Civil servants to call for four-day working week

It would have to be readjusted to take that into account.

I don’t get how anyone would be against the 4 day week unless they love working or are an old school boss who wants to squeeze every last drop of work out of their staff. I think it’s the future, more and more people are questioning the current work life balance. Where we give over so much of our time to work.

In my parent time a 6 day week was common, then a half day Saturday then a 5 day week. With the advancements in technology why are we still working long hours. Managed properly a 4 day week could work very well for society.

I hope that we move to a global standard of 4-day work weeks in the next 20-30 years - better for society overall.

However to have any discussion in it, people must be clear on what they think a 4 day work week means:

• 39 hours spread over 4 days rather than 5, with 39 hours pay
• 32 hours spread over 4 days with 32 hours pay
• 32 hours spread over 4 days with 39 hours pay

Read the thread harder.

Some 4-day week advocates are passionate that it does indeed mean fewer hours in the week: people do 4x7 hours instead of 5x7 - for the same salary.

Other people think it means longef days: 4x8.75 ish, to give still 35 hours work per week.

Other aren't sure what it means.

But the government doesn't have a magic money tree: if everyone works fewer hours, they would have to hire more staff to provide the same service. If everyone on 80% SWW suddenly got paid 100%, that would be a big cost increase, for no gain.

I don't need to read the thread harder. I don't really care that much that people on boards.ie have no clue what they are talking about. Sure, that's hardly anything new.

The proposal by the Union isn't for a less hours for the same money.

Precisely the point, the CS as here to provide services to the public. They can`t if they are only working a 4 day week. So inevitably if you have 4 people in a customer facing environment and either they dont open to the public on day 5 or reduce and spread themselves over the time period, it can only be a retrograde step and a diminution of services.

Why reduce time working, it should be increased if anything. Too many people wandering aimlessly about while the rest of us get on with a bit of work

Stop worrying your little head. Nice. The arrogance is outstanding.

I work in ps. I can't see it working. Unless you get rid of dead wood. They'll be back as consultants anyways.

I will say, my team are hugely under resourced and I've told them to do their hours. Complaints come in...talk to me.

I’d agree with you here. I work in local government. There are sections that are stretched to near breaking point and are haemorrhaging staff. The pay at the lower grades is poor with very limited scope to move up quickly so anybody that’s any good doesn’t stay that long.

Most senior people are working 50 hours minimum and are managing a lot of staff and money, scrutiny is high and your mistakes can end up in the local papers, never mind the crazy layers of regulation surrounding everything. I dont know where this notion that the PS as a whole is a cushy number comes from. There probably are parts that are more relaxed but I think a lot of the fat was cut during the last recession.

Implementing a 4 day week would be difficult at best, while some do take the family friendly 4 day arrangement already, putting it in place across all of most of the organisation is another matter entirely.

I'm guessing public facing offices would have a rotation set up for the staff to ensure they can do their 4 day week but most importantly that the public facing office hours are not affected.

Just to address the public v private sector comparison. In my case I left the private sector for the public sector for a very similar role. The main reason was the location suited me better but my salary decreased, holidays decreased, my pension is very poor compared to the generous private sector pension I was getting. In the private sector I was getting free health insurance, life assurance and a bonus every year - not the case in the public sector. Btw I'm not complaining but just addressing the antiquated view and sweeping generalisation that everyone in the public sector has it handy - that might have been the case 30+ years ago but it's a different story now.

Same argument was made about the 5 day week....

If you were a bar manager, would you prefer your staff to work 4 days at 90% capacity, or 5 days at 70% capacity?

It's a trick question because the answer is much more complicated than that.

The middle class is built on the service economy. Improving wages and increasing leisure time for lower paid workers has always led to a boom in the economy and better living conditions for most people

Can you tell us when, exactly, civil servants were working a 6-day week?