Would you prefer this? (4 day working week)

[Frosty6611]

If you could have a longer working day mon-Thur (say 8am-6pm) but it meant you could have fri-Sun off work each week, would you prefer it?
Some European countries do it such as Norway and Denmark and its proven to be a huge success in lessening anxiety and depression.

I used to do this when I worked somewhere with a 35 hour standard week, although I had Wednesdays as my non-working day as my DH is disabled and it really helped us both knowing he didn't have to cope for more than two days alone through the day at any given time. My current employer theoretically offers compressed hours but in reality, the few people who have applied so far have all been turned down on business needs grounds.

My husband and I both do variants of this, we love it. He's on 4 days a week pro rata, and I do 4.5 days in 4. We each have a day off a week, and our nursery age child still goes to childcare in the mornings on our days off so that we can get all the house cleaning and household admin done, and our weekends are purely family time. I also like that our school age child has Friday afternoons to come home and decompress.

This is what my husband does. 7-5 for 4 days a week.

Yes, currently using annual leave to work 4 days post mat leave but going to chance my arm at asking for this when those run out.

Flexible time like this to allow me to undertake some more professional studies or research or even my own interests would be fabulous.

I can’t think of anyone who would not want this work pattern.

I do this now but with way shorter hours.....

My previous company offered this to all employees and almost everyone took up the offer. I really miss not having it. With the kids at school / nursery it was the one day I had some me time to catch up on household things, shopping and actually get to do the school run and have a chat with the nursery teachers.

Condensed hours. When I worked in banking in London 30 years ago it was offered then, its not new.

We tried to do longer days in our kitchen (self employed with dh) to give us more days off. It didn't work. We just ended up physically exhausted and needed that extra day off to recover!

I work 8-6 or 4-1 5 days currently so that'd be great!

8 - 6 is a normal workday for me. I am self-employed, but also used to work this regularly for previous employers. But I can and do take time off pretty much when I want.

I don't know - I am not sure I would want to take time off on Fridays when everyone else is off, I think I'd prefer to take it when I want it. For the same reason I'd like to lose some bank holidays and have them added to annual leave so I can take the time off when it suits me.

Where I work now we do a 9-5.30 day though so give it''s 30 mins longer than the standard office day I'd happily leave 2 hours earlier on a Friday. It's useful if you want to go away for the weekend.

DH and I both have compressed patterns, he does 4 10 hour days and I do the remaining 3, so one of us is always at home with the DC (both preschool age). I love it.

We are getting restructured so I have everything crossed we'll be allowed to keep our working patterns .

I used to work a 4 and a half day week, with the half day being a Friday. I really liked it.

I work four days a week most weeks (though I don't do a longer Monday, I'm a lazy sod ) and I think it would be the best solution for most people. I am convinced working full time is too much for most people.

God I would love to. I do 9-5 but would happily do 9-7 for a three day weekend!

I do this, I absolutely love it. 7-5 or 9-7. I work in a profession where it’s very normal to do those hours (and more) 5 days a week so it took me a while to get over the work guilt that I wasn’t doing enough. It was a choice once I had a child though to both save on childcare and actually see him during the week! (I have a 1.4hr commute min each way too).

I do this because of anxiety/depression (am stressed out teacher). I work longer hours than 8-6 though on my four days (more like 8-8 at least) but it is worth it to have Tuesdays off!

1.5hr that should say, 1.4 would be very precise! 😀

I used to do 7-7 mon-Fri but it got to much and now I do 7-7 Mon - Thursday and it makes me so much happier now! Should of done it sooner!

I do 10 hour shifts so get three days off a week. I have to work Oates, weekends and sometimes nights too, so it's not standard. I work 2 weekends out of 4. And my days off change each week. I do like the extra time to myself though.

my husband does 3x 13hr shifts a week so has 4 days off.... to be honest now hes older it does exhaust him so at least one of his days off is taken up by just resting. I dont think shifts that long work forever. Hes hopefully looking into 9-5 positions in the future.

Most ladies are working 18 hours a day, 7 days a week, to look after children and their lazy husband's. 😂

Lots of people do this 5 days per week!!

But as an aside. I sometimes feel that the reason it isn’t liked is a very male/female divide. I’m not saying men wouldn’t like to work like this. But it’s much more likely for women with children to need it.

I worked with one guy who got so many promotions for working so hard, in at 8 often left at 8-9. But he spent ALL of his time faffing about. And then they made him a board member!!

I would much rather work harder in one long day and have other days off. but that doesn’t make you look good. And sadly we are still in that culture.