Numerous full-time workers like Laura Etchells were seeking more flexible hours than the conventional Monday to Friday, 9 to 5. This mother-of-two from Hebden Bridge in West Yorkshire works her full-time job in publishing, compressed into four days, and finds it more productive. The additional day off which is a Friday in her case saves about £350 a month in childcare costs.
Companies such as Laura’s employer, Emerald Publishing, provide a range of flexible working options that improve work-life balance and enhance employee efficiency. The firm’s chief legal and people officer, Emma Tregenza, acknowledges the benefits of compressed hours, but adds that it triggers new challenges. Working compressed hours can have a knock-on effect on other team members that work on a more regular schedule, which can be challenging for multiple working-hour variations.
Labour seeks to strengthen workers’ rights for more flexible hours, an issue that the BBC has heard about from individuals that work compressed hours like Laura, after the right to request flexible working that includes compressed hours was enforced in April. Legal professionals believe that Labour’s plan aims to make it harder for businesses to refuse employment flexibility. Companies may need to explain “on what grounds can they justify refusing a four-day week.”
While Cortex, Jason Magee’s Guernsey-based software corporation, trialled compressing staff members’ hours last August, with everyone completing 35 hours in four days instead of five, Magee felt less efficient with longer working hours. The company is currently experimenting with a four-day week with reduced hours, in line with the official campaign, with more favourable reviews than the previous trial.
Peter Meacham, a dispensing optician at a Basildon, Essex pharmacy, switched to a four-day schedule in September 2020 to perform magic shows for charity on his Tuesdays and Wednesdays off. He considers working a compressed week to be “an absolute key factor” if he changed employers. While other business experts view compressed hours as a limited solution, Michelle Ovens, founder of Small Business Britain, assures small businesses that there is no reason for concern. Expressing her belief that the four-day workweek may not be feasible for certain sectors or businesses that need to be open all week, Ovens suggests that companies are open to flexibility and accommodating their employees
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