Should ALL all only work a four-day week? Debate as Nicola Sturgeon says it could help parents cope with childcare

• Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has suggested a four-day working week 
• Trish Halpin fears women would be given a fifth less cash for the same work
• Tracey Blake argues the move could lighten the childcare burden considerably
• Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19

NO

by Trish Halpin, former editor, Marie Claire

What will the new normal look like once we find a way out of the Covid-19 crisis?

According to Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, we should embrace a four-day working week as a way to help parents cope with childcare worries, an idea New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has also hit on, albeit to boost the economy and reignite the domestic travel market.

Sounds dreamy, doesn’t it? A Bank Holiday weekend, every weekend!

But be careful what you wish for. Before you get too excited about all the ways to spend that extra free time, think about how it would play out in practice.

I’ve tried it — and it was far from the utopia I’d imagined.

I didn’t dare request flexible working at my job in glossy magazines when my twins were born 16 years ago. I didn’t want to look like I wasn’t 100 per cent committed or sufficiently ambitious. I also couldn’t afford the drop in salary, as the main breadwinner and with childcare to finance.

But two years later, when I was offered another job, I asked for a four-day week every other week, and my boss said yes.

By this point, the pressures of being an editor — with travel, evening and social commitments — meant on average I was working 50-plus hours a week. And that precious Friday every other week wasn’t spent on a hobby or popping off to a spa, but catching up on all the unpaid work I did — household chores, childcare and the emotional labour that generally falls to women. And, yes, I still checked in on work emails, too.

And that would be the lot, I fear, of most women working a four-day week — a fifth less cash for the same work. A chance for employers to issue a pay cut through the back door, which is surely partly why the idea is suddenly popular at a time when so many firms have been pushed to the brink.

And how many small firms could realistically afford to do this, and what about shops and the service sector? Not to mention our beleaguered health service? It would take a monumental effort from the Government working with business leaders to ensure workers weren’t losing out.

The gender pay gap is still a harsh reality for most women, particularly working mothers, who are often passed over for promotion if they are in part-time work.

So before you ask HR for a four-day week — especially when we’re set to hit a major recession — ask yourself, who in your household is most likely to be the one spending that extra day off on the golf course?

Trish Halpin is co-host of the Postcards From Midlife podcast.

YES

by Tracey Blake, mum and company founder

Once again, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has nailed it: why not bring in a four-day working week to get us through tough financial times ahead?

She knows this crisis is an opportunity to solve social problems. And from where I’m standing — as a working mother of two and the founder of a childcare business — a four-day week would break some of the chains that, until lockdown, bound us like helpless worker ants:panicking on the school run, running to get to work on time, rushing to get home, constantly playing catch-up.

We know by now that it’s impossible to have it all — but maybe the four-day week would be a step towards having most of it.

My partner James and I both run our own businesses, and with my CEO hat on, my initial reaction was to worry that we’d never be able to simply down tools one day a week.

But I’ve come to realise the benefits far outweigh any logistical headaches. If I can swap a day of start-up stress for meditative wild swimming and boost my productivity the rest of the time, then great. It’s a delicious dilemma to consider whether James and I would work the same days and enjoy a three-day weekend, or split our four days so we’d need childcare on only three days a week.

This move could lighten the childcare burden considerably. Mothers might also find it easier to get back into the workplace — and that could boost our economy to the tune of £8 billion, according to one report.

An Australian company that trialled a four-day working week in 2018 found, astonishingly, that after a year its profitability had tripled. Call me a dreamer, but until 100 years ago, the idea of having a ‘weekend’ was seen as a similarly impractical fantasy.

I suggest giving children the extra day off, too. They could stay at school an hour longer for four days to make up most of the learning time — and give parents an extra hour at work, so there’s less guilt at rushing out the door at 2.30pm to make school pick-up (imagining the eye rolls from colleagues).

Just the idea of being able to sit down as a family and plan our dream four-day week (More mini breaks! Pancakes on a Friday morning just because we can!) makes me feel lighter and brighter. It’s too early to know what life will be like post-Covid, but if there were ever a time for a reimagined future, it’s now.

Tracey blake is the founder of studentnannies.com