‘I tried switching to a four-day working week – it didn’t go well’

A recent large-scale survey has revealed that both employers and employees can benefit from a four-day working week, although it’s not suitable for everyone. The five-day working week, which became the norm in the UK after the First World War, has been re-evaluated due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

This has led to a renewed interest in a shorter work week and an increase in remote working.

Graham Allcott, who works for a company that was one of the first in the UK to implement a full four-day work week in 2010, spoke to the i Paper about his experience. He explained that working four days doesn’t necessarily mean fewer hours overall, but after several trials, his organisation settled on a simple nine to five, Monday to Thursday schedule.

He described the experiment as a huge success, resulting in “a healthier, more sustainable work-life balance.”

However, freelance journalist Tayla Blaire had a different experience after adopting a four-day week: “I didn’t saunter into that sumptuous three-day weekend so much as collapse into it.”

Being self-employed, Tayla found she had to cram more hours into fewer days. She abandoned her experiment after three months, as she found herself not only working longer hours over four days, but often working on the fifth day as well.

She explained: “While I had Fridays off, my clients didn’t. Sometimes there was the odd emergency and sometimes Friday really was the only time a source for an article could be interviewed. Plus, if my editors wanted tweaks to an article on a Friday, I couldn’t ignore that.”

Tayla revealed that she not only found it difficult to enjoy her extended weekends, but also struggled to return to work mode on Mondays: “I struggled to get back to work after three days off. I’d slump into my office feeling petulant rather than recharged,” she explained.

Nevertheless, there are numerous practical benefits to a four-day working week, and increasing numbers of Britons may find themselves operating on a vastly different timetable in the years ahead.

Some higher earners, particularly, might find themselves avoiding a “cliff-edge drop” in the present tax system which penalises individuals earning between £100,000 and £125,000, forcing them to pay more tax than many who earn considerably more.

Whilst this appears to be quite a privileged concern, similar anomalies in the current tax structure could impact workers on significantly lower wages. Predictions suggest that by the conclusion of this Parliament, one in four teachers earning barely above the national average could be paying 40% tax, as their wages will hit thresholds frozen by Chancellor Rachel Reeves.