100 UK Firms Commit To Permanent Four-Day Work Weeks, With The Same Pay

In what seems to be like something right out of everyone working a 9-5 job's dream, 100 UK firms commit to permanent four-day work weeks, with the same pay - yes, with no cuts in salary at all!

One hundred UK companies have committed to a permanent four-day working week for their employees without loss of pay, a milestone in the campaign to fundamentally change British workplace culture.

The four-day week advocates think that the five-day pattern is a hangover from an earlier economic age. They claim that a four-day week will encourage companies to improve their productivity, meaning they will be able to produce the same amount of output using fewer hours - how cool is that!

The policy has also proven to be effective in attracting and retaining employees for some early adopters.

Atom Bank and global marketing company Awin are the two largest companies in the UK to adopt the four-day working week, each with around 450 employees.

The 100 companies employ 2,600 employees, a tiny fraction of the UK's employed population, but the 4 Day Week Campaign hopes they will be the vanguard of a major shift in working conditions.

According to Adam Ross, Awin's chief executive, adopting a four-day week was one of the company's most transformative initiatives. "Over the course of the last year and a half, we have not only seen a tremendous increase in employee wellness and wellbeing but concurrently, our customer service and relations, as well as talent relations and retention also have benefited."

Additionally, this UK campaign is coordinating the world's biggest four-day week trial with researchers from the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford as well as Boston College and think tank Autonomy to adopt the four-day week.

According to Joe Ryle, director of the UK campaign, adoption of the four-day week is increasing even as companies prepare for a long period of recession.

"We want to see a four-day week with no loss of pay become the normal way of working in this country by the end of the decade so we are aiming to sign up many more companies over the next few years," he said.

According to the campaign, most companies that have adopted the four-day week are in the service sector, such as technology, events, or marketing companies. However, the campaign also reported that some manufacturing and construction companies had also adopted the four-day work week.

A number of historians have pointed out that the debate over the introduction of the four-day week shares many similarities with the campaign for a two-day weekend during the 19th century.

Well, here's to me hoping that organisations in other countries too follow steps and make this reality for everyone doing the 9-5 charade (without weekends)!