The proportion of employees who would sacrifice part of their salary for a four-day week is growing, up eight percentage points from 65% in 2023, according to the study by hybrid working tech firm Owl Labs.
“The UK workforce is craving more flexibility and autonomy over their work schedules,” said Frank Weishaupt, CEO of Owl Labs.
Speaking to HR magazine, he pointed to further data from the study which showed the top reason for employees starting to look for another job was the desire for a better work/life balance. Half (50%) of the respondents listed it as a reason for moving on, up from 41% in 2023.
“It’s clear that a significant number of UK workers are tired of the traditional hustle culture that celebrates long hours, chained to their office desks.”
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For Dominic Ashley-Timms, author and CEO of performance consultancy Notion, the statistics show that British employees are frustrated with current working practices.
“Could employers go further in offering increased flexibility? Yes, and within reason, it should be offered to retain good employees,” he told HR magazine.
“Mandating a four-day week is unlikely to fix the larger, underlying reasons why people want to work less.
“The allure of having to work for fewer days a week is born out of our poor relationship with work and, in particular, our managers. Since our return to work post-Covid, we’re less likely to put up with work that doesn’t stimulate us.”
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Nine in 10 (89%) of workers said a supportive boss was important to staying in their job; almost exactly the same number (90%) said the same of their salary compensation, putting the two factors on equal pegging.
Ashley-Timms continued: “Our work should feel like it has purpose, we should be seen and acknowledged and our contribution towards the enterprise valued. It is all too easy to believe that working fewer hours would somehow change this, but the truth is that it's our managers that need to change and our working practices and expectations need to be modernised.”
David Stone, chief executive of MRL Consulting Group, a recruitment firm that adopted the four-day week in 2019, has been an enthusiastic proponent of the four-day week. He warned that a scheme in which employees have to sacrifice their salary missed the point.
“If this research proves anything, it’s just how much a four-day week is worth to some people,” he told HR magazine.
“At MRL, we didn’t make our employees choose, the move to the four-day week back in 2019 came with no loss in pay, paid time off or any other ‘benefit’ we already had in place, and that’s the way it should be.
“This stat comes as a bit of a surprise to me, given the current economic landscape in the UK. Not to mention the fact that the four-day week shouldn’t be about sacrifice; we’ve proven that you can get more done in four days than you can in five, so why should employees sacrifice a percentage of their salary for the privilege? The four-day week shouldn’t come with caveats or sacrifices.”
The research also found that 47% of employees would leave their job if they lost their flexibility privileges. At the same time, 53% of managers had seen hybrid teams actually improve in productivity, compared with just 20% who thought their team was less productive.
Anna Whitehouse, author and founder of Flex Appeal, added: “If we want flexible working to work, we need to be flexible. Four days a week is absolutely perfect for some people, but for others, such as parents, the priority might be making their hours work around childcare and school. Flexible working isn’t a privilege, it’s an enabler.”
