To think this is a surefire way to insist that everyone comes back into the office?

[Pleasebeafleabite]

Latest BBC News link today. If I was an employer and I was forced into giving staff compulsory four day weeks based on compressed hours, I’m be making sure they were doing them in the office.

Yet more unintended consequences

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gl5w83z7do

Being in a properly organised office, with no unnecessary internet access, open plan office, and the culture of no idle chats 100% guarantees you work harder. It is disingenuous to say pyjamas and internet access and 'mum, where is my uniform' and 'mum, I am hungry' and unrestricted access to your home office on the part of your children and husband drastically increase productivity.

I think people would comment v.differently, based on whether they are employers or employees.

Most people who love hybrid working love it because they can wake up late, do the school run, receive Amazon deliveries, have a plumber round to fix the toilet, nip out to the shops/gym etc etc and basically get away with a hell of a lot on paid time. I don’t for one second buy all the bs about “I’m more productive wfh”. People need to be in their place of work where home/life boundaries are not blurred, and where they are having real-life interaction and collaboration with colleagues. Unpopular opinion only with people who know they have a cushy number ‘working’ from home.

This is true. The Telegraph is pitching a particular demographic when it writes about flexibility for workers.

This will likely cause further shortages in professions such as doctors and teachers, who cannot have a 4 day week.

A 4 day week is so much more appealing than 5.

When you think about it the office 9 to 5, or 9 to 6, 5 days a week was really designed for able, young men with no family responsibilities or older men who have a stay at home wife to look after kids and house but is not the best set up for many other groups.

@Startingagainandagain yes very true. I hadn’t thought about it like that.

You don’t think that people should be rewarded for working harder than other people on the team? What’s your view on promotions? Because you’re sounding like a communist

Not sure medicine was the example you wanted to use there! Lots of specialisms have the fewer and longer shifts model already.

@Pleasebeafleabite - you also wrote "it shifts the balance of powers in favour of the employee rather than the employer."

That is what is called People Power!

People power has changed the world and I for one am delighted that the power has shifted somewhat. It hasn't shifted entirely towards the employee mind you. There is still plenty to be done to improve the working conditions of many many employees out there but this is a good start.

Out of interest, do you start working at the time you would previously arrive at your office? Or at the time you would previously leave for the office?

Being in a properly organised office, with no unnecessary internet access, open plan office, and the culture of no idle chats 100% guarantees you work harder. It is disingenuous to say pyjamas and internet access and 'mum, where is my uniform' and 'mum, I am hungry' and unrestricted access to your home office on the part of your children and husband drastically increase productivity.

The statement above assumes anyone WFH has young children - lots of us don’t! I do have a husband, but he’s out the house during normal working hours, so when I WFH I’m also home alone, so very few distractions

That’s interesting. There are examples of employers who’ve brought it in as a trial and then reverted back to normal. I doubt that we’d get the true inside track as to why that was though

In my view, compressed hours seem to be worse for employee health because it makes it harder to fit in the gym/ sport before or after work. Sure, they can go on the day off, but there are less frequent opportunities.

If you can’t trust your employees to do the work without monitoring them continuously then it’s time to re-think the work culture. Oh, and I know plenty of people who just sit in the office on their phones clothes shopping or on social media, take too many cigarette/tea breaks etc. it really doesn’t matter where you are, at least at home you have less distractions and spend less time commuting.

My job is not about the number of hours I work, it is about what I deliver. Part of how I have achieved the seniority I have is my ability to deliver in less time what would take other people more hours than there are in the day. Part of how I do this isn't terribly sustainable - I would burnout working at that pace full time.

I would really resent an employer who tried to view all my productivity gains as theirs to own, and expected me to give them 40 hours of my work time/output, ie double the work, for the pay others get for the same hours but less output.

I've worked compressed shifts for 8.5 years. I've also worked from home 50% of the time for the same period. No productivity issues. Absolutely no reason an employer should be using condensed shifts as an excuse for office based work.

Employers either trust their workers to do their work, or they don't. Mine does 🤷🏽‍♀️

All the work that doesn't get done!

Why is this news? Workers have had this right ( to request) for years

Why though? I mostly work from home and don't do any less work at home than when I go on site. I love how much more flexible my day is now.
Personally I wouldn't like to do full time compressed into 4 days because they would be long days and it wouldn't suit my situation with older children in school needing dinner and help with homework etc. But it's good that it's going to be available as an option because I can see it benefiting a lot of people

The fact is that saying “the fact is” in front of a wild assertion doesn’t make it a fact

Absolutely this. People have already mentioned above about doing school runs and errands. Being at home working is a hell of a lot easier than the office. Some people on here, as we well know, completely take the piss and keep their kids at home instead of paying for childcare. Nothing will convince me those people are as productive as those in the office because they cannot be. Then you get the old chestnut.. ohh I wait and work when they are in bed, I still get my work done. Bullshit.

Slow news day and the Telegraph needing something to appeal to the harrumphing retired colonel demographic.

I wouldn’t want compressed hours, I do things in the evening and it wouldn’t work for me. But I don’t object to it being available as an option

Also, being inflexible about work from home ironically means a lot of employees end up needing more formal flexible requirements in the office.

My role was meant to be 8.30-5. If I were working from home, that wouldn't be a problem. But because they want me in the office, I had to have my hours adjusted to 9-5 with a shorter lunch break to fit a commute around nursery drop off and pickup. I work the same number of hours, but they have less coverage between 8:30 and 9am.

I know several part time workers this kind of inflexibility affects. Having to split their hours over more days and leave at 2pm to accommodate school pick up (if no wrap around available), whereas if WFH they could just nip out for 20 minutes and make the time up. Again, same number of hours worked but long periods with less coverage than the bosses would like.

All the work that doesn't get done!

This only really applies in low value/manual occupations based on volumes. Many jobs aren't like that in the uk, they are based on quality of output. More hours won't necessarily improve the output - in fact, they often worsen it, labouring over a strategy document when you are tired/overstretched leads to shit work.

Human beings have not evolved to sustain 10 hours a day of mentally demanding output.

People need to get away from productivity as meaning working more hours. Work smarter, not longer.

i think that any national recognition/protection of the ability to work flexibly is a good thing.

Compressed hours wouldn’t work for me personally, as what I value more is being able to do the school pick up/after-school activities.

So I work part time (33.5hrs/wk) 5 days a week with early starts and 2 long days, to give me the ability to be at the school gate 3 days per week.

What would also be an excellent thing would be the normalisation of fathers working flexible hours to accommodate family life. I know that lots do, but it’s still the natural assumption In our society that childcare/household running is something that the mother will pick up.