A hundred UK companies have signed up for a permanent four-day working week for all their employees with no loss of pay, a milestone in the campaign to fundamentally change Britain’s approach to work.

The 100 companies employ 2,600 staff – a tiny fraction of the UK’s working population – but the 4 Day Week Campaign group is hoping they will be the vanguard of a major shift.

Proponents of the four-day week say that the five-day pattern is a hangover from an earlier economic age. They argue that a four-day week would drive companies to improve their productivity, meaning they can create the same output using fewer hours. For some early adopters the policy has also proven a useful way of attracting and retaining employees.

In September, 88% of those companies in a survey at the middle of the trial said the four-day week was working “well” for their business at that stage of the trial. About 95% of the companies surveyed said productivity had either stayed the same or improved since the introduction.

Joe Ryle, the UK campaign’s director, said there was increasing momentum in the adoption of the four-day week, even as companies brace for a long recession.

Most of the companies that have officially adopted the four-day week are in the services sector such as technology, events or marketing companies. However, the campaign said that some manufacturing and construction employers had also signed up.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/nov/27/a-hundred-uk-companies-sign-up-for-four-day-week-with-no-loss-of-pay

Thoughts on 4 day week? 

I am there already and the shift has been remarkable. I hope the rest of the world gets to experience this too. It makes too much sense to not to be the norm. 

I personally prefer to work 6 hours for 5 days instead of 8 hours for 4 days, because with this I have more free time during the weekdays. The last hours of the day are generally "lost" because of mental fatigue, the 6 hours of work fix this

Is it less hours? If it's still 40 hours but over 4 days instead of 5 then IMO that's much worse. I'd just kill myself if I had to work 10 hours 4 days in a row every week.

I interned at a certain US aerospace manufacturer in high school, and the system they employed was 10 hours for 4 days for their full time employees. You could tell the employees were exhausted, but they didn't associate it with the schedule. (I do, I know a lot of them woke up at 6ish to get their around 7 and leave at 5 while working through their lunch break so it counted as work)

I didn't have any hour requirements and got payed hourly, but that's when I decided I didn't want to be an engineer

I took 10 hours/4 days schedule before as a 3 month test and it is worth it. Having one extra full day is worth it for sure.

Wish it was an permanent option here in the US.

Never wrong to have more options.

I believe it is 32 hours over 4 days, so still 8 hours per day. Companies that have done trial runs have seen people get the same amount of work done in 32 hours that they would do in 40 hours. 

Ah, that sounds good then!

I did work that 4x10 schedule for 3 years, and for me, it was way better than working 5x8.

Not only did my weekend start Thursday evening, since my workday started early I had practically zero traffic on the way tp work while at rush hour it would have taken at least three times as long to get there.

I technically most often work 5x8 per week. But with the amount of vacation and paid days off I get, it is more like 5x6 over the whole year.

And yeah, it is really nice especially for mental health. When I worked 40 hours or more at my old job, I just worked ate and slept basically aside from one day on the weekend to actually do anything. I didn't even make much money, and probably would have developed more physical problems if I kept working there, which would end up costing far more than the amount that I got paid.

So I would definitely recommend modern day companies to get the with the times. 30-32 hour workweeks are great!