4 day week

[thesilentone]

How times change. The Post office used to open at 9.00am (when everyone was at work) close from 12.00 - 1.00pm (when everyone was at lunch) then close again at 4.30pm (before everyone left work.) Same as the Banks, only they closed at 3.30pm. How they managed to squeeze 40 working hours a week into those hours is beyond me.

Everythng done on't tinternet now...........

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I've heard the old timers say shops used to shut half day on thursday?

Half day on Wednesday if you worked in Sheffield.

 

[manhill]

Keep the hours, just put them in 4 days.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Keep the hours, just put them in 4 days.

I would like to work four days in Winter and fit my weekly hours into 4 days, but that would then need someone to cover the other day, as the workplace needs to be functioning every day.

 

[Frankzy]

For offices there doesn't seem to be any downside to a 4 day week, there's been quite a few trials and companies who've switched to it by themselves and in all cases I know of productivity has remained the same (a few even reported higher productivity).

The fact is that five 8 hour days in a row is just too fatiguing so you end up with a lot of hours where barely any real work has been done..

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

For offices there doesn't seem to be any downside to a 4 day week,

It does get frustrating when the one person you need to speak to at company X doesn't work on the only day of the week that you have time to try to ring them, so a 5 minute conversation gets converted into a week-long email chain.

 

[hoff135]

Less time people are working in offices the better. Normally them that give the rest of us trouble!

 

[Poorbuthappy]

I worked for 9 years in a food factory, 5 days a week round the clock production. The week was nearly always full or work incomplete and pushed to the next weeks plan or overtime paid, the company introduced “job and knock” if all work was done and no rework or check fails you could go but was still paid for the week. Overnight the atmosphere and the teamwork changed, more product was right first time and fails were few and far between, it wa ms uncommon to ever work more the 4 days and often three. Better for the company and the employees all round.

Really like the idea of this, but how do you deem what is a "week's" work?
Switching as you did its easy to see the advantages to employees and employer. But further down the line, when the old ways are a distant memory, and new systems or new contracts are in place, how do you define what needs to be done before you can clock off for the week?

 

[Poorbuthappy]

How times change. The Post office used to open at 9.00am (when everyone was at work) close from 12.00 - 1.00pm (when everyone was at lunch) then close again at 4.30pm (before everyone left work.) Same as the Banks, only they closed at 3.30pm. How they managed to squeeze 40 working hours a week into those hours is beyond me.

Everythng done on't tinternet now...........

Mrs PBH has worked in the bank for 30 odd years. The job has changed dramatically. There would have been masses of "processing" of the day's transactions to be done after closing within the branch. Cheques being an obvious example. Now its all done centrally. Far fewer staff in a branch now, to the extent lunchbreaks can be difficult to cover in smaller branches.
Also, with opening at 9, they don't have that initial 1/2 hour to go through security procedures, and prep etc before opening. Consequently, they have to be in 1/4 hour or so early, unpaid.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Really like the idea of this, but how do you deem what is a "week's" work?
Switching as you did its easy to see the advantages to employees and employer. But further down the line, when the old ways are a distant memory, and new systems or new contracts are in place, how do you define what needs to be done before you can clock off for the week?

Interesting to look at this in the context of Marx' Theory of Surplus Value.

On the BBC news this morning there was bin wagon depot somewhere with 25 vehicles servicing 65,000 households/people?

If the 25 vehicles consistently manage to get round all the properties with time to spare, and the crews are on a fixed salary, then the fleet could be trimmed until the salaried hours are all worked. Alternatively, territories could be merged to extend the round to beyond 65,000 to occupy the spare time that is being paid for.

 

[Pennine Ploughing]

How comes most on here say they work all these and all those hours, but seem to spend a lot of time on here.
No one is forcing you to work long hours, just the same as them working less hours.
The more hours you do each week, the less your thought of, lots of hours is a mugs game
U have done it in the past, but not anymore,

 

[betweenthelines]

Very few people actually do 8 hours work in an 8 hour day, it would be counter productive if they did as concentration/performance levels drop if you do more than about 90 minutes without a break. I suspect the same is true about a 4 day versus a 5 day week-just as much actual work would be done in the 4 days as in the 5 days.

There's a saying that if you can't do your job in 8 hours, you won't do it in ten.

 

[hoff135]

How comes most on here say they work all these and all those hours, but seem to spend a lot of time on here.
No one is forcing you to work long hours, just the same as them working less hours.
The more hours you do each week, the less your thought of, lots of hours is a mugs game
U have done it in the past, but not anymore,

I don't mind doing 100hrs a week for my self but I would not do it working for anyone else

 

[manhill]

For offices there doesn't seem to be any downside to a 4 day week, there's been quite a few trials and companies who've switched to it by themselves and in all cases I know of productivity has remained the same (a few even reported higher productivity).

The fact is that five 8 hour days in a row is just too fatiguing so you end up with a lot of hours where barely any real work has been done..

Obviously not talking about farming?

 

[Lincoln75]

You obviously do not employ anyone, to employ 2 workers instead of 1 doubles your costs in pension commitments, holiday entitlements & all the other expenses the government keep piling on, I think there maybe places that would try this but only where the extra cost is easily past on to the taxpayers or customers.
Not sure how this would make a company more competitive against it’s foreign competitors, still there is always the dole queue!

I used to employ 18 staff , never again , `kin nightmare ,

 

[Lincoln75]

I don't mind doing 100hrs a week for my self but I would not do it working for anyone else

And thats the point , people will do it for themselves but why do more than you need to for someone else? , if you can pay your bills live a comfortable life working 35-40 for someone else why would you want to do more ?

 

[Lincoln75]

How comes most on here say they work all these and all those hours, but seem to spend a lot of time on here.
No one is forcing you to work long hours, just the same as them working less hours.
The more hours you do each week, the less your thought of, lots of hours is a mugs game
U have done it in the past, but not anymore,

There does seem to be a lot of martyrs in farming , if you can make a comfortable living without breaking your **lls then why not ? brains not brawn , you don't get medals or a bonus for giving yourself a coronary / nervous breakdown/failed marriage.

 

[Lincoln75]

We seem to be becoming a society where the people who actually produce things to create the wealth of this country are disadvantaged whilst the pen pushers seem to end up getting all the benefits, this will eventually end badly.

Its nothing new , 46 % of UK GDP came from the service sector in 1948 , possibly because of so many workers having to manufacture / rebuild the UK and Europe post WW2 , its around 80% now but many services are exported which brings in foreign currency which supports the the UK economy ,

The percentage of workers in the service sector rose from 33% in 1841 to 80% today .

"Taking a look at census data for England and Wales, the nature of the labour market has changed considerably over the last 170 years. In 1841 most people worked in manufacturing, but by 1881 those working in services overtook manufacturing. By 2011, around 80% of workers were in the service industry and around 10% in manufacturing."

I dont think there will be any issues so long as we can export our services.

​

 

[BrianV]

I used to employ 18 staff , never again , `kin nightmare ,

Currently employing 25 so what ever happened to that peaceful life

 

[betweenthelines]

Very few people actually do 8 hours work in an 8 hour day, it would be counter productive if they did as concentration/performance levels drop if you do more than about 90 minutes without a break. I suspect the same is true about a 4 day versus a 5 day week-just as much actual work would be done in the 4 days as in the 5 days.

There's a saying that if you can't do your job in 8 hours, you won't do it in ten.

There's another saying I've come across.

If you're working 12 hours a day you either can't plan your work or you're doing it so badly, you have to do some of it twice!