UK – four-day work week to tackle stress

Reducing the work week from five days "will help reduce stress, allow families to spend more time together and reduce unemployment."

One of Britain's leading doctors has called for the country to switch to a four-day week to help combat high levels of work-related stress, which would allow people to spend more time with their families or in training and reduce unemployment.





“Translating a standard working week from five to four days can also help address issues such as high blood pressure and poor mental health associated with overtime or lack of work,” said Professor John Ashton.



The president of the UK Faculty of Public Health said the five-day week should be gradually reduced to end what he called the "misallocation of work" that is damaging many people's health.

“When you look at the way we live, people are under constant stress, lack of time and absence due to illness, where mental health is a major concern.” We have to move towards four days a week because there is a problem we have in the world of work - we have a proportion of the population that work too much among the proportion of people who don't have a job at all.



“We have an uneven distribution of work. If it's lunchtime, people just put a sandwich on their desk and keep working, added the leader of the 3,300 UK health experts working for the NHS, local government and the scientific community.



The Faculty of Members of Public Health works on issues such as obesity, poor nutrition, alcohol abuse and smoking, often associated with poverty, unemployment or poor housing, and tries to narrow the widening health gap between the rich and poor. Ashton is using his three-year chairmanship of the organisation to raise awareness that mental health problems such as anxiety and depression can be a cause or consequence of many public health problems.



“We need a four-day week so people can enjoy their lives, have more time with their families, and possibly reduce high blood pressure because people can start exercising on that extra free day.”



If two people work in a couple, they should be able to work in such a way that they can spend time with their children. It's a nightmare, said Ashton, who worked for the NHS for 42 years until he retired last year.



Britons work the most in Europe, according to a study that reported this and that long hours of work are associated with stress, sleep problems, reduced productivity and taking sick leave.

“I am concerned that too many people work too many hours and that there are too many people who do not work at all. “A lot of people work crazy hours and a lot of people can’t find work,” she said.



A YouGov survey in April found that 57% of workers support the idea of a four-day week and that 71% think it would make the UK a happier place.



Source: eco-portal.kz