Good article. Would have been good in my early years witha young family. I wonder how after talking a company in to trying a 4 day week with the same pay the employees would feel if the company felt the results did not meet there expectations? Switching back after changing to a new lifestyle would be now doing an extra days work for free
If a union was involved it would be called a 20% pay reduction.
It's a great point. Needs really good communication and, in a unionised setting (and, for that matter, in any setting), a clear agreement about what would happen if it didn't work out. But it's been so successful, time and time again, in all sorts of settings, that there are good grounds for giving it a go.
I couldn’t agree more. GPs have been ahead of the curve when it comes to four day weeks but, as you know well, many have far too much crammed into those days and are therefore ineffective. I’ve been working for years on how to be more efficient and use my time better, in work and out, and I’m interested to see that I’m clearly not alone in this. I sometimes try and share my thoughts with friends and colleagues but that can be difficult without coming across as self righteous. A good friend of mine, who’s also a GP, works in a busy and dysfunctional practice in West Cumbria. He was telling his therapist how he was trying to retire by age 50, he then told him what I’d once told him, that I don’t imagine ever retiring because I’ve tried to make my working life sustainable. The therapist, of course, suggested that my approach was the one with more merit.
I agree! In a future email I may touch on the bone I have with the idea of work/life balance: it implies that work is a price to pay for life. Work should be one of the things that are great about our lives!
Good article. Would have been good in my early years witha young family. I wonder how after talking a company in to trying a 4 day week with the same pay the employees would feel if the company felt the results did not meet there expectations? Switching back after changing to a new lifestyle would be now doing an extra days work for free
If a union was involved it would be called a 20% pay reduction.
I would have loved a 4 day work week.
It's a great point. Needs really good communication and, in a unionised setting (and, for that matter, in any setting), a clear agreement about what would happen if it didn't work out. But it's been so successful, time and time again, in all sorts of settings, that there are good grounds for giving it a go.
I couldn’t agree more. GPs have been ahead of the curve when it comes to four day weeks but, as you know well, many have far too much crammed into those days and are therefore ineffective. I’ve been working for years on how to be more efficient and use my time better, in work and out, and I’m interested to see that I’m clearly not alone in this. I sometimes try and share my thoughts with friends and colleagues but that can be difficult without coming across as self righteous. A good friend of mine, who’s also a GP, works in a busy and dysfunctional practice in West Cumbria. He was telling his therapist how he was trying to retire by age 50, he then told him what I’d once told him, that I don’t imagine ever retiring because I’ve tried to make my working life sustainable. The therapist, of course, suggested that my approach was the one with more merit.
I agree! In a future email I may touch on the bone I have with the idea of work/life balance: it implies that work is a price to pay for life. Work should be one of the things that are great about our lives!