The case for a four-day working week
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 21 February 2023
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After a six-month trial, the results of the world’s biggest four-day working week pilot have been published. It found there was no hit to productivity, while staff wellbeing was improved. But could a shorter working week really work across the whole economy?
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Guests:
- Joe Ryle, Director of the Four Day Week Campaign.
- Carly Goodman-Smith, Operations Director, Tyler Grange.
Host: Luke Jones.
Clip: ITV.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Monday to Friday, up we get, after work we go, come back home and try and unwind and repeat. |
| 0:14.0 | We're only Saturday and Sunday really to properly unplug before it all starts again. |
| 0:19.3 | Life is very fast pace now anyway isn't it? And trying to get that work life balance |
| 0:26.2 | I think becomes increasingly difficult. If there's another way, why wouldn't we try that? |
| 0:37.0 | Mike that other way be, a four day week. The results of the world's biggest ever four day |
| 0:42.6 | working week pilot are published today. A load of employees and employers signed up to test |
| 0:47.9 | a seemingly impossible equation. 100% of the pay, 100% of the productivity, but using only 80% |
| 0:55.4 | of the time. I really do think we need to try something different when it comes to productivity |
| 0:59.2 | and I think four day week is something we should try. You're listening to the stories of our times |
| 1:09.0 | podcast from the times and the Sunday times. I'm Luke Jones, today is it time for a four day week. |
| 1:26.2 | The five day week as we know it is a relatively new thing. For a long time, Sunday was the one day |
| 1:35.9 | often a week, but from the mid 1800s there was a campaign, give workers Saturday afternoons off |
| 1:42.0 | as well. In March 1842, the Times carried a report from the 5th annual meeting of the Metropolitan |
| 1:48.8 | Early Closing Association, a group that lobbied government to keep Saturday afternoon free for |
| 1:54.2 | work a leisure in return for a full day's work on Monday. The article testifies to the thinking |
| 1:59.2 | of the time that long hours weren't good for staff. The noble chairman stated the object of the |
| 2:05.2 | meeting and adverted to the injurious effects of protracted hours of labour not only on the physical |
| 2:11.0 | but on the moral and intellectual condition of persons engaged in business. For the weekend, |
| 2:16.5 | as we know it wasn't born until John Boote, he reboots the chemist fame, moved to a five day working |
| 2:22.5 | week to cut redundancies back in 1934. But after the best part of 100 years ago, working conditions, |
| 2:30.2 | industries, people's priorities have changed. So should all working week change too? A report by |
| 2:36.9 | the left-leaning think tank autonomy published today looked at the results of a six month trial |
... |
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