UK - Four-Day Workweek
Dozens of British employers trialing a four-day working week have mostly decided to stick with it after a pilot hailed as a breakthrough by campaigners for better work-life balance.
Employees at 61 companies across Britain worked an average of 34 hours across four days between June and December 2022, while earning their existing salary. Of those, 56 companies, or 92%, opted to continue like that, 18 of them permanently.
The trial is the largest in the world, according to Autonomy, a British-based research organization which published the report alongside a group of academics and with backing from New Zealand-based group 4 Day Week Global.
However, corporate Britain as a whole does not appear keen.
When the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), representing human resources professionals, surveyed members last year, it found very few employers expect to move to a four-day week in the next three years.
-www.reuters.com, 21 February 2023
Arno's Commentary
Working less and earning more seems to be the prevailing slogan of the European workforce; in this case, in the UK.
According to WorldPopulationReview.com, hours worked per week of selected countries:
Australia 29 hours
Netherlands 30 hours
Germany 35 hours
Canada 36 hours
UK 37 hours
This is quite an interesting development, particularly noticeable in the advanced, industrialized nations.
According to Wikipedia, paid vacation days plus paid holidays are as follows:
Netherlands 28 days
Australia 30 days
Germany 30 days
UK 30 days
Canada 32 days
These few selected countries show how to operate a well-compensated and rested workforce.
What does the Bible say? Exodus 20:9, which is addressed to the children of Israel, states: “Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work.” The seventh day was reserved for resting. In the New Testament, we read: “Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world” (John 11:9). That equals 72 hours per week. That is no longer the norm, as we can see from the above quoted statistics. Some countries’ workforce spend less than half that time at work.
There is another lesson; namely prosperity, brought about by man’s own inventiveness. Much of the work is being transferred from the shoulders of man to machines—modern technology is the answer. In simple terms, mankind—based on factual research—never had it so good as in our days. The back-breaking, exhausting physical labor of yesteryear is no more. Only a few experience, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” (Genesis 3:19a). Thus, it behooves us to ask the question: where will it lead? The answer is rather simple: less work, more free time, greater luxuries, and prosperity galore. However, and this is the important point: where we have arrived and will continue to progress toward, was what led to the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. We read in Ezekiel 16:49: “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.” Note the words, “abundance of idleness.” Thus it will be with humanity in the day of the apocalypse, which is yet to come.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
