Recently, the Senedd debated a public petition which asked the Welsh Government to trial a 4-day working week for public sector workers. I voiced my concerns for such a trial on the grounds that the Welsh Government does not have the ability to roll out a 4-day working week across all sectors, and it would essentially be a 20% pay increase for a minority of public workers at the expense of everyone else who pays tax.
Whilst a 4-day working week seems like a great idea, it has several drawbacks, most notably that the same amount of work needs to be done in 4 days instead of 5, which can see higher stress levels and tighter deadlines, and this can lead to an increased potential for burnout as workers are pushed harder to be more productive.
My biggest concern, however, is that the premise for a 4-day week is based upon increasing the productivity of workers, which in my mind is poor reasoning. How can a doctor or nurse or school teacher be more productive than they already are?
There is also the issue that if public sector workers were to work 4 days instead of 5 then services that are normally open to the public for 5 days a week would also be reduced, which would lead to even longer waiting times.
Instead of a 4-day working week, I believe that workers really need increased flexibility throughout the working day, and this should be available for everyone, not just a select few. I believe that the world of work is changing, and we should be thinking more about outcome-based work where workers are free to complete their work in the times that suit them rather than held to a strict working day.
What people want is to be able to take time away from work to attend their children’s school plays or to attend doctors’ appointments without having to either use their annual leave allowance or work the hours back in a flexi scheme and this should be the type of scheme that we trial instead.
ENDS
