Defra Staff seek 4 day working week

Devil's advocate · Dec 12, 2023

Pieces_of_Eight said:
We've all had the dreaded automated reply "Matthew does not work Fridays and your email will be read on Monday morning, at which point Matthew will add it to the very long list of other peoples issues that he couldn't give a rat's ass about."

Any private sector company realising that their employees' collective output could be completed in 4 days would either liquidate 20% of them or go out and find 20% more productivity (probably by taking it from a lazy competitor who has been hijacked by wokery).

Its not wokery.

Its scamming the tax payer.

Wokery is been aware of injustice.

So therefore it is woke to point out that the tail is wagging the dog & this lot should be working at least 5 days a week assisting farmers. The ones that go around checking on farmers, I'm happy to cut down to one day a week.

Pieces_of_Eight · Dec 12, 2023

Devil's advocate said:
Its not wokery.

Its scamming the tax payer.

Who is scamming who?

How much of the RPA's problem is that they are so reliant on Generation Z employees who feel that being asked to work more than 35 hours is an abuse of their human rights?

Even Millenials can relate to the basic concepts of Capitalism, but the youngest generation of employees just seem to want to sit on their @rses and get paid for it.

oil barron · Dec 12, 2023

Pieces_of_Eight said:
Who is scamming who?

How much of the RPA's problem is that they are so reliant on Generation Z employees who feel that being asked to work more than 35 hours is an abuse of their human rights?

Even Millenials can relate to the basic concepts of Capitalism, but the youngest generation of employees just seem to want to sit on their @rses and get paid for it.

Bit of a broad brush there. I doubt the % of gen Z staff is above 5% at the RPA.

we had a good clear out of folks in 2018 and packaged off all the over 50s and replaced them with green engineers straight from college. Went from 16 to 10 engineers and you don’t get the same waling every time something changes. I don’t mind if they disappear at mid day on Friday, because when they are here they get stuff done. Don’t need to outsource any programming anymore because they can all do it themselves. If you want something done, you need youth, there’s no doubt about it.

Bongodog · Dec 12, 2023

TheTallGuy said:
The government are pushing for South Cambs to stop their 4 day week trial https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-67232583

Productivity has fallen off a cliff at South Cambs Council, they took 3 months to make an initial enquiry when one of our tenants left. 8 weeks after sending through the new contact details I only got a reply by getting my cllr to chase the head of department. Staff have been clearly told that the 4 day week is a 20% reduction in hours, I know of wardens for old folks bungalows who used to do twice weekly sessions of 2 hours at each complex being told to cut each session down to 1 hr 36 minutes. Are they meant to call out the bingo numbers faster ?

Yesterday I heard of a man whose family business was confiscated by the Russians in 1948. He travelled from Austria to Whitehaven to find a job. These days going into the office 3 days a week is considered to be detrimental to ones wellbeing by many civil servants. How times change

oil barron · Dec 12, 2023

Bongodog said:
Productivity has fallen off a cliff at South Cambs Council, they took 3 months to make an initial enquiry when one of our tenants left. 8 weeks after sending through the new contact details I only got a reply by getting my cllr to chase the head of department. Staff have been clearly told that the 4 day week is a 20% reduction in hours, I know of wardens for old folks bungalows who used to do twice weekly sessions of 2 hours at each complex being told to cut each session down to 1 hr 36 minutes. Are they meant to call out the bingo numbers faster ?

Yesterday I heard of a man whose family business was confiscated by the Russians in 1948. He travelled from Austria to Whitehaven to find a job. These days going into the office 3 days a week is considered to be detrimental to ones wellbeing by many civil servants. How times change

Still plenty of suffering in the world. I’m sure Palestinians would gladly volunteer for a 5 day working week just now.

Derrick Hughes · Dec 12, 2023

0 day week would be better

Nearly · Dec 12, 2023

Plenty of part time people who work Tuesdays, Wednesdays And Thursdays.
Every weekend is a long weekend.
If only there was an acronym that differentiated between them and the full time people that you can deal with at any time in the week.

Swarfmonkey · Dec 12, 2023

oil barron said:
If you want something done, you need youth, there’s no doubt about it.

Complete opposite in my line of work. I'll take an engineering technician or design engineer with 20 odd years experience over some wet-behind-the-ears Gen Z'er any day of the week. Got sick of babysitting the Z's and Millennials so when they leave I replace them with someone older. The end result has been higher productivity, fewer QA problems, lower rates of sick leave, lower staff turnover.

oil barron · Dec 12, 2023

Swarfmonkey said:
Complete opposite in my line of work. I'll take an engineering technician or design engineer with 20 odd years experience over some wet-behind-the-ears Gen Z'er any day of the week. Got sick of babysitting the Z's and Millennials so when they leave I replace them with someone older. The end result has been higher productivity, fewer QA problems, lower rates of sick leave, lower staff turnover.

What sort of work are they doing? On the Lathe?

tullah · Dec 12, 2023

Good. Less chance of them wasting their time and mine hassling me with inspections.
Put them all on a two day week.

Swarfmonkey · Dec 12, 2023

oil barron said:
What sort of work are they doing? On the Lathe?

Eng Techs on the kit (conventional and sliding head lathes, VMCs and HMCs, EDM. 99% CNC these days, though still have a few manual mills and lathes), design engineers mostly sitting on their backsides in front of their computers.

Nearly · Dec 12, 2023

Jasper said:
As self employed we don’t know how lucky we are .sitting in a office day after day must be mind numbing . Some farmers seem to begrudge anybody who isn’t killing themselves with work

I think it's known as a hero hours contract.

kiwi pom · Dec 12, 2023

nxy said:
Standard practise here to work a 35 hour week because pay rises sharply for extra hours especially after 39 hours a week.

Its also illegal to ask an employee to work more than 10 hours a day or 48 hours in any week and they can only average 44 hours maximum over any 12 week period.

Farm workers get a seasonal exception to these rules set at local level but typically are allowed 4 weeks of 60 hours during harvest periods. Though for all work after 44 hours in any week the employee must receive a minimum of 150% of their normal hourly pay.

Many businesses, offices and government agencies cope by staying shut on a Monday and often a Wednesday afternoon when many schools also close.

No 12-hour shifts in France or can it be done if there's 2 hours of breaks in it?
48 hours in a week would be after breaks are taken off, I assume?

yellow belly · Dec 12, 2023

Jasper said:
As self employed we don’t know how lucky we are .sitting in an office day after day must be mind numbing . Some farmers seem to begrudge anybody who isn’t killing themselves with work

rpa inspection team spend a lot of time walking round fields on farm looking at the wild life

nxy · Dec 12, 2023

kiwi pom said:
No 12-hour shifts in France or can it be done if there's 2 hours of breaks in it?
48 hours in a week would be after breaks are taken off, I assume?

2 hour lunch break is a given for everyone

ollie989898 · Dec 12, 2023

maen said:
None of my Doctors at my Health Surgery work more than three days a week, with the exception of one Partner. They simply do less hours but they are rewarded very well. While the local Hospital A&E at weekend and Holidays is crammed to bursting.

Questions for you guys.

1. How much do you think a salaried full time GP IS paid?

2. How much do you think a full time salaried GP should be paid?

bobk · Dec 12, 2023

nxy said:
2 hour lunch break is a given for everyone

Staffing levels are very high in France , supermarkets , bricos etc , how they make money I don;t know

ollie989898 · Dec 12, 2023

bobk said:
Staffing levels are very high in France , supermarkets , bricos etc , how they make money I don;t know

Why do you think half of Europe/EU was so keen on working time directive? You'd never get that to fly in the USA. How to knobble your economic output in 3 easy steps....

kiwi pom · Dec 12, 2023

nxy said:
2 hour lunch break is a given for everyone

So yes for 12-hour shifts?
Combines park up for a 2-hour break in the middle of the day?

BuskhillFarm · Dec 12, 2023

Would they do a full days work any week?

Defra Staff seek 4 day working week

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0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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