gpt summary
South Cambridgeshire District Council's trial of a four-day workweek for full pay, which began in 2023, has drawn criticism after an independent report revealed that 16% of staff engage in second jobs on their extra day off. Critics argue this undermines the trial's purpose of allowing employees to "recover and re-energize" and raises concerns about taxpayers subsidizing staff with external employment. The trial, initially praised for boosting employee happiness and maintaining service levels, has faced scrutiny from government officials and taxpayers for perceived inefficiency and poor value for money. A motion has been proposed to implement stricter monitoring of staff activities, prohibit conflicts of interest, and address concerns about council resources. Despite criticism and calls to end the program, the council has continued the experiment, maintaining that certain roles, like waste workers, traditionally involve secondary employment.
kind of annoying, but not surprising, the useless Government Slug class making a mockery of us all
Eh, personally I do not have anything against that. If their job contract says 4 days a week, they can do whatever they want on their time off
Well not if it's a trial and they want to measure the effects (well-being, sick days, productivity etc) against a control group that works 5-day weeks.
You're basically violating the conditions of the trial
fucked up the trial, however, learned a lesson about what government workers will do when given an extra 'rest' day
the rub is that they are being paid for 5 days, by the tax payer and only reason they were given the extra day was so they could rest and be more productive on their actual workdays.
so, while not a breach of any contract, the optics are terrible and normal, working people are, understandably, pissed.
in a logical world, we would say, ok, since I'm paying you 5 days, and you're only working 4, but don't need the extra rest after all, now come back on the 5th day