The end of the three-day May Day bank holiday weekend is drawing to a close and I’ll be back at work again tomorrow. A number of businesses in the UK have trialed four-day working weeks recently, in most cases very successfully, but I don’t think my employer has any inclination to offer the same. Perhaps in time, as more places start to provide employees with these types of flexible working options, it will happen, but I’ll probably be on brink of retirement by the time it does.
A four-day week certainly sounds appealing though, even if it means working longer hours on the days I work. I could do a lot with an extra day, and it would expand the time I have for leisure, certainly. It would be like having a bank holiday every week!
I went out for a walk with a camera on Saturday, but nothing particularly focused – I needed some more DD-X developer, so went for a lengthy walk around town, snapping anything that caught my eye, although I only shot ten or eleven frames. I got my DD-X though, plus three rolls of 120 black and white film (I still have a huge stash of film to shoot but very little medium format B&W left, which is something I use quite often, so I got a few rolls to tide me over).
No photography related stuff today (unless I include uploading some new pictures to Flickr and posting here), but I went to see Thunderbolts* with my wife, which was good fun. Back to the 9-to-5 tomorrow.
And here’s a random picture of a building…
Nikon F80 & Tamron 28-300mm F/3.5-6.3 Di VC PZD. Ilford HP5+ (@800), Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 10mins @ 20°
Taken on 22 February 2025
Steel City Snapper photography 
Personally, working a 40-hour 4-day week is exhausting. Swing shifts and graveyard shifts are even worse. I am a morning person, and for me, a 32-hour M-Th week was perfect. There is a lot of fatigue in a 10-11 hour day and a lack of personal space or time. For me, I prefer a shorter day even if it cuts into the weekend! The SO works a 4-day schedule and loves and hates it. Given one of his work days is Saturday, it leaves little time – only Sunday – for connecting with people who have normal working hours unless it is a Monday holiday. Just sayin!!
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Oh, certainly – I should have caveated my post to say that I wouldn’t want to work weekends or shifts as part of a 4-day arrangement.
I’m hoping that, in a few years, I’ll be able to shift to part-time working with a shorter working week and more time off (albeit with less pay). And then retirement. 🙂
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I used to think I’d like 4 10s a week. Maybe I would have liked that when I was brimming with energy in my 20s. But at this age — even 8 hours can be a slog sometimes.
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I expect there’s definitely an element of “the grass is always greener” to consider, and it’s difficult to know without actually experiencing a four day full-time week, but having an extra day of leisure each week is a big attraction.
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