4-day week anybody???

For the more ‘mature’ reader, this question conjures images of food shortages and electricity blackouts. But in today’s reality, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Since the early days of lockdown 1 (by far the best lockdown, the sequels were disappointing at best, kind of like ‘The Matrix’) many of us have a changed perspective on what a working week needs to look like. However, despite a shift in attitudes, everything we do is still very much centred around ‘work’.

Your job defines you perhaps more than anything else. The opening gambit at every wedding or dinner party I’ve ever been to. “So……what do you do?”

Constant economic growth isn’t only coveted but necessary to keep the whole societal machine working. If we don’t grow, we, quite literally, die.

As a fully bought in, flag waving capitalist, I was a champion of the entire system Work hard, play hard (if you have time, if not. Tough!). Plenty of elbow grease, nose to the grindstone. On your marks, get set go! Time to get your head in front in the rat race. How else am I gonna buy all that stuff I don’t need?

And then….bloody Covid.

Queue lockdown. Queue existential crisis. Queue life affirming podcasts and wellness gurus.

Bizarrely, it turns out there’s more to life than just making loads of money. Who’d have thought?

By the time we were able to come back into the office, everything had changed.

More emphasis was now on ‘quality of life’ and we tried to look at everything we did through fresh eyes. To be fair, as a construction recruiter, we were fairly used to a majority of Friday being pretty much a write off in terms of trying to get hold of clients anyway.

If you’d have said to me ‘pre-covid’ that a recruitment consultant could do their work from home, I’d have vigorously and vociferously laughed in your face. Surely they need the ‘bants’ and the buzz of the office as well as the occasional whipping with the ‘pick up the bloody phone!’ stick?

However, what covid taught me with regards to the enforced working from home culture we had to embrace was this: People that want to work, work and those that don’t want to work, don’t. Doesn’t matter if that’s at home or in an office. You can lead a horse to water….

In a recent, significant and wide-ranging study by research company ‘Autonomy’ into the 4-day week, they came to a number of fascinating and surprising conclusions:

• The companies that participated had an INCREASE in revenue (1.4%) not the widely anticipated decline.
• 15% of staff at these companies said that there was NO AMOUNT OF MONEY that they would accept to go back to a 5-day week.
• 92% of companies continued with the 4-day working week after the trial.
• Staff attrition reduced by 56% during the trial.

Sure, some of you are screaming at your laptop “Try doing my job in 4 days! I’m working 10 hours a day 5 days a week and still not getting it all done!” If you’re a QS, Building Surveyor, PM, Fire Engineer or CDM professional, drop me a line and I can fix this for you. We have a vast number of clients who have embraced hybrid working and flexible working conditions. (excuse the shameless Brandon James recruitment pitch!).

For the rest of you currently working the graveyard shift (Friday afternoons), ask yourself if you could have done Friday’s work spread out amongst the previous four days and had an extra day to do your own thing? Many have answered this question with a resounding “YES!”.

Is it time to redress the work life balance?

If we are so much more efficient since the technological revolution, how are we all working the same (nay, more!) hours in modern times?

And yet, apparently, we are LESS happy.

Food for thought.

Maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to implement this at my own company.