{"id":1505015,"date":"2022-06-06T09:19:35","date_gmt":"2022-06-06T13:19:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505015"},"modified":"2022-06-06T09:19:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-06T13:19:40","slug":"70-u-k-firms-adopt-4-day-work-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/70-u-k-firms-adopt-4-day-work-week\/","title":{"rendered":"70 U.K. Firms Adopt 4-Day Work Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2F70-u-k-firms-adopt-4-day-work-week%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1505015&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Thousands of workers across the United Kingdom are set to begin a\u00a0four-day <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-work\">work<\/a> week trial from Monday while still receiving 100 percent of their wages.<\/p>\n<p>The experiment has been arranged by\u00a0not-for-profit organization 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College, who are campaigning for a\u00a0shorter working week without impacting wages.<\/p>\n<p>During the trial run, which will last for six months, employees in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-uk\">UK<\/a> will work four days a week while receiving 100 percent of their pay with the aim of boosting productivity and well-being among workers.<\/p>\n<p>Similar pilot schemes are taking place in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p>In the UK, more than 3,300 workers at 70 UK companies are taking part in the trial,\u00a0Joe Ryle, campaign director for the 4 Day Week campaign <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GMB\/status\/1533699008841007104\">told<\/a>\u00a0\u201cGood Morning Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Restaurants,\u00a0recruitment firms, charities, and\u00a0digital marketing companies are among those taking part in the trial, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n<p>Sam Smith, co-founder of Pressure Drop Brewery in Tottenham, north London, told the BBC that it felt \u201clike a good time\u201d for the firm to try out a new approach to working\u00a0practices, particularly in light of the COVID-19 pandemic which saw the majority of companies ask employees to work from home.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pandemic\u2019s made us think a great deal about work and how people organize their lives,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re doing this to improve the lives of our staff and be part of a progressive change in the world that will improve people\u2019s mental health and well-being.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ed Siegel, chief executive of Charity Bank, which is also taking part in the trial, told The Guardian that a four-day week with no change to employee pay or benefits will \u201ccreate a happier workforce and will have an equally positive impact on business productivity, customer experience, and our social mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe 20th-century concept of a five-day working week is no longer the best fit for 21st-century business,\u201d\u00a0Siegel added.<\/p>\n<p>For its part,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.4dayweek.com\/why-pilot\">4 Day Week Global states<\/a> that reducing the number of days employees work will\u00a0improve business productivity, worker health and well-being, boost recruitment, retain employees, and reduce the carbon footprint of firms by reducing both\u00a0commuting and energy use.<\/p>\n<p>It also states that the four-day working model will provide a \u201cbetter distribution of caring responsibilities between mothers and fathers\u201d and reduce childcare costs.<\/p>\n<p>However, opponents believe cutting down the working week could lead to increased stress among both employees and companies, while noting that the slash to working hours simply isn\u2019t suitable for\u00a0many industries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019ve got to work harder in those four days so there\u2019s\u00a0some evidence in those four days trying to get so much done, it\u2019s actually more stressful and there might be more mental health problems,\u201d entrepreneur Richard Farleigh <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GMB\/status\/1533700715247435776\">told<\/a>\u00a0\u201cGood Morning Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Multiple Japanese firms, including\u00a0Panasonic\u00a0Holdings\u00a0Corporation\u00a0ADR, global bank Mizuho, and Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co., have<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/more-japanese-firms-adopt-4-day-workweek-to-improve-work-life-balance_4444898.html\"> already moved to a four-day week<\/a> in an effort to achieve optimal\u00a0work\u2013life balance for employees.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere in the United States, the\u00a0Jasper Independent School District announced in April that it is\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/texas-school-district-implementing-4-day-week-teacher-retention-incentives-amid-staff-shortages_4401070.html\">adopting a\u00a0four-day school week<\/a> for the upcoming year amid staff and\u00a0teacher shortages.<\/p>\n<p>A\u00a0four-day week trial at Perpetual Guardian in New Zealand in 2018\u00a0found engagement levels among workers rose between 30 and 40 percent, work-life balance metrics rose by 44 percent, empowerment by 26 percent, and leadership by 28 percent, according to\u00a04 Day Week.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile,\u00a0work stimulation rose by 27 percent, and organizational commitment increased by 29 percent.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-katabella-roberts\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Katabella Roberts is a reporter currently based in Turkey. She covers news and business for The Epoch Times, focusing primarily on the United States.\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Thousands of workers across the United Kingdom are set to begin a\u00a0four-day work week trial from Monday while still receiving 100 percent of their wages.The experiment has been arranged by\u00a0not-for-profit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":498,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1505015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/498"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1505015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1505015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1505015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1505015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1505015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}