Below is a copy of the letter sent by a whistleblower at South Cambridgeshire District Council, where they are undergoing a 4-day weak
I work at the council here at South Cambs. I’m writing this because I want everyone to know what it’s really like to work under the 4-day week here.
The council is arms-length, cold and isolating. The office often feels like one big empty shell. On a Monday and a Friday, you could hear a pin drop. It’s a very sad place to be and it’s not been good for my mental health. It’s so lonely working here. We're quite a big council with lots of people, but I've never felt more alone.
The 4-day week is in fact a 3-day week. Most people have Mondays or Fridays off, so most meetings are scheduled Tuesday to Thursday to ensure everyone is available. This makes the work even more intense. Mondays and Fridays are a write-off if you need to do any team working, so you have to cram the bulk of your work into 3 days. This is unsustainable.
When you factor in hybrid working, it gets even worse. Staff are only required to be in the office once per week. In reality, though, it’s less than that because there’s only a 1 in 4 (really 1 in 3) chance that you'll be in the office on the same day as someone else. This makes it impossible to build consistent working relationships with colleagues. How can you, when it’s a lottery as to which colleagues will be in the office each day?
The combination of the 4-day week and hybrid working has made the council a very cold place to work. It’s a massive three-storey building, but we only need one floor for council staff now — not even that. We don’t have a canteen so there’s little opportunity to socialise, not to mention the fact everyone is working back-to-back to get all their work done in 4 days. I think the public are confused, as some people think we’re working compressed hours. But we're not. We're just working less hours — one whole day less.
I know people think it sounds great. And yes, who would turn down working 4 days a week for full pay? Who would say no to a 3-day weekend, every weekend? Nobody would, which is why nobody gets to do it, except us. That creates a lot of resentment and people don’t see that side of it. If I'm talking to family or friends about work who don’t know about the 4-day week, I pretend I’m working a 5-day week like everyone else. I’m ashamed and afraid to be labelled ‘lazy’, or get remarks like ‘typical council, hardly working’. In truth, we’re having to work harder than ever to get everything done in less time, but nobody understands that. So I just pretend it isn’t happening to people in the outside world because I don’t want the embarrassment of having to explain how it all works and feeling like a scrounger.
The guilt burden is huge. On my non-working day, I’m always on edge in case something pops up and I’m not there to deal with it. My family don’t do 4-day weeks, so on my non-working day I feel embarrassed because they're busy working hard for their money, while I get a lie in. It makes me feel inadequate — like I'm not good enough. I feel a lot of pressure to make up for it by spending my non-working day doing [redacted]. It's a very strange feeling doing the shopping or walking the dog when you know everyone else is at work — and I don’t like it. I certainly try not to talk to any tax-paying residents about it because I know people don’t like paying us not to work.
All of this makes it even more isolating because it’s like I can’t join in conversations about work with my friends and family. I’m too scared because I just know people would be very critical. I don’t want that social embarrassment. Sometimes, it feels like I'm acting like I’m working for MI6 or something, I'm that secretive about it. There are many things we can’t talk about as we're dealing with members of the public, but it would still be nice to talk freely again about how I'm getting on in my career. Council officers are most definitely not politicians, but it feels like I have to be one in social situations, wriggling out of conversations about work to avoid the shame. The social anxiety the 4-day week is causing is detrimental.
I’ve found it much harder to socialise with people at work. Even on the off chance you strike it lucky and are in the office on the same day as someone else, the chances are you'll both be in back-to-back meetings or glued to your computer trying to cram your work into 4 days. This hasn't helped with the loneliness because there’s no time anymore for a catch up about your weekend or your holiday because you've got to get on with work. It’s like being up against a ticking timebomb every week. I don’t like to approach people at their desks anymore, either, because I don’t want to disturb them. We hot desk so it should be really easy to say hello or check something with people, but I know what it’s like to be so busy that you can’t stop for a chat, so I don’t want to be a nuisance.
I feel new starters have struggled. They don’t have those working relationships established with others prior to the 4-day week and hybrid working, so I imagine they find it extra hard to get to know their colleagues when they never know who will be in the office and when. I don’t think this is good for career development. There’s also no time to fit in any training. The council is keen to offer people learning and development opportunities, but I don’t have time to take advantage of them to progress my career. Or, if I do agree to extra training and development sessions, they end up being a nuisance because I’ve got too much other work to do on that day, so I end up multitasking and missing out on the opportunity.
All the staff I’ve worked with at the council have been amazing. Everyone's so dedicated to helping residents in South Cambs and I find that very heartwarming to be a part of. But this means I find it very sad seeing staff get stressed. I want people to know that all the staff here are so committed and do some fantastic work for our community. Please do be kind to them if you need help with something. I promise they really are trying their best.
I understand why residents are annoyed. Would you want to pay council tax, knowing your council is having a paid day off every week? No. What's more, residents don’t interact with their council unless they've got a problem. We collect people’s bins, collect their council tax, sort council housing and decide planning applications. Nobody wants to talk about any of these things unless they really have to. It's annoying when your bin gets missed or when someone gets permission to build something you don’t like. I understand this. And the 4-day week only gives residents extra frustration, because we've heard stories of people trying to contact the council and getting ‘out of office’ emails and struggling to get in touch. I don’t think it’s good for our reputation. I feel the public have lost trust in us.
That scrutiny is very challenging to deal with. I feel people are working themselves into the ground to prop up services. It feels like [redacted] - until it conks out and breaks. I fear some people will soon reach that stage.
The 4-day week is meant to be about improving recruitment, but people have still left during the 4-day week trial. I don’t think it suits a lot of people. They don’t like how cold the council has become because of it. Unfortunately, it’s not a welcoming culture here for new people anymore because it’s so transactional. I think that’s why they’re leaving, even though I guess they’re going to regular 5-day week jobs. If a fully paid extra day off each week isn’t keeping people at the council, what does that tell you?
A 4-day week is nice. Of course it is. It gives me an extra day to [redacted]. But it can make work so much harder, with so many more hoops and automatic replies to jump through before you get to the person you need to speak to. The guilt is an immeasurable burden. I don't like the feeling that residents don't like how we are working, and I hate the shame of feeling a lazy cheat on my non-working day. There's so much pressure on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. The heightened stress in the office is palpable.
So it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, this 4-day week. Maybe you would say people like me should just opt out and work 5 days. But when you have the chance to have a paid day off, why would you do that? Surely you would try and cram it all into 4 days too?
Working here is hard, isolating and, to be honest, depressing. I’m struggling with it a lot. So when people read about us in the news and say how much they’d love a 4-day week, I would encourage them to think again. Be careful what you wish for.