研究发现,英国公共部门对四天工作制的最大尝试带来了巨大好处
2024-07-10 jiangye111 6178
正文翻译
Largest UK public sector trial of four-day week sees huge benefits, research finds
-South Cambridgeshire experiment led to fewer refuse collectors quitting and faster planning decisions

研究发现,英国公共部门对四天工作制的最大尝试带来了巨大好处
——南剑桥郡的实验导致了更少的垃圾收集者辞职和更快的规划决策


(Council rubbish bins in Cambourne, Cambridge.)

(剑桥大学坎伯恩市议会的垃圾桶。)
新闻:

In the largest public sector trial of the four-day week in Britain, fewer refuse collectors quit and there were faster planning decisions, more rapid benefits processing and quicker call answering, independent research has found.

独立研究发现,在英国规模最大的为期四天的公共部门试验中,实现了更少的垃圾收集者辞职,更快的规划决策,更快的福利处理和更快的电话接听。

South Cambridgeshire district council’s controversial experiment with a shorter working week resulted in improvements in performance in 11 out of 24 areas, little or no change in 11 areas and worsening of performance in two areas, according to analysis of productivity before and during the 15-month trial by academics at the universities of Cambridge and Salford.

剑桥大学和索尔福德大学的学者对南剑桥郡区议会为期15个月的试验前后的生产力进行了分析,结果显示,缩短工作周这一备受争议的试验在24个领域中有11个领域的表现有所改善,在11个领域几乎没有变化,在两个领域的表现有所恶化。

The trial by the Liberal Democrat-controlled authority drew a furious reaction from the Conservative government, with a minister telling the borough leader, Bridget Smith, to “end your experiment immediately”, complaining that it would not give value for money for local taxpayers.

由自由民主党控制的(地方)政府进行的实验引起了保守党政府的强烈反应,一位大臣告诉自治市领导人布里奇特·史密斯“立即结束你的实验”,并抱怨说这不会让当地纳税人的钱物有所值。

The Tory former local MP, Anthony Browne, who was defeated by a Liberal Democrat in last week’s general election, had attacked the trial as “an ideological crusade”.

保守党前地方议员安东尼·布朗在上周的大选中被自由民主党击败,他抨击这次实验是“一场意识形态的十字军东征”。

The multi-year study of the trial involving about 450 desk staff plus refuse collectors found:

这项历时数年的研究涉及约450名前台工作人员和垃圾收集人员,结果发现:

1、Staff turnover fell by 39%, helping save £371,500 in a year, mostly on agency staff costs.
2、Regular household planning applications were decided about a week and a half earlier.
3、Approximately 15% more major planning application decisions were completed within the correct timescale, compared with before.
4、The time taken to process changes to housing benefit and council tax benefit claims fell.

1、员工流动率下降39%,一年节省371500英镑,主要是代理人员成本。
2、常规的家庭计划申请在一个半星期前就决定了。
3、与以前相比,在正确的时间范围内完成了大约15%的重大规划申请决策。
4、处理住房福利和市政税福利申请变更所需的时间减少了。

On the downside, rent collection for council housing worsened slightly, although this was attributed to the cost of living crisis. The speed with which empty council houses were relet fell slightly, from 28 to 30 days on average. The results were adjusted for the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

不利的一面是,廉租房的租金收取情况略有恶化,尽管这是由于生活成本危机造成的。空置廉租房的出租速度略有下降,从平均28天降至30天。实验结果根据新冠大流行的影响进行了调整。

Joe Ryle, the director of the 4 Day Week Campaign said the results heralded “a huge opportunity for councils and organisations across the public sector to start planning for a four-day working week”.

“4天工作周”运动的负责人乔·赖尔说,实验结果预示着“公共部门的议会和组织开始规划一周工作4天的巨大机会”。

The new Labour government is expected to push the NHS to work longer hours to reduce waiting lists, with more operations at weekends, and is preparing to speed up the planning process to boost housebuilding.

预计新的工党政府将推动国家医疗体系延长工作时间,以减少等待名单,并在周末增加运营,并准备加快规划过程,以促进住房建设。

Productivity has flatlined in the British economy since the pandemic after historically rising at about 2% annually. In 2019, Labour under Jeremy Corbyn included plans to cut the working week to 32 hours with no loss of pay in its manifesto, but this year the party said nothing about enabling a four-day week in its latest promises. It has pledged to deliver economic growth and productivity growth across the economy to enable greater spending on public services without raising income tax, national insurance and VAT.

自疫情以来,英国经济的生产率一直处于停滞状态,而历史上的年增长率约为2%。2019年,杰里米·科尔宾领导的工党在其宣言中包括了将每周工作时间削减至32小时且不减薪的计划,但今年该党在其最新承诺中没有提及实现四天工作周。它承诺在不提高所得税、国民保险和增值税的情况下,实现整个经济的经济增长和生产率增长,从而增加公共服务支出。

Employers everywhere from Sweden to the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand to the US have experimented with the four-day week. But last week the government of Greece announced a new six-day week policy for private companies aimed at boosting the economy amid a shrinking population and shortage of skilled workers. It is seeking longer hours from workers to turbocharge productivity.

从瑞典到阿拉伯联合酋长国,从新西兰到美国,世界各地的雇主都在尝试四天工作制。但上周,希腊政府宣布了一项针对私营企业的新六天工作制政策,目的是在人口减少和熟练工人短缺的情况下提振经济。该公司正在寻求延长工人的工作时间,以提高生产率。

Under the South Cambridgeshire trial, which began in January 2023 and ran to April 2024, staff were expected to carry out 100% of their work in 80% of the time for 100% of the pay. The full trial cut staff turnover by 39% and scores for employees’ physical and mental health, motivation and commitment all improved, the study showed.

南剑桥郡的试点从2023年1月开始,一直持续到2024年4月,员工需要在80%的时间内完成100%的工作,获得100%的工资。研究显示,整个试验将员工流失率降低了39%,员工的身心健康、积极性和敬业度得分都有所提高。

“Coupled with the hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayer money that we have saved, improved recruitment and retention and positives around health and wellbeing, this brave and pioneering trial has clearly been a success,” said John Williams, the lead council member for resources. “We know we cannot compete on salary alone and have needed to find bold new ways of tackling our recruitment and retention issues.”

“再加上我们节省了数十万英镑的纳税人的钱,改善了招聘和留住员工,并在健康和福利方面取得了积极的进展,这一勇敢而开拓性的试验显然是成功的,”负责资源的委员会首席成员约翰·威廉姆斯说。“我们知道,我们无法仅靠薪酬来竞争,我们需要找到大胆的新方法来解决我们的招聘和留住问题。”

Mike Davey, the leader of Cambridge city council, which shares planning services with South Cambridgeshire, described the trial as “a win-win-win situation, with improved service delivery for residents, reduced staffing costs for the council, and a better work-life balance for council staff.”

与南剑桥郡共享规划服务的剑桥市议会领导人迈克·戴维称,这一试验是“一个三赢的局面,既改善了居民的服务提供,又降低了议会的人力成本,还改善了议会工作人员的工作与生活平衡。”

Scores of private companies have already adopted the approach, with many finding it helps staff retention. Ryle said the South Cambridgeshire results “prove once and for all that a four-day week with no loss of pay absolutely can succeed in a local government setting”.

许多私营公司已经采用了这种方法,许多公司发现这有助于留住员工。赖尔说,南剑桥郡的结果“彻底证明,在地方政府环境下,四天工作周不减薪绝对可以成功”。

评论翻译
therealhairykrishna
I worked a 4-day week for about a year. I just cramming a lot of hours into the 4 days but it was still really good. I had Fridays off and a 3 day weekend, every weekend, was perfect.

我一周工作4天,持续了大约一年。我只是在4天里塞了很多时间,但它仍然很好。我周五休息,周末3天,每个周末都是完美的。

BobMonkhaus
It depends on the sector. I did compressed hours in an office and it was great, can’t imagine doing it in retail though I’d go insane.

这取决于行业。我在办公室工作的时间被压缩了,这很棒,但我无法想象在零售行业做这件事,尽管我会发疯。
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Beer-MilkshakesBlack Country
We call bank holidays "family day" because that is what it is. If I worked 4 days a week we'd have a family day every weekend where we didn't need to cram shopping and house chores.

我们称银行假日为“家庭日”,因为它本来就是这样。如果我一周工作4天,我们每个周末就会有一个家庭日,这样我们就不需要(把那一天)塞满购物和家务了。

Palaponel
This is really worth considering - there are myriad downstream benefits from this that are really hard to quantify.
What is the benefit to every employee being x% better rested?
What is the benefit of every child spending X% more time with their parents? What's the benefit of every working adult having more time to visit the doctor?
What is the benefit to local economies of having an extra day of prime consumer time? The benefit to the high street?
What is the benefit to culture for having an extra day available for people to learn new skills, meet up with friends, write, sing, etc? What is the benefit to innovation and development?
All these things are really hard to quantify, but I think self-evidently could be revolutionary.
It's also worth taking into account something that I think it was Bhutan recently started doing - measuring GNH Gross National Happiness. Why do we do anything? To live and be happy. If we're confident a four day work week is sustainable economically, we should do it based on that merit alone, let alone any of the other great reasons.

这确实值得考虑——由此产生的无数下游利益确实难以量化。
对每个员工来说,休息时间提高X%有什么好处?
每个孩子多花X%的时间和父母在一起有什么好处?每个有工作的成年人有更多的时间去看医生有什么好处?
多一天的黄金消费时间对当地经济有什么好处?对商业街有什么好处?
多出一天时间让人们学习新技能、与朋友聚会、写作、唱歌等等,对文化有什么好处?创新发展的好处是什么?
所有这些都很难量化,但我认为不言自明可能是革命性的。
同样值得考虑的是不丹最近开始做的事情——衡量GNH国民幸福总值。我们为什么要做任何事?快乐地生活就好。如果我们确信四天工作制在经济上是可持续的,我们就应该只基于四天工作制的优点,而不是其他任何伟大的理由。

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hadawayandshite
As a teacher I can’t see how it would work—-unless it’s timetabled so teachers are off one day a week but the kids are still in for all 5

作为一名教师,我看不出它是如何运作的——除非它是一个时间表,能让这样老师每周多休息一天,而孩子们仍然5天都在

Caliado
4 day school weeks for the children and teachers are being used in lots of school in America (plus, France and Japan the the US has been in the news for it semi recently). It's partly a money and retention thing, but it also seems to have got big positive responses from all of teachers, parents and students.

美国的许多学校都采用了每周4天的学校制(加上法国和日本,美国最近也因此上了新闻)。这在一定程度上是为了钱和留住,但它似乎也得到了所有老师、家长和学生的积极回应。

ArchdukeToes
I think most people are stressed and on the verge of burnout (I know I am!) and so it's not surprising that an extra day off doesn't result in a reduction in productivity, just like forcing an extra day wouldn't result in more work being done.

我认为大多数人都有压力,处于精疲力竭的边缘(我知道我就是!),所以多休息一天并不会导致效率降低,这并不奇怪,就像强迫多休息一天不会导致有更多的工作要完成一样。

merryman1
Was discussing this issue with friends this weekend. We're all in our 30s and feeling exactly the same. Just seems like work culture has become focused on a kind of 100% output capacity 100% of the time, and we all feel like that's just not actually sustainable. We all either burn-out or we step back and just resign ourselves to no longer being seen as outstanding or excelling at our work, which is actually quite hard to deal with if you take pride in it or are career-focused.

这个周末我和朋友们讨论了这个问题。我们都30多岁了,感觉一模一样。似乎工作文化已经变得专注于100%的产出能力,而我们都觉得这实际上是不可持续的。我们要么精疲力尽,要么退一步,让自己在工作中不再被视为杰出或出色,如果你为此感到自豪或专注于职业,这实际上是很难处理的。

Ambrose_UK
It's time for the 5 day work week to die. So outdated. People work more efficiently / effectively and productively with better work life balance. Happy people are just better at everything.

是时候废除每周5天工作制了。太过时了。人们工作起来更有效率、更有成效,工作和生活的平衡也会更好。快乐的人在每件事上都做得更好。

i_am_milk
My worry about the the 4 day week is that a lot of the initial results could be down to the novelty of it. Will everything level back out after a number of years? IDK.
In my view it will only get a foothold if privates jump at the researched benefits, or the workforce start demanding it in a similar vein to work from home.

我对四天工作制的担心在于,很多最初的结果可能归结于它的新奇性。几年后,一切都会恢复到原来的水平吗?我不知道。
在我看来,只有当私营企业接受了研究的好处,或者劳动力开始以类似的方式要求在家工作时,它才会站稳脚跟。

Saw_Boss
Unfortunately, this trial doesn't really answer the big question.
For jobs which rely on a headcount being available, how is this going to help?
E.g. the lix in the article regarding bin collections suggests they don't have enough evidence to comment on how they can do 40 hours work in 32. They can't drive to areas any faster, and probably can't move bins any faster.
I work in an industry which needs to have a certain number of heads available at all times. We calculate how many employees are need at any one time to deliver in most circumstances. If we drop an average hours down from 40 to 32, it will simply mean we need to hire more people which means increased costs etc.
Whilst there's obviously an argument that this is still an improvement for many (including me), it's going to undoubtedly create a lot of resentment in those who can't benefit because of the impacts. I feel like we need an answer for that.

不幸的是,这个试验并没有真正回答这个大问题。
对于那些需要人手的工作,这有什么帮助呢?
比如,文章中关于垃圾箱收集的链接表明,他们没有足够的证据来评论他们如何在32小时内完成40小时的工作。他们不能更快地开车到某个地区,可能也不能更快地移动垃圾箱。
我所从事的行业需要始终有一定数量的人头可用。我们计算在大多数情况下,在任何时候需要多少员工来交付。如果我们把平均工作时间从40小时减少到32小时,这只意味着我们需要雇佣更多的人,这意味着成本增加等等。
虽然有一种观点认为这对许多人(包括我)来说仍然是一种进步,但毫无疑问,这将使那些无法从中受益的人产生很多怨恨。我觉得我们需要一个答案。

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Plank_With_A_Nail_In
Why does every job need to have the same work week, if it doesn't work for that job don't do it.
Completely made up issue simply solved by not having a one size fits all policy.
The need for fairness or everyone being the same leads to nonsense like this.

为什么每个工作都需要有相同的工作周,如果不适合那份工作,那就不要实施好了。
完全是编造出来的问题,只要不搞一刀切的政策就能解决。
是对公平或人人平等的需求导致了这样的无稽之谈。

Saw_Boss
The naivety in this post is outstanding.
Imagine yourself in the position of a care worker. Your HR colleagues, your payroll colleagues etc all get an extra day off a week at 0 reduction in pay. You do not.
Now how do you think staff retention is going to be in that role? It's all well and good saying "don't do that job then", but then again it's not like we need care workers, is it?
Shit like this is great for populists, the lazy office worker vs the real workers.

这篇文章的幼稚是突出的。
想象自己是一名护工。你的人力资源部同事,你的工资部同事等等每周都有一天额外的假期,工资减少0。但你没有。
那么你认为在这个角色中,员工保留会是怎样的呢?说“那就别做那份工作了”很好,但话说回来,我们又不需要护工,对吧?(反讽)
像这样的扯淡对民粹主义者、懒惰的上班族是很棒的,但对真正的工人不利。

Sixsignsofalex94
I get the less days, more hours. Sounds great! 4 10 hour days Vs 5 8s, lovely, sounds great.

我少了天数,多了小时数。听起来太棒了!4个10小时工作日 VS 5个8小时工作日,很好,听起来很棒。

WitteringLaconic
I work in a sector that has a 55hr average working week excluding breaks where if you're getting home 12-13hrs after leaving you're doing well.

我所在的行业平均每周工作55小时,不包括休息时间,如果你离家后12-13小时才下班回到家,那说明你已经干得很好了。

iamezekiel1_14
As a public sector worker I'm not sure how that would work for me at all. Most of the time we are at capacity or there or thereabouts (e.g. cut to the bone to the point when certain functions work spikes we have to outsource which in some respects is the most efficient way). I can see the points and how this might work but surely your effective cost per hour goes up for the utility gained so I'm not seeing how this would help? Sounds a really good idea but I can't see how it would work in a practical sense?

作为一名公共部门的工作人员,我不确定这对我来说是否有效。大多数时候,我们的能力都是饱和的(比如,当某些功能出现峰值时,我们不得不将其外包——在某些方面是最有效的方式)。我能理解这些观点以及它是如何工作的,但你每小时的有效成本肯定会随着效用的增加而上升,所以我看不出这有什么用?听起来是个好主意,但我看不出它在实际意义上是如何起作用的。

HowAboutNah_
My promotion came with an extra day off a week, I make up from it doing an extra two hours a day.
I have such a better life balance now I have three days off a week.

我升职的时候每周多放一天假,我用每天多干两个小时来弥补,但我现在已经没有了。
现在我的生活更平衡了,我每周休息三天。

BatVisual5631
I charge a day rate. If I want to drop to 4 days, I have to increase my day rate by 25% to maintain the same income. That’s fine, but I suspect my customers won’t be overjoyed.

我按日收费。如果我想减少到4天,我必须将日费率提高25%以保持相同的收入。这很好,但我怀疑我的顾客不会欣喜若狂。

Thestickleman
It wouldn't work and I would want to work that extra day and maybe for more money but would be nice to have a 4 day work week instead of 50+ average or often 60+ hours a week without the weekend as well

这是行不通的,我会想多工作那一天,也许是为了挣更多的钱,但如果每周工作4天,而不是平均每周50多个小时,或者通常每周60多个小时,而且没有周末,那会很好

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