UK Employees Participate In Four-Day Week Trial

In what is said to be the largest pilot scheme of its kind, almost 3,000 employees from 60 UK companies will try out a four-day work week.

Employees from a variety of enterprises and philanthropic organisations, including the Royal Society of Biology, a Manchester-based medical device company, and a Norfolk fish and chip shop, will participate in the scheme, which will run from June to December.

It’s part of a drive to get businesses to switch to a shorter work week as a way to improve working conditions and raise production. Academics from Cambridge and Oxford universities, as well as Boston College in the United States, are conducting the trial in collaboration with 4 Day Week Global, 4 Day Week UK Campaign, and the Autonomy thinktank.

“Increasingly, managers and executives are embracing a new model of work which focuses on quality of outputs, not quantity of hours,” said Joe O’Connor, the chief executive of 4 Day Week Global. “Workers have emerged from the pandemic with different expectations around what constitutes a healthy life-work balance.”

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted many people and businesses to reconsider their working patterns, with remote, hybrid, and flexible working becoming increasingly popular and vital to employees.