role and half is working from home and about 20% especially weekends we are together at work, kids all grown up. We can take a day off whenever we wish and spend January, March, June and October remote working in the Canary Islands I’ve just done the calculations and it’s cheaper being there, no cost of electric, gas, fuel, water, half the price of eating out and drinking out. Shops/hairdresser cheaper. There we only work say 7-1 four or five days a week, then lunch with friends, but we love what we do. It’s helping people/families orientated. Can’t beat January in the sun, working outside a cafe at 24 degrees with a €1 coffee!