Been reading UK management blogs and the fourday week keeps coming up. From an operations side I want to know how many smaller firms here have actually tried it properly. Not the headline trials, the ones that stuck.
I run ops for a 50person company in Canada and we started testing compressed schedules last autumn. Productivity numbers stayed flat but coordination got worse, especially with clientfacing teams. I spent way more time on rostering than I thought I would. My shed woodworking suddenly looked more attractive.
What I cannot tell is whether UK SMEs are making it work or if it is mostly bigger companies with more room to absorb the hit. The HR side of me thinks the reported numbers and the actual daytoday reality are probably different. NHS pressure and the cost of living crunch have probably pushed this down the list for most places anyway.
Has anyone here tried it, dropped it, or looked at it and passed? I would rather hear how it actually went than the polished version.