The evolution of the working week

In the near future, a four-day working week could well be normalised thanks to the successful trials carried out by a number of British companies. However, currently, the vast majority of those people working a four-day week are parents or those with caring responsibilities and the reality is, this is a real juggle. Often trying to fit in four days’ worth of work into five, whilst also navigating all the things that come with caring -  nursery pick-ups, school holidays, medical appointments and sickness – can be very tricky, especially when most people still work five days. Well-meaning colleagues who ask how a parent’s ‘day off’ was when they return to work may well be met with an eye-roll.

This juggle is only expected to get worse. As the average age expectancy rises (since the 1980s, life expectancy in the UK has risen by around a decade to an average of 80 across both genders) it means that more people in the workplace than ever before have both elderly parents and young children to look after. According to Age UK there are 1.25 million sandwich carers. These with double caring responsibilities are most likely to be aged between 35 and 44 – arguably one of the busiest times in an individuals’ career. There is also a newer phenomenon of so-called  ‘triple decker sandwiches’ – those in their 60s who still work full-time, but help care for their grandchildren to support their children, whilst also looking after elderly parents. These types of carers are generally rising in number too. And these issues are also coupled with the huge cost of childcare in the UK  - according to data from the OECD, the UK is the third-most expensive country for childcare in the world.

As a result, we are seeing a evolution of the working week – and it’s needed. In our recent survey, 96 per cent of Varios agreed that the traditional working week (9am – 6pm, five days a week) is no longer fit for purpose for modern lawyers. Many of the respondents pointed to family commitments as a reason why. One respondent said:

Another commented that that traditional working week:

Of course, as lawyers, it was also acknowledged by a large proportion of the respondents that law as a profession requires a degree of out-of-hours work and flexibility to suit a clients’ needs.

However, we are seeing evolution, with working weeks moving in a direction which will hopefully be more fit-for-purpose and reflect the juggle which so many lawyers are currently doing, day in, day out. Throughout history, we have seen working weeks get shorter. After the Industrial Revolution, people were generally working between 80 and 100 hours every week and this has slowly whittled down over the years, with Henry Ford popularising the 40-hour work week in 1926. The four-day working week trials we are seeing is the next step in this evolution as innovations and technology enable people to work more efficiently. Equally, we are seeing flexible and hybrid work become more mainstream, a trend which many believe was accelerated by the pandemic. In our survey, 82 per cent of Varios agreed that the pandemic positively impacted how those with family responsibilities are viewed by the legal profession in general. Respondents spoke of how enforced Zoom calls over the lockdowns gave a welcome window into people’s home lives, increasing understanding of personal circumstances and challenges.

Nevertheless, more needs to be done – 88 per cent of respondents to our survey believe not enough is done in the legal profession to support working parents, and 95 per cent believe not enough is done in the legal profession to support those with other care responsibilities.

At Vario, we are proud to have been an early adopter of agile, flexible work and many of our lawyers chose this way of working to improve their own work life balance. However we recognise that supporting working parents and carers is an ongoing and evolving issue. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and therefore there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Through our Working Families campaign, we are exploring all the ways the legal profession can support parents and carers, and how this conversation is evolving.

This piece is part of our Modern Families campaign.  Read more about the wider campaign here.