shakahislop
Well-known member
It's a certain class of people of course, but I know a fair number of people who basically work a four hour day now. The WFH thing has really settled in and lifestyles (of some office workers) have adapted.
It's a certain class of people of course, but I know a fair number of people who basically work a four hour day now. The WFH thing has really settled in and lifestyles (of some office workers) have adapted.
The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) has emerged as a key influence behind ministerial attempts in the last week to try to shut down the first public sector trial of a shorter working week at South Cambridgeshire district council (SCDC).
[...]
The TPA, which claims to be a grassroots organisation and is part of a global alliance of free-market advocacy groups known as the Atlas Network, is running a “Stop the clock off” campaign against the four-day week.
Government guidance issued on Thursday said councils that have adopted four-day weeks should end the practice immediately, while any authorities planning to embrace it in future should stop any trials immediately.
The guidance appears to be the latest salvo in a war of words between the government and South Cambridgeshire district council, which is believed to be the only English authority so far to have experimented with a four-day week.
The council has said its continuing trial of the practice, in which office staff and bin collectors are paid the same for working 20% fewer hours, has already helped it improve recruitment and led to over £500,000 in savings on agency workers.
Councils pursuing a four-day working week are not providing value for taxpayers and should "cease immediately", the government has said.
The first local authority to trial the pattern was South Cambridgeshire District Council, which said it helped to improve recruitment and retention.
But the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said the scheme should not be adopted elsewhere.
The Cambridgeshire council said its offices remained "open 5 days a week".
The Liberal Democrat-run local authority started a three-month trial in January for the 450 desk-based staff at its office in Cambourne.
This pilot involved them working a 30-hour week over four days before it was expanded to include waste crews in July.
Leader of South Cambridgeshire District Council, Bridget Smith, said the initial trial "saw performance generally maintained, and in some cases improved - with not a single area falling to a concerning level".
She said "strong evidence" suggested the new work pattern helped "fill hard to recruit posts", saving money by avoiding paying high numbers of agency staff.
"Since January, our sickness rates have fallen by a third, staff turnover has reduced by 36%, and complaints about services are down," she added.
The council announced in September it would extend the trial until March 2024, despite ministers previously ordering officials to end it.
Most of the UK companies that took part in the world’s biggest ever four-day working week trial have made the policy permanent, research shows. Of the 61 organisations that took part in a six-month UK pilot in 2022, 54 (89%) are still operating the policy a year later, and 31 (51%) have made the change permanent.
More than half (55%) of project managers and CEOs said a four-day week – in which staff worked 100% of their output in 80% of their time – had a positive impact on their organisation, the report found.
For 82% this included positive effects on staff wellbeing, 50% found it reduced staff turnover, while 32% said it improved job recruitment. Nearly half (46%) said working and productivity improved.
Need to push on to a three-day offering now