A four day week is

not a week at all.  The latest push by the union movement to have at least some people on a "four day week" is going to end in tears.

I am so tired of people not being "available". It is no longer possible to predict whether someone will be at work or not - well, it feels that way.  The "flexi-day" and the "work from home" days and more make it hard enough. 

"I am working from home today and I haven't got access to that information, " I am told. How in the heck are you doing your job then?

"He's not in the office today," someone tells me, "I think he's taking a flexi-day."

"No, I don't know anything about that. She usually takes some time out about now."

I have heard all those excuses and many more when I am waiting for decisions to be made. These are decisions which will allow me and people who actually want to work or need to work get on with the job. Unlike the people we are trying to contact we do not have the luxury of such flexible working arrangements. 

Now unions are  apparently suggesting that some people only need to work four days a week. They could work a little longer day and a little harder but they could fit five days work into four days.

No, they could not. It won't work. There will be people who will try it and find they need to have the work phone switched on anyway. This is what has happened to my BIL. He is owed more weeks of leave than he is strictly allowed to accumulate. He tried to take a day off recently to attend to something else urgent but his "day off" resulted in almost as much time spent working from home after his appointment. His working life is made much more difficult because his company is an international one and he needs to talk to people in different time zones. Adding a four day week to that anywhere else in the mix would mean even longer hours for him.

Do some people believe they can do their jobs effectively for just four days of the week and have "three days off"? The reality is that many of them won't actually get that day off anyway. Those that do won't use it for any real purpose even though they may intend to do just that.  You disagree? I think human nature will see to it that less gets done.

It would actually be much easier if most people went back to working regular hours. It might actually make life easier for people on essential shift work, especially medical shift work. It doesn't mean that people cannot work shorter hours to fit in with the school run or job share to fit in other responsibilities. It is consistency which is needed.  We might then know where people are and that they are doing the job they are paid to do.