The Council, the Minister, and the four-day week

And we have the march of the anachronist. Lee Rowley, the Local Government Minister, bowler hat pulled down tightly over his ears, has decreed that South Cambridgeshire District Council's trial of a four-day week, due to last until 2024, must end "immediately" over concerns about "value for money". And off he goes, smoothing in the Macasser oil, checking his ration book and furling his umbrella. See:

Now I don’t give a stuff which political party improves working lives as long as one of them does. But in?battering a council back to a five-day week – just because of a Whitehall opinion fustier than an Anderson shelter and about as up to date – Mr Rowley shows the foresight and vision of a doddering mole.

Five into four does go

Of course the council can achieve five days work in four. The French manage it. France has almost identical GDP per capita to Britain, but makes the money in 75% of the time. To put it another way, what the British achieve in five days, the French have knocked off by afternoon tea break on Thursday. This gives them plenty of extra time for blocking les Routes Nationales with Citroens and sheep. Or even taking more holidays if they prefer.

The Americans work a little bit longer than us (about 9%), but are 60% more productive. Sixty percent. And then there’s the Germans. There’s always the Germans; better at penalty kicks, better at work.

So why shouldn’t South Cambridgeshire be a match for Lower Saxony? And if it’s good enough for the Pays de la Loire, why shouldn’t somebody have the time to spark up a Vauxhall Astra on the A10 of a Friday afternoon, or maybe go fishing.

Workplace science and the entirely possible

The science is straightforward. It is not the time you spend at work that counts, it is the work you do in your time. That is a fine little aphorism to tattoo onto the back of a Minister’s hand,

I have been involved in improving productivity since 2003. Yes I did know Methuselah. And taking the likes of standard government offices as a control, teams with which I have been involved have been able to increase productivity by 32%. Here is an example of just such an office back in in 2006

?So it is perfectly possible that South Cambridgeshire District Council could do more in four days than they used to manage in five. There is, however, a rather large cockroach, breast-stroking its way through the face cream. The council doesn’t know how productive it is. It has asked its colleagues how productive they think they are, and we know how useless that is (if in any doubt please read my article of a week ago on LinkedIn (Business research at its best: It's dreadful, or one of many others if your life is so exciting that you fancy a trawl through my meanderings).

The stand-off

So we have a stand-off where ‘You Must Not’ faces ‘Aw Go On Don’t Be Mean and Horrid’ ?The latter has science mostly on its side.

Happier, more engaged people are likely to be about 15% more productive than those civil servants who are still working in black and white. But we need a figure of 25%. As you will have noticed, 32% is available, maybe even more if we click our heels and wish for Kansas...well, maybe not Kansas.

But for that we need science rather than opinion. And while the science is pretty definitive in indicating that Lee Rowley MP is flat wrong, we cannot yet tell quite how right South Cambridgeshire District Council happen to be. They clearly don’t know either. The council's subjective measurements are soft and squishy and comfy cosy, but less exact than a builder sucking on a chewed biro while considering your kitchen extension.

They need somebody who knows what they are doing.

Er, cooey.