The Blubber

Per The Guardian

The UK recently saw the pilot of a program that required employees to work four-day work weeks, and out of the 61 participating companies, 56 have decided to extend this policy. Out of the 56 that said they would extend, 18 of them have already implemented the extension with staff working full four-day work weeks.

The 4 Day Work Week Campaign was launched to see whether a four-day work week could greatly affect the performance of employees. This would see one day less than a five-day work week with 40 hours down to just a 32-hour requirement.

Most people don't know that the five-day workweek was a shift from the previous working requirements of the late 19th century, where employees would have to work six-day shifts. These shifts were reduced to five days after the trade union movement emerged.

The trial gained attention outside of the UK, with Senator Bernie Sanders reportedly sharing an article showing how the four-day workweek was a success. Sanders showed how the results revealed that there was no loss of pay for employees to work for just four weeks.

Martin Callanan, a business minister, shared how the UK government has not yet looked into how four-day workweeks cost and how they would benefit companies. Some larger companies like Sainsbury have already started to experiment with new approaches.

The 4 Day Week Campaign director, Joe Ryle, gave a statement on how they saw a huge response to their pilot. He also shared how it was time to change from the five-day workweek to the four-day workweek.

Ryle: "We’ve had 100 years of the 9-5, five-day working week and it’s time for change. Moving to a four-day week would give us all the time to be able to live happier and more fulfilled lives.”

The burnout rate for desk job workers is not higher than pandemic peak numbers at over 40%.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Sen. Bernie Sanders supports a four-day workweek citing the UK's pilot program
• Burnout rate for desk job workers is now higher than pandemic peak numbers at over 40%

Resources:

The Guardian