Yahoo Finance Today is National 4pm Finish Day - but does your boss have to let you leave early?
Friday is pretty much everyone’s favourite day of the week anyway, but today is a rather special one as it is National 4pm Finish Day.
That’s right, firms up and down the country are letting staff clock off at 4pm and head off to the pub, the gym, or just the sofa in order to get the weekend started that little bit earlier.
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OK, so it’s not exactly official – Theresa May hasn’t put her foot down and demanded that all employers go along with the idea. But if the #4pmfinish timeline is anything to go by, a decent number of bosses are playing along.
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The initiative is the brainchild of energy drink Red Bull, which says it is “challenging the nation to work smarter, not harder”. It’s even come up with a host of tips and hacks to help you improve your productivity and get more done in a shorter working day.
It’s National #4pmFinish Day – are you and your workplace signed up? https://t.co/KtA2fa4nbg pic.twitter.com/s5NEI3UXPt
— Red Bull UK (@RedBullUK) September 14, 2017
There is a serious point here about how shorter working days can actually improve productivity. In recent years a host of employers in Sweden have carried out trials where staff only work a six-hour day, rather than the typical eight hours, with the results suggesting that staff were happier and healthier, therefore less likely to take time off sick.
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Compared to many of our European cousins, Brits do work long hours. According to the most recent figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in 2015 the typical Brit worked for 1,674 hours a year, the equivalent of a little more than 32 hours a week.
By comparison, the average German works just 1,371 hours a year, followed by the average Dutchman at 1,419. Other nations with shorter typical working hours include Norway, Denmark, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Australia.
That said, in the grand scheme of things we are pretty lucky, with most of the countries monitored by the OECD spending more of their lives at work than us. For example, employees in Mexico work for an average of 2,246 hours a year – almost 600 hours a year more than Brits.
