In PBM’s January edition, Editor Paul Davies considered the growing clamour for a four-day working week…
Does anything keep you awake at night? Research from sleep and bed specialist, Time 4 Sleep, has considered which professions say they get the best night’s sleep — and those that endure the poorest. Those enjoying the best shut-eye apparently work in HR and recruitment, closely followed by lawyers; however tradesmen were amongst those said to struggle most, with 30% of plumbers, electricians and builders not satisfied with their sleep quality.
It is a fun little survey yet, with the discussion of metal health issues now thankfully more out in the open, a lack of sleep can be both a contributory factor to, and a symptom of, severe stress — something which disproportionately affects those in the building trade.
More generally, according to a report in the Independent last summer, only one third of UK workers say they are happy with their ‘work/life balance’ and acknowledge that this has an impact on their general well-being and their productivity levels.
Findings from health & safety and employment law consultancy Protecting.co.uk, meanwhile, suggest that 1,000s of businesses and consumers are victims of a ‘Friday job’. It surveyed 500 workers across various trades and found that a staggering 76% “lose concentration as the end of the week edges closer” and have admitted to cutting corners in order to finish early for the weekend.
As well as the potential reputational damage of a botched job, the firm’s Chris Hall suggested the consequences could be even more severe. He argued: “A Health & Safety Executive report on safe working indicates that rushing is one of the key precursors to slips and falls, which can be both costly and dangerous for employees.”
So stress, poor productivity and now health & safety as a further serious factor at play. Isn’t it time we reconsidered some of the country’s established and ingrained working practices?
For example, I have been interested to see growing discussion about the feasibility of a ‘four-day week’. The debate received additional headlines when it was discussed at the TUC annual conference last September, but was rather disingenuously dismissed with the easy attack line of the unions returning us to the industrial strife of the 1970s.
Of course, the concept has nothing to do with the three-day week. Instead, the proposal presents a vision of leveraging the productivity-boosting advantages of evolving technology and communications to facilitate reduced working hours — all without lowering wages.
Now, this might sound like some form of Utopian shirkers’ charter and, given the nature of many jobs today — not least the construction trade and those that supply it — something with no realistic prospects. Yet working practices do evolve and whilst everyone taking the same three days off is clearly a non-starter, the broader argument grows if we think more in terms of shift patterns and a ‘staggered’ working week.
For example, ‘stepped’ commuting would ease pressure on our transport network (including emmissions) and reduce weekly costs to the individual whilst a midweek ‘admin day’ frees up the weekend completely for family and leisure time. For a service-led economy and a time-poor populous, it would open up many more opportunities to spend!
Increasing numbers of firms are already enacting their own versions of the idea — and are reaping the rewards. Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence for a four-day working week which suggests that employees are more rested, less stressed, happier and ultimately more productive — even if they are working fewer hours.
