Can you guess which professionals in England work 26 hours of overtime a week without compensation, give up time with friends and family to deal with the workload and often find themselves on call in the holidays? Not CEOs, bankers or even doctors, but teachers. No wonder, then, that teaching vacancies are at the highest level ever. Workload is the top concern that teachers cite for leaving the profession, with almost as many quitting as those who joined last year.
The 4 Day Week Foundation has written to the education secretary calling for greater autonomy for schools to pilot shorter working weeks, saying the government will not be able to meet its manifesto pledge of recruiting 6,500 new teachers without change. It comes after the Scottish government announced new proposals last week for teachers to be able to work a flexible four-day teaching week, which would see them given one day a week to focus on work such as preparation and marking.
As business leaders, trade union leaders and advocates who have witnessed the successful transition to a four-day working week (with no loss of pay) in many contexts, we can say with confidence that it is not just an idea for the future it is already delivering results today, the letter states. From different sectors and company sizes, we have all witnessed the same outcome: shorter working weeks are not only viable, but transformative.
A report from Owl Labs found a large majority (93%) of UK workers agreed they would take action (such as resign) if remote or hybrid options were removed entirely. Despite companies' best efforts to update policies to reflect more in-person working, employees simply don't want it. The number of candidates rejecting jobs without flexible hours has actually risen five percentage points from 39% to 44% in the past year.
We are living through an AI revolution. Boards are green-lighting pilots and buying AI licenses to maximize employee productivity. However, the most powerful performance lever in the modern workplace isn't algorithmic, it's human. When people are happier at work, they create, collaborate, and stay. When they aren't, the best tech in the world won't stop the value from leaking out of your organization.
