4 day workweek trial (WTF?!)

So a 4-day working week is being trialed in the UK and across the globe this summer. A 4-day working week. I'm going to tell you what's the plan and then what I think about it, and I'd love your thoughts on this, bearing in mind we've only just come out of COVID and lockdown. Which has probably restricted production, trade, employment, commerce, and revenue more than anything maybe since the last world war. Yet they're talking about cutting a day of work, i.e., production. And by the way, for no loss of pay. So they're looking at paying people more for less when companies have gone bust left, right, and center, when supply chains were completely shut down, when P&O Ferries and other firms are making hundreds of redundancies, and taxes are going up and up and up. Yeah, yeah, they're going to do a 4-day work week. Anyway, let me tell you, uh, what's happening. Now, it's been trialed in Iceland and other places already, and the trial is starting in the UK. So at least 30 companies covering nearly 2,000 employees have signed up for the 4-day working week trial this summer. The pilot program is set to be the largest of its kind in the UK, and it will be overseen by researchers, researchers from Oxford and Cambridge universities. Hmm, I wonder how many of these researchers at Oxford and Cambridge run real businesses, employ real people in the private sector. The private sector, not charities or universities or the public sector. Now I just have to say this before I carry on telling you, um, the news, and maybe I'm leaking my thoughts on this. Of course the public sector, who get paid with no major growth incentive to do a job just good enough that is funded by the private sector, of course they would love to do a 4-day work week. In fact, they'd love to do a 4-hour work week. But if you, um, had the factories and the industry and the supply chains and the production, if that was reduced and reduced and reduced, what's going to happen to the cost of your food? What's going to happen to the cost of your fuel? What's going to happen to the supply of all the things that you wanted through COVID and lockdown but you couldn't get? Hmm. Anyway, apparently workers at the companies involved are going to get one extra day off, but they're going to get paid the same. They're going to get paid the same that they used to get paid for 5 days to do a 4-day working week. No loss of earnings, extra day off. And it's going to be trialed for 6 months and it could be extended if it's considered a success. Now I'd love to know the success metrics, by the way, because there's a lot of talk about well-being and mental health in the workplace, and of course our well-being and our mental health is is important, but it used to be that when you went to work, you did your work and you sorted out your mental health and your well-being yourself. It was your job. But now what people do is they bring it into the office and it becomes the employer's part responsibility. But are the employers trained for that? Are the employers remunerated for that? That's— there's some things to consider, to talk about. Um, let me know what you think in the comments. I can see some entrepreneurs in here saying, I do 7 days a week. Exactly. Through COVID, when it was illegal for me to run an events business, I had to shut shop and I couldn't trade, and my turnover went down by millions. But I still got up at 4 AM and worked till 9 PM because no one was going to save me. The government wasn't going to save me. All of my clients and all of the people that follow me still wanted courses and communication and me to deliver what I'd, you know, promised to them. Before the lockdown and virtually no support from the government. Okay, so previous pilots in other countries have apparently shown that a 4-day work week can improve productivity and well-being. Well, a 6-day work week can improve productivity. Can improve— what does that mean? Apparently also it makes it— it can make it easier for companies to recruit and retain staff. I can't see, cannot see how a 4-day work week will make it easier to recruit and retain staff. I can't see that. Let me know in the comments if you can. Richard has said the work ethic is totally gone, you should get paid for the work you do. I completely agree. Now, COVIDs and lockdowns, of course they've challenged us mentally and they've made it hard to get back into our normal routine, but I do agree, I've seen this. I employ hundreds of people, by the way. I've seen this where people are work-shy. They want to work less. They want to do less. Now, Tony has said, I'd rather work more hours than more days. Tony, I'm up for a 4-day work week if we do the same amount of hours, or at least get paid for the amount of hours that we do. Why, why don't they test that? Why don't they test 9 or 10 hours a day for 4 days? Why don't they test 4 days but on 4 days' pay? So not maybe some accurate split tests here. So apparently, here's the funny bit, get this. The pilot was established by a not-for-profit organisation. Jeez! Would you get a personal trainer who's 6 stone overweight, just had a triple heart bypass, and smokes 60 fags a day? No, you wouldn't. But the pilot for a 4-day work week has been established by a not-for-profit organization. Now, people are going to look at this and go, oh, Rob, you know, he wants people to work 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. No, no, I don't. But here's the point for me, because we've had— if, if we were in, you know, prosperous times If we were in a boom economically, then maybe we could work a day or half a day less, not get paid more for less, but maybe we could think a lot more about well-being in the workplace, etc. But we have just been locked down. There are wars going on in the world, so oil prices way up, gas prices way up. Taxes way up, food costs way up. Who's happy about that? No one. Yet that same person who's unhappy about all those costs going way up wants to work a day less and get paid the same, i.e., they want to produce less. The factories shut an extra day, the supply chains and the trades shut an extra day. Now Leah said Freedom of choice, it's up to the individual. Well, no, if the employer is paying the individual to do a job, then it's up to the employer, because otherwise, how does the individual get paid? An employer— if an employer said, hey, we'll pay you, we'll pay you what you want because it's your choice, and you can work what you want because it's your choice, good luck with that. Now let me just make this clear. I am not saying well-being and mental health is not an important issue. It is. But it never really used to be brought into the workplace, and now it is. And if that's the case, then the workplace needs to be compensated for the extra time and resource it costs. The workplace needs to be coached and mentored to deal with these situations, because many companies are earning less and having to let go of all their staff and production was shut down in a lockdown, and yet there's trials for 4-day work weeks. If there's a recession and a crash and there's dark economic times, is the answer work less, i.e., produce less? No, I think the answer is produce more. The only way we get out of this, like, crazy economic times is by production, creation, innovation. We work ourselves out of it. If there was a war, are people going to say, oh well, hmm, let's just do a bit less, let's have a 4-day war week, yeah, because you know, health and well-being is important? No, you do what has to be done to get the job done. And this 4-day work week is being trialed by a nonprofit organization. Of course, a not-for-profit organization. And of course, the public sector funded by entrepreneurs. Of course they want to do less. Let's do a 4-hour work week. Yay! And let's have the entrepreneurs work 24/7, 365 to pay for it. What the fuck is going on? Apparently, 4-day week global founder Andrew Barnes— I'm going to try and get Andrew Barnes on my show— laying the foundation for the future of work. The interest in the UK pilot is clear, a clear indication that organizations across a variety of sectors are ready to adapt to this future of work. Okay, let me know what you think in the comments. For those of you that ask, what am I talking about here? There's a pilot for a 4-day work week in the UK starting in June, in the summer. There's 30 UK companies, 2,000 employees involved. It's launched by researchers at Oxford and Cambridge University, not launched by entrepreneurs, launched by researchers. How many employees do these researchers pay? How many businesses do these researchers own? Now here's the thing, a lot of people are going to look at me and go, 'Oh well, Rob, you're an entrepreneur and you're an employer and you just look at it from your point of view.' Well, the entire public sector is paid for by the private sector, by entrepreneurs and by companies. The researchers are paid by the private sector. The government are paid by the private sector. The politicians are paid by the private sector. So if we keep attacking the private sector— 'Oh, private sector, we'll tax you more.' 'Oh, private sector, we'll shut your businesses down.' 'Oh, private sector, Um, your employees will work less but get paid more so that they can get benefit. This is not right in my opinion. This has to change. What the fuck? Anyway, let me know what you think. Um, thanks for tuning in, by the way. Remember, if you don't risk anything, you risk everything. To summarize, you can't do less and work less to get out of a lack of production. A lack of economy, if the economy is drying up, if cost of living and inflation and gas and oil and electric and food is going up and up and up and up, who in their right mind thinks that working less and getting paid more is going to increase production, productivity, etc.? When we're in economic boom times, then we can look more about wellness and working less and life balance. But until now, like, you can't meditate yourself out of a war, you have to fight your way out of a war. Let's meditate later when the war's over. So let's talk about 4-day working weeks and getting paid a 5-day wage for 4 days when the impact of Brexit and and COVID and Putin and war are over. They're my thoughts. Would love your thoughts. By the way, I'm open-minded to discussing this, and I'm going to be looking for the right results of this survey and this research and this pilot. But I will also be looking for their biases and balanced research. You know, they say things like a 4-day work week can improve productivity. What does that mean? I can, in theory, get in a rocket and go to Mars. Let me know what you think. Hit the share button. Really topical, interesting discussion. Because look, there are a lot of these not-for-profit and public sector organizations that want to take us to a 4-day work week across the board. I just can't help but think, how can we get food costs down and food production up? How can we get gas and electricity prices down and gas and electricity production up? How can we get inflation down, cost of living down? How can we get all of that down without increased production to make up for the lack of production? Now, Judith has said workers are tired. Workers didn't work in the freaking lockdown. They had months off in the lockdown. How can workers be tired? That's bullshit. I don't buy it. I don't buy it. Anyway, let me know what you think. Thanks for tuning in. Hit the share button. Let's get this out to the world and let's get this discussion going. And let's listen to the entrepreneurs. Let's listen to the employers. Let's listen to the public sector. No one fucking listens to the private sector. The government don't listen to the private sector, yet the private sector pay the fucking government's wages. These not-for-profit organizations don't listen to the private sector, yet we pay all their wages. Listen to the private sector. Thanks for tuning in. Hit the share button. I'll see you in the chat.