I'm with Cowbee. I don't see this happening outside of a few mom and pop places that decide to do it on their own until "government" forces the change. Just look at the 3 letter jackasses freaking out about WFH.
The 4 day work week likely won't be established as the standard until Socialism is achieved and the bourgeoisie overthrown, but when that happens it will depend on the job and sector, likely working with different shifts to maintain 24/7 production but with lower workload. Probably a move to a 30 hour work-week, like what PSL suggests.
Middle of the week off day lets you get all your errands done with little annoyance from or waiting behind the public, so you get everything knocked out and have your weekends 100% for you.
More importantly, on a 4 day workweek with Wed/Weekend off, you NEVER work more than two consecutive days. Ever. It's fantastic.
I used to work a compressed week and started taking Monday but eventually it moved to Friday. When I took Monday off I felt like I had to pay for it with the next four days, when I took Friday it was like I was being rewarded with an early weekend.
Crazy thought, but what if it differed by industry? Something like blue collar jobs get Monday off, white collar gets Friday off. That way office workers can for example more easily stay home to get their cable serviced and plumbers can more easily meet with a mortgage agent. Obviously because of overlap it's not perfect (office workers can't meet with mortgage agent, plumbers can't get their cable serviced), but there's a huge issue currently with people working 9-5 M-F being unable to access services that are also only available 9-5 M-F, so this would at least distribute things a little more. (This kind of thing already exists for some industries like restaurants, where W-Su workweeks are common)
UK majority of the bank holidays are on a Monday, so Fridays would be nice as otherwise you'd lose them and what would become long weekends now.
UK we are seeing a very slow shift to 4 day weeks for more privileged jobs, I work with two people who both have Fridays off as it's an actual thing you can apply for at my employer.
While the Tories stopped councils from offering 4 day weeks to employees, it's got to be coming back, further spreading its availability.
I save up my vacation every year and take as many Wednesdays off as possible. I prefer the break in the middle of the week. It has done wonders for my mental health and my ability to get shit done while everyone else is busy.
It should be mandatory to stagger it by lottery. That way there's only ~20% of people off on the same day and you can enjoy your day more. I hate going out on weekends because of all of the extra people who are out. Being off on weekdays is great for the most part.
Those are the only two days you could have picked where it wouldn't make a difference. Either way you have 4 consecutive days of work followed by 3 free days.
There's a lot of optimism in this thread, so if I may imagine Sophie kicking the dust instead of choosing..
Assuming such a thing did happen it'd only happen for a subset of the population, which would then be divided such that one group gets Monday and the other gets Friday while service workers get two more nights of labor.
I'm lucky to have been able to experiment a bit with this as my work is flexible and I'm in a pretty good bargaining position. I also do a fair bit of unpaid work out of hours.
Having either Friday or Monday I've found to be little different. Having alternating Fridays and Mondays is pretty awesome, 4 days on, 2 off, 4 on, 4 off.
There's a lot to be said for a mid week day off too. I'm looking at moving to a new employer and hoping to go negotiate a 3 day week, maybe Mon-Tues-Thur for example which will be heaven if I can pull it off.
I'd willingly want to move down to 4-day weeks in some year even with the reduced salary. I'm privileged enough to afford it, and the time regained is absolutely worth the loss in salary and future pension. I'd like alternating Mondays and Fridays, so every 2 weeks you get a 4-day weekend.
Unless you do something special depending on the day (like going to church on Sundays), aren't the two options the same? They are both 4 up 3 down periods.
Personally i prefer 1 day off 1 day on. So youd get 4 days of work one week then 3 the next and youd have a day off in between each shift. Then youd get like an extra 30 days off of vacation time per year you can take whenever you want. So youd only have to work 10 months out of the year, and your work half of that time. If we were doing socialism and workers were not being worked to the bone for capitalist profits that is entirely doable to keep society functioning in peacetime. Especially with how much we can now automate and will be able to in the near future.
Not totally relevant because I work 4-on-4-off, but I tell anyone who will listen to me say that the best, most wonderfullest, pry it from my cold fingers part is that I no longer care if it’s Monday. Ever. This is wonderful, even if my shifts fall on one. Because it’s Monday and it’s no longer special and has no power over me. I don’t think I’d have the same passion talking about Fridays.
If we all have the same schedule, Friday, if it varies, Monday. I can get stuff done and everyone is tired and grumpy so I don't have to talk a bunch. People are too... Talkative on Fridays.
I sincerely do not know as I'm currently unemployed to try and imagine a 4-day work week. I mean, it would be a good thing, more time to dedicate for things you like the most (such as a hobby and/or family and/or pets and/or entertainment and/or spirituality/beliefs/religion and/or education/courses). But it'd only work if there's any job. With the ongoing situation with AI replacement, profit-eagerness culture of businesses, I don't really have optimistic views on the future of employment, with or without 4-day work week.
So I work annualised hours, based on a 35hr work week. So summer hour are Mon thru Fri 41hrs total, winter is Mon thru Thurs 31hrs total. I actually like the setup, as a mason I'd actually not mind doing longer hours than we are in the summer and even shorter in the winter, as the weather is too shit in the winter to actually get anything done anyway.