The 4-day work week…either you have been living under a rock for the first month or so of 2022, or you have heard the buzz surrounding the 4-day work week.
The 4-day-a-week campaign believes that the UK’s longer work hours are making us unproductive, stressed and burnt out compared to most of Europe. The pilot programme is a 6-month trial of the four-day working week in the UK, with no reduction in pay. It runs in parallel with schemes in Ireland, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. It is being coordinated by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week Campaign and researchers at Cambridge University, Boston College and Oxford University.
On the face of it, what could go wrong with fewer hours and no loss in pay…?
Back in 2019, Workingmums.co.uk published an article highlighting that ‘women have been doing this kind of working for decades’, highlighting that ‘when you have a strict deadline like school pick-up time…you squeeze every drop out of your working day.’
The article argues that ‘countless women have been made to feel guilty for working their hours with an A+ degree of efficiency’ due to ‘presenteeism’ – the idea that, as employees, we must be physically present in the office to deliver good work. This idea has been flipped on its head by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Working mums have had to essentially do a full-time job in part-time hours while being made to feel as if they are not entirely devoted to their career or company. The premise of this argument is that, while the four-day working week may, theoretically, provide an extra day to spend with friends and family and relax, women have been cramming the same amount of work into a shorter week without being fairly paid for decades.
Would the four-day working week work for all employers?
More recently, in an article looking at what the 4-day working week means for women, Refinery 29 features the experience of Kirsten Buck, head of sustainability at PTHR, Aberdeen, where “over 50% of employees are working mothers.” Buck acknowledges that though a 4-day work week is ‘ideal and really works for her and her company’, it “would be challenging in safety-critical industries which are dealing with people’s lives – the NHS, some aspects of the energy sector, the military.”
The 4-day working week also challenges hospitality, retail and other customer-facing roles. As of 2017, a People1st report shows that 65% of all part-time positions in the hospitality and tourism sector are filled by women, rising to 82% in contract food and service management and 72% in hotels. As of 2020, 58% of retail employees are women. The North East Times Magazine appreciates that businesses will either be forced to ‘take on more staff or reduce opening hours.’
The truth about the domestic burden split
The pandemic brutally highlighted the weight of unpaid reproductive labour on women worldwide. A UCL study found that women in the UK spent more than twice as much time as men on their children’s development and homeschooling during lockdowns.
In an article for IPS, Helen Hester importantly acknowledges that the pandemic did not create these inequalities but rather ‘exacerbated a pre-existing problem.’
Hester appreciates that ‘we don’t want a situation where collective energy is targeted only at work as it is conventionally understood, leaving a massive (and highly gendered) sphere of drudgery untouched and implicitly naturalised.’
Despite this, it goes without saying that a 4-day work week simply means less time spent in paid labour, leaving more time for unpaid labour with no reduction in pay. Thus, slightly takes the strain off those delivering unpaid care.
Looking forward, while we acknowledge that a 4-day working week could reduce the detrimental effects of overwork on our mental health, whilst increasing workplace productivity, we must not ignore the critical issues at the crux of the paid/unpaid labour paradigm.
And if you’re suffering from work-from-home stress, don’t miss our blog post with expert tips on reducing stress whilst working from home here.
Let us know your thoughts on the 4-day working week, particularly if you are a working mother or delivering unpaid labour alongside a full or part-time job, by contacting us here or through any of our socials.
If you’re hoping for a 4-day-a-week job, we have a great selection of flexible, part-time and work-from-home jobs listed on our Investing in Women jobs board – helping you combine a great career with other commitments. To see the latest flexible and part-time jobs, click here.