In a first of its kind, there is a bank in Britain where employees work only four days a week. The British bank has introduced a four-day work week for all employees without cutting pay.
Atom Bank says it is the largest company in Britain to offer a four-day work week with no reduction of salary. The policy, which took effect November 1, was introduced to help improve employee well-being, CEO Mark Mullen told BBC.
Employees now work 34 hours a week instead of the 37.5 hours they were expected to put in earlier. The move to a four-day work week is voluntary, and employees who avail of it will be expected to work longer hours on the days they are in office.
“While we appreciate a four-day working week will not be right for all workplaces, the move to working from home has proved that working practices that may have seemed years away can be introduced rapidly,” CEO Mark Mullen said in a statement. “We firmly believe that this will prove beneficial for our employees’ well-being and happiness and that it will have an equally positive impact on business productivity and customer experience.”
According to CNN, a majority of Atom Bank’s 430 employees have switched to the new work week. Most employees are expected to take Mondays or Fridays off, except for employees in operational and service roles – who may have to vary their day off to ensure customer service is not affected.
Mr Mullen said the Covid pandemic showed the world that conventional works weeks are quickly becoming outdated.
“Before Covid, the conventional wisdom was you had to commute in, sit at a desk all day and repeat that process when you commuted home,” he told BBC. “Covid showed us that it wasn’t necessary…I think doing 9-5, Monday to Friday is a pretty old fashioned way of working.”
Researchers in Iceland recently found a shorter work week to be an “overwhelming success” in the country. Participants in the study reduced their work week by three to five hours without getting a pay cut, according to a Bloomberg report. At the end of the trial, more than 90% of workers said they wanted to permanently shorten their work week as it allowed them to focus on personal well-being while maintaining productivity.
