Wednesday 19 June 2019

Who wants to work four days a week?

Okay, Okay. PR email, blog fan(s)!

Hi Michael,

In light of Andy Haldane, the Bank of England Chief Economist, stating that Britain is on track for a four-day working week by 2050, please see below comments from William MacDonald, Chief Technology Officer at StarLeaf discussing how businesses can ensure they are on track to achieve this.


A four-day working week? Well, I've got mixed feelings about this. I mean, it's sort of wrong and sort of right at the same time. 'Explain, boss!' Well, Voice, dear reader(s) ... if you're in a job you really hate you shouldn't have to work more than one day a week. 'Ha!' And when you do actually turn up for work, you should be allowed to play solitaire on your computer all day long. Just my personal view, of course. 'Right.' However, if it's a job you really love, like, uh ... I don't know, man, say, international rock and roll superstar. 'Yeah.' That's a job you should be doing seven days a week. No days off, you dig me? / So, anyway, our Bill wants to say a few words ...

"The 'always-on economy' has dramatically transformed working patterns, with employees increasingly adhering to the sentiment of 'work is something I do and not where I go'. The importance employees attach to being able to work in a way that suits them, and their busy lifestyles, has led to the feasibility of a four-day work week becoming a realistic discussion for business leaders."

Er ... business leaders are NOT the sort of people we want discussing our lives, man! Seriously. But please continue ...

"A recent survey by The Workforce Institute at Kronos Incorporated found that nearly half (45 percent) of full-time workers say it should take less than five hours each day to do their job if they worked more efficiently. However, workers often struggle to communicate effectively with their colleagues as traditional ways of collaborating, including relying on emails or voice calls, are no longer sufficient for the fundamentally changing workforce. It is critical business leaders put in place the necessary tools and solutions to ensure staff can communicate easily."

Uh. Listen! As long as people have got solitaire installed on their computers there shouldn't be a problem, Bill. / I had a job years ago where we could play solitaire for up to a week because a project had finished and the new one wasn't ready to start. That happened a few times.

"Tools such as instant messaging, easy file sharing, and reliable video conferencing can significantly improve collaboration between colleagues, helping staff to work more productively, giving them a more intuitive and 'human' way of communicating. More so, evidence shows that these modern collaboration tools, increase employee engagement resulting not only in increased productivity, but also a higher dedication to deliver for the organization. Failure to move with these trends could be detrimental to those organizations. They will simply get left behind by their savvier competitors."

Well, okay. Yeah, we had some sort of instant messaging internal email sort of thing. It was good for passing the time, talking shit, and that. / Ah, happy days! 'Really, boss?!' No, not really, Voice

...

Anything else? No.