The four-day working week: less money, more time, a happier life?

In the first lockdown of 2020, as the pandemic stopped construction in its tracks, I was put on notice of redundancy. Suddenly I had a lot more-spare time on my hands and started casting about for things to do. I’ve been acutely aware of the climate and ecological emergency for some years now, and so with all the extra time on my hands, I started looking for ways I could make more of a difference at a local level. This led me to joining an active travel campaign group, to start discussions on renewable energy schemes in our community, and a number of other initiatives.

In late 2020 I joined Cundall and found my level of commitment to the local environmental campaigning and organising impossible to sustain alongside the full-time job. At first, I disengaged from the campaigning and organising which felt both painful and disheartening. I soon realised that the small amounts of voluntary work I could squeeze into evenings and weekends was not enough. It took a while to reconcile my appetite for positive change with my desire to continue working full time at Cundall, it required a radical (if slow) shift in mindset and approach. Eventually, by the Autumn of 2021 I decided reducing my working days from five to four was the only way to balance all my commitments to work, community, and the environment. I thought it was unlikely that compressing a full 37.5 hours into four days would be acceptable, so I understood, if reducing my hours was going to happen, I was going to be taking a pay cut. Whilst this would have an inevitable toll on our household, it felt like a path worth exploring.

I was encouraged when Cundall was happy and willing to discuss the possibility of a reduced hours contract. I was particularly impressed with how enthusiastic their approval was in light of the environmental campaigning and organising I was intending to resume. After discussions with my line manager and HR, it was agreed I would work four days and take Tuesdays as my none work-day. The financial adjustment was challenging initially but through some trial and error (plus some careful budgeting) I eventually found it manageable and actually quite satisfying! I found myself understanding the mantra ‘less is more’ a little better. I started a trial period on the 1February this year, two and a half months in and I absolutely love it.

I find it amusing that I call it a ‘non work’ day, because I am doing a lot of work. The biggest distinction being the absence of financial compensation: there is some volunteering, but much of what I do is self-directed. The absence of monetary reward becomes insignificant in the face of the intrinsic benefits I’m experiencing; deep satisfaction, improved mental well-being, reduced anxiety about the global existential crisis, the simple happiness derived from the knowledge that I’m trying.

What I do each Tuesday varies. But broadly speaking I aim to break the day into two halves. In the morning I work at the computer. This ranges from emailing local councillors or my MP about cycle path maintenance issues, responding to local authority consultations on the climate emergency or improvements to local walking and cycling infrastructure, through to research on community renewable energy. By midday I really want to get out-doors. I’m lucky enough to live in a small village just up the Tyne valley from Newcastle, so we’re surrounded by beautiful green spaces. My partner Iris has started an Incredible Edible community group, through that organisation we’ve been able to apply for hundreds of trees from the Woodland Trust. We’ve liaised with our local council and the local community about spaces where planting would be welcomed, and I help Iris plant the trees. One day, I will also help with harvesting the fruits and nuts from many of these trees.

Our village was born of coal mining in 1896, The Clara Pit closed 70 years later, and the village nearly died along with it. In 2018 an initial feasibility assessment indicated a good potential for harnessing geothermal heat from the flooded mine workings beneath the village for heating homes. I devote some of my Tuesdays to further researching this as an energy source alongside other options such as community owned solar PV. There is a local conservation group that formed in the 1980s to turn the old coal mine pit head next to the village into a space where nature would re-establish. Their volunteer days are frequently weekdays which I couldn’t previously attend. Now I’ve been able to volunteer with them often, coppicing, clearing storm felled trees and working on the fences to contain the Exmoor ponies that visit each year for a few months.

Me and my partner Iris are now looking at starting another community group, one that could be a vehicle for implementing community renewable energy and potentially taking on land around the village that could be actively or passively rewilded. This change to the work/life balance is an on-going story, but the experience so far for me has felt transformational, I’m incredibly grateful to Cundall for having the flexibility to let me do this.