Defra Staff seek 4 day working week

[jonnieboy]

Reported in Farmers Weekly
Just how detached are Defra staff from the real world ?
looks like this is where BPS money is going to go

 

[An Gof]

Trouble is that it won’t be just Defra. It will be the whole of Government and Civil Service. Country has become a joke

 

[Cecil snear]

Reported in Farmers Weekly
Just how detached are Defra staff from the real world ?
looks like this is where BPS money is going to go

When I'm sat in a queue on the Defra helpline, I thought they had been on a 4day week for years

 

[TheTallGuy]

Trouble is that it won’t be just Defra. It will be the whole of Government and Civil Service. Country has become a joke

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

 

[HAM135]

If they can still do the work in 4 days that tells me 20% of staff are not needed,get rid and save the country some money.

 

[serf]

So they are going to up their hours to 4 days then ,
that's unusual for civil servants they usually want to decrease them ....

 

[Will Blackburn]

I thought with flexitime they could do their hours in 4 days. Some sectors of Government employees can do full time in 3 days.

 

[kiwi pom]

If you can up your hours per day and do them in four days, it makes a lot of sense doesn't it?
Not so much if they want to do it because it reduces their weekly hours.

 

[Jasper]

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

 

[kiwi pom]

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

I think some underestimate the benefits of working at home too.

I don’t see the problem with a 4 day week as long as you get all your work done

 

[Jasper]

When mrs jasper has been between jobs she’s worked there but through an agency a lot of people there work hard doing more hours than they should not all of them are wasters

 

[Fiveospades]

If the work can be done in four days instead of five then I suppose it might work for some. The annoying part will be if you need to specifically need to speak to someone they may disappear at the end of Thursday and not return until next Tuesday morning. A 20% pay rise is not going to be turned down by anyone because that is what it is.

 

[Will Blackburn]

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

There’s a balance to be had, plenty of folks plead exhaustion on precisely 35 1/2 hours including breaks.

 

[Bracklandbarn]

If the work can be done in four days instead of five then I suppose it might work for some. The annoying part will be if you need to specifically need to speak to someone they may disappear at the end of Thursday and not return until next Tuesday morning. A 20% pay rise is not going to be turned down by anyone because that is what it is.

Surely it’s not a pay rise if they are working the same number of hours in a week. They will working longer days but over four days instead. I seem to recall Richard Branson trialled this at some of his companies and he found it actually boosted productivity- this can only be a good thing at Defra!

 

[maen]

Surely it’s not a pay rise if they are working the same number of hours in a week. They will working longer days but over four days instead. I seem to recall Richard Branson trialled this at some of his companies and he found it actually boosted productivity- this can only be a good thing at Defra!

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.

 

[TheTallGuy]

Surely it’s not a pay rise if they are working the same number of hours in a week. They will working longer days but over four days instead. I seem to recall Richard Branson trialled this at some of his companies and he found it actually boosted productivity- this can only be a good thing at Defra!

The problem is that most of these 4 day week schemes are based on 4x normal working days, not extended ones. The theory is that people will work that bit harder to get their workload done in say 30 hours instead of 37.5 so that they get their extra day off. The reality in my experience is that over time the amount of work allocated to a "working week" creeps downwards to ensure that targets are met and thus the 30 hour week doesn't really achieve the same as the 37.5 hour week. The other point is that if it's possible to achieve the work allocated to 37.5 hours in 30 hours then either those doing the 37.5 hours are slacking or those on the 30 hours are cutting corners...

 

[hoff135]

Half the people sitting at screens are probably not needed tbh. Passing pointless emails back and fore amongst each other and just making trouble for the people who actually run the country

 

[capfits]

Clearly much better negotiaters than producers.
Get your envious mutterings converted in to action.

 

[nxy]

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.

 

[Pieces_of_Eight]

If the work can be done in four days instead of five then I suppose it might work for some. The annoying part will be if you need to specifically need to speak to someone they may disappear at the end of Thursday and not return until next Tuesday morning. A 20% pay rise is not going to be turned down by anyone because that is what it is.

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).