Flexible working? Why I won’t even entertain the idea of the 4-day week
It has nothing to do with time
In teams and in jobs where bums on seats don’t matter, you may be struggling to accommodate valuable employees who want to work to less traditional work patterns. This requires a degree of imagination and a leap of faith that can make you wonder if it’s worth it.
Organisations like the New Economics Foundation and the 4 Day Week campaign have been promoting the heck out of moving to a four day work week.
Being an economic policy nerd my twitter feed is filled with articles about why this miracle policy is the solution to the carbon footprint of commuting, lower unemployment, higher productivity, and even the strengthening of democracy.
I find this trope unhelpful and very frustrating.
It’s like that famous quote by Henry Ford often bandied about by entrepreneurs:
“If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
It sounds to me like “If I asked people what they wanted, they would have said they wanted to work fewer hours for the same money”.
With the changing nature of work, fewer hours is not necessarily the answer.
