A four-day week will soon be the norm in the public sector.

It's the continuity which makes me wonder how it would work.

If someone is dealing with an important, urgent matter, would that be left for days before it can be dealt with, or would cases be passed on to a colleague (who might not know al, the details) to deal with in their absence?

In that case it won't be allowed. I assume that the SW managers will know enough about juggling clients and workloads to be able to deal with requests for people to adjust their hours. If it doesn't work they will be told no.

I think it is more likely to apply in places like tax offices and admin teams rather than roles with caseloads, but I don't know enough about social services to be sure. Having said that, a good friend of mine was a senior social worker before her retirement, and she worked part-time in the last few years, with no problems The reduced the numbers on her caseload and made appointments to see them on the days she was contracted to work.

I wouldn’t be so certain that it wouldn’t be allowed. They belong to a union, as did I when working in the public sector simply because they fought for pay rises - apart from that I despised them.

Solicitors/lawyers and barristers cannot be expected to be on tap for their clients at every given moment. They should not and often cannot be interrupted when in meetings with or on calls to other clients or they are in court.
By insisting that any service is available 24/7 we are continuing to create a very entitled society, expecting instant gratification and not learning the art of patience.
The only services we should expect to be available 24/7 are emergency and care services, shift work allows this.
Of course rate and tax payers should expect good service between 9 and 5. There is no reason that this cannot be achieved with job share or shift work.
I do believe that the better the work/life balance, the more productive the workforce will be and we all win.

The art of patience - the corporate world would need an explanation of that.

When barristers are in court or at meetings, they cannot be contacted, but at other times the solicitors they deal with often ring and barristers who want to keep their contacts will answer their phones and speak. Sometimes the calls can go on for an hour or more, other times they are short calls. Since barristers want the work, they will not be difficult about taking calls other than if they are in court/meetings because they want the work and they want to progress their careers. They will not progress their careers if they are difficult with clients. Solicitors can soon find other barristers to give their cases to. Barristers are self employed although they belong to a set of Chambers. They cannot afford to be awkward with their clients.

Yes, there will always be people who can't change their hours, just as there will always be people who can't work from home, but that doesn't mean that enough people won't want to to make it a norm. Which is what the OP is about.

Germanshepherdsmum

I wouldn’t be so certain that it wouldn’t be allowed. They belong to a union, as did I when working in the public sector simply because they fought for pay rises - apart from that I despised them.

GSM. Were you comfortable taking extra money won by an organisation you despised?

She didn’t take money from the union, she took it from her employers.

What a silly comment flappergirl.

As long as there are people available each day I think a 4 day week sounds like the way forward. Much better work/life balance for parents and single people..

maddyone

She didn’t take money from the union, she took it from her employers.

The pay rises were negotiated by the union. It's always a bit of a bugbear that people who 'don't believe in unions' and who don't belong to one are willing to take the pay rises (though the second bit is clearly not the case here as GSM did belong to the union)
What isn't clear from GSM's post is what she despised. Was it the union, in which case flappergirl's comment makes sense, or was it the social workers?

I really do hope that a 4 day week becomes the norm.
I’m tired of working 5 days a week.
And if it was done on a rota basis it would be good to have days off in the week.
I work for the NHS, in the Community.
At the moment our service is Monday to Friday - I’m not sure how this change would work within our Service?

Mel1967

I really do hope that a 4 day week becomes the norm.
I’m tired of working 5 days a week.
And if it was done on a rota basis it would be good to have days off in the week.
I work for the NHS, in the Community.
At the moment our service is Monday to Friday - I’m not sure how this change would work within our Service?

I work in an NHS mon to fri community team too....most full timers condense their hours and work a 4 day week or a 9 day fortnight ....flexible days off are on a request rota....seems to work well

flappergirl, I paid my subs to the union because to have taken the benefit of pay rises they negotiated without doing so would have been unethical. I despised their very lefty stance and constant calls for strikes in order to blackmail employers. And no, I have never taken part in a strike.

Thank you Germanshepherdsmum

I was a Union Rep for a not-so-left-wing Union when I was young and joined another Union when I changed jobs later on. It used to annoy me when non-members made disparaging remarks about Unions and their members but then cheered when we got a negotiated pay rise!

However, I did have reservations when the Union I was in swerved very much to the left with the appointment of a militant extremist left winger as General Secretary.

Back in the 1970s I used to do a four day week. Four 12 hour shifts a week which is probably more than most people do over 5 days. I worked 8 days then had 6 days off. Apparently I gave the impression that I was on holiday every 5 minutes. I hated it and only stuck it for 6 months. They used to deduct 2 hour's pay per shift that was supposed to be for breaks, that we never got. I was a night sister in an NHS, cottage hospital. I don't know if that qualifies as public sector. In other words, it is not how many days you work in a week, it's how many hours.

A four day week doesn't necessarily mean every member of staff in a team works the same four days. We are so set in our ideas that everyone must work Monday to Friday. A seven day a week service could be provided which would be a vast improvement on the current provision. It would just mean staff changing their working pattern working four days instead of five but for longer hours each day. Flexibility works in everyone's favour. Why are Saturdays and Sundays so "no go"? Those days could easily be incorporated into the working week, especially for public services, enabling employees to work four days out of seven.

Saturdays and Sundays are surely ‘so no go’ because if you have children or grandchildren who are at school or nursery those are the only days, outside holidays, when you can spend time with them.

I’ve worked weekends for a local authority Greyisnotmycolour.
When I worked for an IT company I often flew on a Sunday to have a clear working week in the destination country.
Time off in lieu was accrued flexibly for both.

Germanshepherdsmum

Saturdays and Sundays are surely ‘so no go’ because if you have children or grandchildren who are at school or nursery those are the only days, outside holidays, when you can spend time with them.

Yes, much as I used to hate Sundays as a child (no playing outside, no shops open, Songs of Praise on the TV) I think the erosion of 'family time' is a shame. Shift work, Sunday opening, the 24/7 life has a lot of advantages, but it has a big impact when family members (and friends, for that matter) rarely have the same days off.

It does. I know many find Sunday shopping convenient but we survived in the days when only the newsagents, corner shops and garden centres were open on Sundays. I still survive without going shopping on Sundays, which feels very alien to me.

We’re working more towards a 7 day working week here. Not much time off at all, more and more like Mother China.