Oh Dear Ms Lane Fox
Last week, the largest set of data from companies who have been trialling a four-day week in the UK was released and the results were compelling.
Participants agreed to produce the same output for the same pay, while only working for four days. In the 61 firms who took part, revenues stayed the same, or even increased against expectations.
No, revenues rose by 1.5%, inflation (over the 6 months) was 6% or so, real revenues fell.
We do actually have to get the facts right when evaluating a scientific experiment, no?
Pursuit Marketing in Scotland found meetings and internal communications took up too much time for a shortened week. They decided to switch to shorter, more focused meetings. They got rid of unnecessary paperwork and digitised more processes, before changing hours. This meant they were operating as efficiently as possible before the change.
We also need to analyse or results properly. Here the revelation is that the company was pissing about in useless meetings. Get rid of them and productivity improves. Great, so let’s stop pissing about in useless meetings. Ee could, indeed, take that increased productivity as more time off. We could also take it in higher profits, greater wages, m,ore output for consumers to enjoy. It’s not, that is, a proof that four day weeks work. It’s a proof that not pissing about in meetings works.