Four day working week

[Kinowe Soorie]

16 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

I work a four day week for the last 6 months (I job share with Nick Platnauer  (yes, the same!)) 

 

Have to say I love it. I actually only lost 3 hrs wages, which is worth it to me to get a whole day back. When you take lower tax and NI into account, it's not even that.

 

Also needed to be done as my very physical job was getting harder as I get older.

 

Hope he is quicker at his job, than he was at running!?

[MrsJohnMurphy]

I've been on a 4 day week (Monday to Thursday) for a few years now, if you can afford it do it. It's amazing what you can get done with that extra day off a week

 

Every weekend is like a bank holiday for me

[ajthefox]

2 hours ago, kenny said:

We are on 4.5 days and we have plans to head towards a 4 day week as a company in the future. 

 

I'm hoping AI will be the final nail that sees us over that line.

I forget, are you a contractor/developer? Is the day off going to be same day for everyone?

 

I can see how the office based side of it might change as 1 day a week without a designer on the phone is hardly an issue. But I think on site stuff would be extremely resistant to dropping from 5 days to 4.

 

 

 

[inckley fox]

19 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Work had been almost unbearably fierce of late, many long days, starting at 6am finishing at 6pm or even later. If never seems enough. 

 

My balance is wrong I know, but I have always had a strong work ethic, and a pride in what I do. 

Software Development for what it's worth 

 

Has anyone moved to a four day week and has it helped them or just compressed the same work load into even less time? 

 

Recognise I am fortunate in that we paid our mortgage off last year, but with my wife being made redundant recently, I also don't want to leave us short. 

 

Just looking for personal  experiences in reducing their workloads and rebalancing their work life balance really. 

Some might feel my lack of posts is a good thing, but I need to return to my contrarian bent as soon as possible!! 

I've done it for almost ten years! It is literally a case of compacting a full timetable into four days, so I haven't lost a penny or gained a minute. I end up with some odds and bobs to do at home on a Friday morning, but largely manage to give myself a three-day weekend. I briefly went back to five days around the time of Covid and found it incredibly exhausting, so I suppose that tells you something.

[kenny]

43 minutes ago, ajthefox said:

I forget, are you a contractor/developer? Is the day off going to be same day for everyone?

 

I can see how the office based side of it might change as 1 day a week without a designer on the phone is hardly an issue. But I think on site stuff would be extremely resistant to dropping from 5 days to 4.

 

 

 

Engineer.

 

We split Fridays off currently. But we couldn't close on a Friday because of other businesses being on a 5 day.

 

We probably look at either alternating Mondays and Fridays each week so it's a consistent 4 day week with a 3 day weekend. We are hoping for a 32 hour working week.

[CosbehFox]

Wife works a 4.5 day week - but same hours, thirty minutes either side of the day or a shorter lunch. She thinks its really good 

[Bellend Sebastian]

I've done what I think is probably a four and a half day week ever since my eldest started school.

 

The actual need for that will be gone in no more than 2 or 3 years but I don't fancy giving up my two shorter days. It works quite well as although I'm in work every week day, I never have two long days in a row. 

 

I have a job it's very hard to leave at the door and I doubt I'd get paid anymore if I increased my hours, so I'll probably try and keep things as they are until I finish, which has got to be at least 10 years away and realistically more than that

[UniFox21]

21 hours ago, DB11 said:

I used to do 4 on - 4 off 12 hour shifts and absolutely loved it.

 

I now do Monday-Friday and it feels like I'm at work all the time! Fortunately, I love my job so that's not necessarily a bad thing but I do miss my old shift pattern and feeling like I had so much 'me' time in addition to time spent doing house work etc

I did similar for a while, only issue I had was seeing any friends/family with 9-5's became significantly harder.

 

The 4 days off was incredible, enough time to fully relax and get all my jobs done 

Edited 14 June 2025 by UniFox21

[StanSP]

I've been fortunate to have the flexibility of moving to a 4.5 days a week at my work to help with childcare. I have Monday mornings off and then work the extra time across the rest of the week. 

 

Some weeks it can be quite tiresome by the time it gets to Thursday/Friday, but having been able to experience it so to speak, I wouldn't change it. Better on the wallet and more time with my son even if it is just for a few extra hours. 

 

I don't think my place of work will change to a 4-day week as standard. There's been talk of it and research into it, but I don't think it'll be feasible. At least not for the majority of departments anyway. 

[PAULCFC]

I'm 56 and when my mum and dad passed away we got enough money to pay our mortgage off.We allways said we'd move upto Northumberland when we retired and their was nothing to keep us in Leicester anymore.Luckily i had a few pensions which i cashed in and recieve the the remainder of one every month.Mrs works from home for the NHS which keeps us ticking over(she loves her job and i hated mine!)We are not well off by any means but have a lot more time with the kids to do things.

[LCFCJohn]

My wife and I both do 9 day fortnights on alternate weeks so we have Fridays covering child care. It gives really valuable time one to one with our daughter.

 

Not sure what we will do when our daughter goes to school. Our full time employment is only 35 hours where we work but I feel I’d rather try and go back to working 10 days across the fortnight but finishing earlier to do school pick ups on perhaps a couple of days a week.

[MPH]

On 13/06/2025 at 17:10, 09bballer said:

This is an interesting thread. I'm the wrong side of 50 but not old enough to retire yet. I believe I have also have a strong work ethic, less than 5 days sick in nearly 30 years. Also in quite a reactive job with lots of out of hours messages/calls/ problems and the job was getting to me a bit. 

I've decided to give my notice in and finish at end of August.   I've given up my season ticket and plan to move to a different part of the country and work a less stressful job. Brave or stupid, not entirely sure yet??!!!

 

you know what, if you hadn’t of done it you’d have always been wondering “ what if”

 

if you  have the will power and can afford to sell up and move to a different part of the country then you’ve got the will power to move back in 1-2 years if it doesn’t work out.

[PAULCFC]

For any one over 55, it's worth trying to find your pensions from previous employers............i had £20000 in a pot i'd forgot about! It was only when i got to 55 that they contacted me to know if i still lived at the same address(which i don't,but had the mail redirected)......probably not the right thread,but pushed me into retiring early!

Edited 16 June 2025 by PAULCFC
p

[RoboFox]

Myself along with several hundred others were told earlier this year that we were no longer needed as of January.

 

Ever since then myself and my boss agreed that my team will be unofficially barely "working" three days a week to allow them to search for jobs and get themselves prepared. We're not busting our backsides for a company that has just made us redundant. 

 

I echo what others have said: when push comes to shove, your companies don't give a **** about you. Can highly recommend this new approach to working. My CV looks great and my hobbies are thriving. 

 

Edited 16 June 2025 by RoboFox

[Lineker's Lugs]

I spent all my working life with the same company which made things easier in terms of getting them to agree to changing my work pattern as they didn’t want to lose my experience and basically gave me particular tasks then left me alone to get them done.

 

After about 25 years of full-time work I moved to a four day week and always took Fridays off.  I then went to different work patterns for a while (as little as 20 hours a week at one point) but went back up to 4 days because I realised I was close to being in a position to retire and wanted to get there quicker.  
 

That time I took Wednesdays off and it was even better - I never had to work more than two days in a row which made things easier when the job seemed a slog.  I retired nearly a year ago at 54.  Five days a week would have got me there even quicker of course, but I couldn’t face full-time after years of part-time.
 

Reading this back makes me realise I was a work shy little sod!

[StonyFox]

I do a 9-day fornight and it works quite well for me. With two kids under 10 the weekends are always full, so having that one day off every other week gives me some time to get things done that I can no longer fit into weekends (DIY). 

 

I compress my hours, but the company I work for are supportive of employees having a good work-life balance. 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

Might be the sector I work in but the people I know that do shortened week just end up making up for it in the days that they do work. 

[Guest Lako42]

17 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Might be the sector I work in but the people I know that do shortened week just end up making up for it in the days that they do work. 

Isn't that the point of a 4 day week? 

[The Horse's Mouth]

17 hours ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

Might be the sector I work in but the people I know that do shortened week just end up making up for it in the days that they do work. 

Does feel whenever we end up with a 4 day week though bank holidays the weeks are just more hectic catching up on the lost time. Could be just my job mind

[Guest Lako42]

5 minutes ago, The Horse's Mouth said:

Does feel whenever we end up with a 4 day week though bank holidays the weeks are just more hectic catching up on the lost time. Could be just my job mind

The point of the 4 day working week experiment is that you spread that day over the other days, so surely that makes sense? 

[Zear0]

31 minutes ago, Lako42 said:

The point of the 4 day working week experiment is that you spread that day over the other days, so surely that makes sense? 

Depends on the arrangements.  I've got staff who do compressed hours and do their week in four days and others who work 20% fewer hours and get allocated 20% less work (and docked 20% pay mind...).  Pros and cons to both, but I have noticed lots of people do struggle with the compressed hours as it can be a bit too much.

[kenny]

1 hour ago, Lako42 said:

Isn't that the point of a 4 day week? 

The point of a 4 day week is to work efficiently and produce the same outcomes in 4 days as you do in 5.

 

This compressed hours stuff is a nonsense, as the majority of people become less effective as the days get longer.

[Sol thewall Bamba]

1 hour ago, Lako42 said:

Isn't that the point of a 4 day week? 

Guess it depends if you've formally dropped your working hours or not.

 

If you have (and taken a 20% pay cut for doing so) like I think the OP was referring to, and then you're just making it up anyway that doesn't sound like a deal to me.

[grobyfox1990]

Unfortunately the working week is 5 days so even if you compressed all your hours into 4 days or took a 20% pay cut, there will still going to be things to do/sign/review/send/log on/be available for on the 5th day.

[Fox92]

I wouldn't want to compress all my hours into 4 days, seems far to much just to have an extra day off.