Reminder: this subreddit is meant to be a place free of excessive cynicism, negativity and bitterness. Toxic attitudes are not welcome here.

All Negative comments will be removed and will possibly result in a ban.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[removed]

No problem with it becoming the 'norm' but lots of people will choose to work a day or two elsewhere in that case. Money is useful, if given a spare day many will choose to use it to earn more money.

On the other side many work 2-3 days part time anyway. I work 3 full days then 5 evening shifts elsewhere, adds up to 45-50 hours so not much above a 'normal' 5 day week but for various reasons works better for me.

Really I see such studies as more of a 'benefits of flexible working hours'. Those who want to work 4 can do, ditto those wanting 2 or 6.

[removed]

[removed]

[deleted]

6 day workweek checking in.

The idea of the 4 day work week is they still pay you the same as when you worked 5.

I know. Being paid the same as 5 days still wouldn't stop a lot of people wanting to earn extra money by working the spare day off. Just like people doing overtime at the moment.

People always want more money. Some people will choose to work more to get it. That remains true whether their regular hours are 4 or 5 days, whether they earn £20k or £200k.

True, but there are plenty of people that an extra day off would be beneficial mentally and physically. Like I'd love to have a day to dedicate to a hobby, or just making visiting friends or family easier

[removed]

Yeh and that's why I said I more see it as supporting flexible working hours.

You want a day off for your hobby, fine. Someone else wants to work another day, fine. They will still earn more for doing that - whether you call it 5 days pay for 4 and 6 days pay for 5 or not is just semantics. Wages need to go up regardless. This proposal is about cutting hours for the same pay, great. I'm still going to choose to do more than they cut it to, if that means more money for me and more time off for you then everyone is happy.

Flexible hours makes it sound like I Would still get paid the same wage. Like I can say I'm only going to work 4 days at my current job and they will accommodate. But I'm talking about 4 days 32 hours being the base line like 5 days 40 hours across the board. You work more than that you get Overtime and such.

Ok my bad - what I really mean (and what this 4 day week really is) is flexible hours with an increased salary. That works out as you getting the same for a day less and people doing the same days getting paid more.

All that standardizing 4 days does is lower the expected hours. This is great for people who want to work 4 days as it won't be as hard to find such jobs. This isn't great for people who want to work 5 and may struggle to find that/ be forced into 'side hustles'.

Edit - on a somewhat related note given it's a bank holiday tomorrow I am choosing to work overtime on, I need to go to sleep! Cheers.

[removed]

Yeah good luck with enforcing that in the real world.

This is a good thing, people who want to work 4 but get paid 5 can do so, but people who want to work more have that option.

More freedoms for everyone is good.

Landlords "You have extra money? Nah, i don't think so"

theres really no "enforcing, " companies can offer better benefits to attract better employees.

My company did something sly to get ahead of the 4 day workweek trend.

Awhile ago they started offering any employee the choice of a 4 day work week, at a 20% salary decrease.

It is always good to have flexibility, but I can’t help but think they made this decision expecting the 4 day workweek trend to take off and they don’t want to lose labour from any current employee.

This sounds good until you consider that you will likely still have the 5 day workload and just have to do it over 4 days.
Is that the case?

No the expectation is that you would have reduced workload.

In all the studies so far the employees on these shifts get more done. It's something to do with being happier with your personal life and free time so you work harder and more productively.

I get that and greatly enjoyed my 4 day weeks when COVID first arrived.
It even came with the 20% pay cut which didn’t bug me.
The workload for my industry back then was reduced however so that lessened the blow.
Today we are busy again so I am not sure that having a three day weekend would be the same boon to me.
I would have the same workload over 4 days that I would have normally had over 5 days.
I would also be contacted on my fifth day due to the nature of my role.
Maybe other industries would work differently.

That is nice then.
My industry / role wouldn’t allow for that unless ALL companies bought into the idea, which I frankly don’t see ever being the case.

[deleted]

I’d be lucky just to have five days to work, at the very least four and a half. It’d just be better for me. I’m used to the five day week. And extra day once in a while or for mental health reasons is fine, but I couldn’t do that for a year or two straight, let alone a lifetime.