We Asked You

Sukai Davis, 21, Leicester City Cent re

I happen to enjoy my job; I love going into work and it doesn’t hurt that I earn good money. I genuinely do not mind working five days a week. It has always been the norm; it is what we know and have always followed. If anything, a shorter work week would feel a little strange. It’s definitely something we can all adjust to but I think a five-day work week works perfectly fine to me.

I love the proposal of a four-day working week. I work for a claims management company Monday to Friday, and although Fridays are a shorter day for me, which is 9-3 as opposed to 9-6), I feel a four-day week would be highly beneficial for some businesses. Personally, I think it would allow myself and others to save money, boost our morale and ultimately establish ‘working to live rather than living to work’; it would provide us with more balance to our work, and personal time schedules, particularly if the day off was placed mid-week.

Jacqueline Ardon, 23, Western Par k F a toumatta Jagne, 21, Leicester Cit y C e nt r e

It has pros and cons. It would be great because we will all have an extra rest day; the weekend will be a day longer, which doesn’t sound too bad. Everyone will be refreshed and ready to get back to work by Sunday evening.

How would you feel about a four-day working week

Currently being trialled in the UK by 4 Day Week Global, we hear from Leicester people on the potential productivity and environmental benefits as well as the pitfalls

WORDS BY KERRY SMITH AND TOM YOUNG

Brad Cooke, 42, Fleckney

I’m a business owner myself and run Craftworks Heritage Limited. Our customers like to see us every day if we are on a project so a four-day working week wouldn’t be ideal for us, but I do like the idea of an early start and an early finish. I’d like the concept of getting home early to have more time for social things in the evening.

As a firefighter who works a four-on, four-off pattern of 12-hour shifts, I know how physically and mentally tiring that could be. I like working four days because it gives me more time off. I feel it’s easier for younger people who have more energy and fewer responsibilities like childcare or pets. I know a lot of people in office jobs who come home from their jobs and don’t want to look at another screen so if more hours are added to the day they might struggle. It begs the question of productivity levels – will they drop towards the end of the day?

Molly Tunley, 25, West End

It would be really beneficial in some industries. Some ppl could be really productive in a four-day week because they’d have more time off which effectively lets you calm down and relax, making you more productive the next week. In shift-based industries it could cause problems in needing more people to work and while we have a job shortage not everyone wants to work in those jobs because its looked down on, which is a societal thing.