Law four-day week blocked by cultural norms

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After the trial period of the four-day working week ended, it has been concluded that law firms in the UK currently seem resistant to changes in the structure of employee hours.

Four-Day Week Global recently published the results of the reduced working hours trial, which was a culmination of six months of four-day working weeks for 61 companies which had signed up to participate in the UK version of the trial. This would see 80% of the working hours for staff, with 100% of their salaries received.

Initial findings from the trial indicated that employees benefited from the change. In most cases, productivity was not impacted and absenteeism was less prevalent than normal. The campaign group has also added that most of the participating companies will continue its implementation of the new four-day working week.

Law four-day week

All positives aside, however, it was also noted that none of the UK law firms approached were willing to participate. Other firms in the UK were already operating on a four-day week, and internationally there was interest from legal firms, but campaigners conceded that it will be more difficult to tempt solicitors to make the switch.

The programs director of Four-Day Week Global stated:

“My own experience from working with companies is that cultural norms in the legal profession, and the habits created by billable hours, make it especially challenging to move to a four-day week – but there is interest in it.

“In a hospital chain I’m working with, the nurse managers have embraced a four-day week without reservation, while the chain’s legal team rejects it out of hand,’ Pang said. ‘It’s not that nurses are less professional or dedicated, or that lawyers care more about patients; but nurses are used to working in ways that support teach other, and thinking about the design of schedules, while the culture of legal profession makes it hard for lawyers to imagine themselves working four-day weeks.”

Law firms in Canada, Denmark and Northern Ireland had come forward to implement the trial, with the managing partners of other firms asking the organisation about how to prevent staff burnout.

“I think there’s a widespread recognition that current legal practice burns people out unnecessarily, shortens the careers of people the profession would benefit from having, and makes for worse law, and needs to change.

“Figuring out how to redesign legal practice, and managing the transition to more sustainable careers and practice, is the challenge.”

The trial ran from June to December of 2022, and it was found that revenue across all participating companies rose by 1.4%, with staff attrition falling by 57%. 90% of the employees affected by the scheme said that they wished it could continue, with 55% of those citing an increase in their abilities to perform tasks.

Other benefits stated included time to carry out care responsibilities, with 62% adding that social life and work commitments were easier to balance. Sceptics of the scheme say that it’s difficult to measure any results, as they were not able to be judged over the course of an entire working year.

Law four-day week blocked by cultural norms

After the trial period of the four-day working week ended, it has been concluded that law firms in the UK currently seem resistant to changes in the structure of employee hours.

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