I remember the same thought in the '60s and '70s with Tomorrow's World etc promising the huge extra leisure time. And of course goes back to the dawn of industrialisation and hence the Luddite revolts - which brings up the real challenge, which is how to create a new economic model. At present if automation means you only need staff 4 days a week then they will only get paid for 4 days a week (i.e. 4/5 their current salary), because that's the whole point - to improve financial productivity. If you're producing the same output for the same wage bill then you are in the same position as before, actually worse off because you've now paid for the automation as well. So a more socially responsible model is to increase output so the workers still work 5 days a week (and earn the same) but are now more productive. However, it could be argued (i.e. I personally would argue this, but I'm no expert in economics and I'm sure others would have good arguments against me!) that rather than using automation to increase production to produce more things we don't need in order to retain full employment, that we change the economic model so that the use of automation retains the same standard of living for us whilst reducing working hours. Sadly no-one seems to have come up with a successful, or maybe acceptable, model for that though...

This is a bit "been there, done that" for me - a few years ago I was involved with managing the introduction of similar changes (and LEAN) for a manufacturing company, we had to do a huge amount of work to reassure the workforce that we were not going to reduce hours or cut staff, but we were going to increase output for the same staff. Which we did (which saved the jobs and indeed the UK site from closure, the parent company would have moved production to a lower cost country otherwise). Of course it would have been great to have been able to take the other approach to reduce people's hours and pay them the same, but there's no way the parent company would have allowed that to happen, for two reasons. Effectively it would be an hourly rate pay rise for the same (or lower) skills which (rightly or wrongly) would not have been accepted, and it wouldn't have answered the key question of "why are we doing this in the UK when we could do this cheaper overseas?" (Again rightly or wrongly, but it is the question that will always be asked.)

Wish I (or anyone!) knew the answer to all this, it's a particularly important question for the future of UK manufacturing.

I must admit I hoping to go down to a four day week sometime next year, but will be taking the 20% pay cut that comes with it...nothing to do with automation making my role redundant (I'm sure people could find me 7 days work a week to do!) but because as I get older the idea of trading cash for a bit of travelling time and pottering time in my own workshop becomes more and more appealing! But I'm well aware I'm very lucky to have the choice to be able to potentially (just about) afford this, plenty can't afford to have this thrust upon them unless the economics change.

Really interesting subject,

Thanks,

Andy

I remember the same thought in the '60s and '70s with Tomorrow's World etc promising the huge extra leisure time. And of course goes back to the dawn of industrialisation and hence the Luddite revolts - which brings up the real challenge, which is how to create a new economic model. At present if automation means you only need staff 4 days a week then they will only get paid for 4 days a week (i.e. 4/5 their current salary), because that's the whole point - to improve financial productivity. If you're producing the same output for the same wage bill then you are in the same position as before, actually worse off because you've now paid for the automation as well. So a more socially responsible model is to increase output so the workers still work 5 days a week (and earn the same) but are now more productive. However, it could be argued (i.e. I personally would argue this, but I'm no expert in economics and I'm sure others would have good arguments against me!) that rather than using automation to increase production to produce more things we don't need in order to retain full employment, that we change the economic model so that the use of automation retains the same standard of living for us whilst reducing working hours. Sadly no-one seems to have come up with a successful, or maybe acceptable, model for that though...

This is a bit "been there, done that" for me - a few years ago I was involved with managing the introduction of similar changes (and LEAN) for a manufacturing company, we had to do a huge amount of work to reassure the workforce that we were not going to reduce hours or cut staff, but we were going to increase output for the same staff. Which we did (which saved the jobs and indeed the UK site from closure, the parent company would have moved production to a lower cost country otherwise). Of course it would have been great to have been able to take the other approach to reduce people's hours and pay them the same, but there's no way the parent company would have allowed that to happen, for two reasons. Effectively it would be an hourly rate pay rise for the same (or lower) skills which (rightly or wrongly) would not have been accepted, and it wouldn't have answered the key question of "why are we doing this in the UK when we could do this cheaper overseas?" (Again rightly or wrongly, but it is the question that will always be asked.)

Wish I (or anyone!) knew the answer to all this, it's a particularly important question for the future of UK manufacturing.

I must admit I hoping to go down to a four day week sometime next year, but will be taking the 20% pay cut that comes with it...nothing to do with automation making my role redundant (I'm sure people could find me 7 days work a week to do!) but because as I get older the idea of trading cash for a bit of travelling time and pottering time in my own workshop becomes more and more appealing! But I'm well aware I'm very lucky to have the choice to be able to potentially (just about) afford this, plenty can't afford to have this thrust upon them unless the economics change.

Really interesting subject,

Thanks,

Andy

I had a good think about this...

It might actually be possible for some (not all) manufacturing companies to operate a 4 day week and offer the same pay as a 5 day week through automation.

Not all that many people in Britain work in manufacturing any more. It's reached a point where working in a factory is seen as a bit quaint, even in the classic manufacturing heartlands.

I have doubts whether the service sector and the public sector can operate a 4 day week for workers with the same pay as a 5 day week. These are characterised by low productivity, and in many cases a reluctance to adopt automation for a variety of reasons ranging from a near unlimited supply of immigrant workers to trade unions.