September 18, 2023 • 12 mins
What would you do if you had a three day weekend every week? Start a side hustle, catch up on life admin, or just spend some quality time with your couch? A recommendation from a recent Parliamentary Committee means that could be one step closer to reality for some Australians. In today’s deep dive we’ll explain what has been recommended and whether it’s likely to go ahead.
Listen to What’s happening with the Government and Qatar Airways?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Tuesday,
the nineteenth of September, not August.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
If you were confused.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
By a yesterday's date, so was I, but we were
just trying to keep you on your toes anyway.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm Zara, I'm Nina tda's podcast producer, and I take
full responsibility for that date situation. Thank you to everybody
who sent us very kindly worded messages listening exactly. We
know you're out there. Thank you for that help.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So it's the stuff that dreams are made of. Spending
your Thursday nine out partying with friends and not having
to set an alarm for the next day, but in fact,
just having a day off a four day work week
sounds too good to be true.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
You are effing that oh, that'll never happen in my organization,
or that'll never work.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But a new development might mean a four day work
week is a step closer to reality. And I'm going
to explain why in the deep dive. But first, Nina,
some more news on that Qatar Airways story.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It just keeps going, Zara. A Senate inquiry will begin
today to investigate the government's decision to block a tai
Airways bid to fly more services to Australia. And if
you want to know more about this story, we have
done a deep dive. I'll chuck that link in the
show notes. But the move to reject Guitar's proposed extra
twenty eight flights a week has drawn criticism in recent weeks.
(01:44):
The hearings will examine the rejected Guitar application and will
also examine an airline competition in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
More broadly, popular dating apps like Bumble and Hinge have
been asked to develop new safety codes for their platforms.
The federal government is calling for online dating companies to
work together to develop and implement an industry wide code,
but it hasn't ruled out legislative measures if safety practices
don't improve. The safety code is set to come into
(02:11):
effect in the middle of next year.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Multiple Victorian venues have been charged with alleged underage gambling incidents.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission alleged twenty seven
instances of illegal gambling by a miner across eight venues
last year. The operators are facing a combined fine of
over one million dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And the good news a soccer match featuring the Matilda's
will be relocated to a larger venue to accommodate soaring
demand for tickets. And that is a course off the
back of their history making run at the Women's World Cup.
The Olympic qualifier against the Philippines is now slated to
be played at Perth's Opta Stadium, which has a capacity
of sixty thousand, three times the capacity of the original menu.
(02:57):
All right, Nina, are you four or against a four
day work week?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well as you very well, mo I spent approximately fifty
five minutes on hold to my electricity provider today.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You were growing in anger as the minute war on, and.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I was trying to be like nice, because you know,
it's not the person's fault who's answering the phone but
you just everyone's experienced that frustration, and I just think,
you know, it's not a great use of my time
at work, and it would be an agree to that sentiment.
Thanks your boy. It would be nice to have a
day to be able to deal with those things that's
not cutting into your precious weekend time. Also when things
(03:33):
are closed and you can't do those things anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I think it's funny because often when we talk about
four day work weeks, critics of four day work weeks
will automatically say, well, people are just going to lays
around and do nothing and all of this. But you're
saying you want to have that day to talk to
electricity providers.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
One hundred percent and go for runs and do my laundry,
just get stuff done.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, turns out you're not alone in thinking that might
be a productive thing to do. Because an Act Parliamentary
ca so it's a committee that is made up of
members of Parliament, from the government, from the opposition, from
the Greens, so you know, tripardersan if you will. They've
recommended that the public sector should trial a four day
work week in the Act, and the committee says that
(04:16):
the public sector is well placed to see how it
could work in Australia more broadly, so it could be
something that catches on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
When we're talking about a four day work week. I
think there's still some misunderstandings and misconceptions about what that
looks like because it doesn't exist in most of our lives. Yet,
what are they talking about when they're saying a four
day work week?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So typically a four day work week means that employees
are still paid their full time salary for only four
days of work. So essentially, your output isn't changing, how
much you're getting paid isn't changing. You're just rocking up
to work four days instead of five days, and the
idea being that you can be as productive with less
time as you are with the full five.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Days, just get more done in that time.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, exactly. And so if we go back to the Act,
this Committee into the four day work Week was established
in twenty twenty one and it actually came about as
a result of several businesses worldwide trialing the shortened week.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
This does feel like a move forward, a step forward,
because we have heard all of these reports, all of
those studies that have been showing us that this is
a possibility but this feels like the first time a
government body has been really forced to acknowledge or reckon
with this as a potential action point. So what did
this committee find?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So the committee found strong support among the act community
for a four day work week, and essentially what it
recommended was that a public sector trial, so that would
include anyone that's employed by the ACT government, so staffing,
government departments, public hospitals, public schools, things like that, that
they would move to a four day work week. And
(05:50):
one of the really interesting points that I think you
actually pointed out in the report was that it speaks
about what would happen in a school setting if teachers
went to four day and what happens to students. Then.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, so I don't think we have an idea yet
of what this sort of look like, but I think
there is this idea being explored that if it was
a four day school week, that that could potentially have
benefits for students as well. They would have an extra
day to sleep, catch up on homework.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm not sure how parents would feel about that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Especially working parents. Yeah, so a lot of questions I
think here still to kind of get into.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, and so that was just for the public sector,
but the committee actually recommended a voluntary trial in the
private sector as well, but that would obviously be for
you know, for private companies to opt into.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
One of the things the committee's report did was address
some of the common preconceptions about how the four day
working week would operate. What did it say?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So, I think one of the things that we hear
about often is this idea that if you're going from
a five day to a four day work week, your
productivity will inevitably drop. And you know, this comes up
in conversations. Employers might feel like they're picking up, you know,
the slack and that that's not fair. But what we're
finding is that the majority of evidence is saying the
same thing. The committee report pointed to a recent Australian
(07:06):
study which found that seventy percent of participating companies reported
an increase in productivity and thirty percent said that productivity
stayed the same. So none of those businesses were reporting
that there was a decrease in productivity.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So that's kind of debunking that idea around a lot
of productivity. Yeah, what are some of the things the
report pointed to as the benefits of a four day
working week.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So the committee heard evidence that a four day work
week had an and I quote overwhelmingly positive impact on
employee well being. So this was due in part to
employees having extra days off to do admin tasks like
talk to electricity providers, to attend medical appointments, and to exercise.
You know things that when you're working full time, I know,
(07:52):
you just don't find the time to do. We actually
did a story about the four day work week last
year where we spoke to employees who's companies are already
doing this, about the impact that it's had on their lives,
so really just trying to understand on a personal level,
what is this doing.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I decided that I was going to use that time
to start my own little business. I went and did
my bar certification, which is a combination of yoga, pilates,
and ballet, so I do coaching on Fridays. I've really
just filled my week with more work, but it's something
that I really enjoy.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
One of the biggest things is getting that pesky admin
out the way, which generally takes up your whole Saturday
or Sunday, so your grocery shopping, medicare going to the bank,
lining up as service New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And because I do feel like we have focused a
lot on the employee perspective, and I'll just fly the
employer perspective flag for a second. It's really interesting that
according to studies the four day work week is actually
benefiting employers too. So there was a swim Burne University
study that found a correlation between better work life balance
and a reduction in absenteeism sick days, so more people
(09:01):
were rocking up.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, I'll remember that when I ask you about plans
at TDA in the future. So the committee's provided all
this evidence, they've recommended this trial in the public sector.
Does that mean that's going to happen? Is it around
the corner?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, essentially, all the committee has done is make a
recommendation and it's ultimately up to the Act Government to
do without what they will. They can reject it, they
can accept it, they can really do whatever they like. Interestingly, though,
the ACT Labor Party, who forms part of the Act government,
did actually agree to support moving towards a four day
(09:34):
work week at the party's annual conference a few months back,
but the government does have until the end of the
year to formally respond to the committee's findings, So we'll
just have to wait and see whether they decide to
adopt this one. In particular, I do think it's worth
noting that new laws would need to be passed at
a federal level for the entire act workforce to transition
to a four day work week, and as with anything,
(09:57):
likely to be a fair bit of politicking that one.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Okay, Soizara, you can't be surprised that at the end
of this conversation I have to ask you, is there
in your mind a real potential for you as an
employer to introduce something like this. Do you think it
would work at TDA?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think it's challenging when you work in news because
we don't work like most other newsrooms. We don't roster
people on. So when I worked at Sky News in
the past, you know I was rustling on at three am,
four mornings away. I know it was such fun and
that was the way that you were able to capture
the twenty four hour news cycle.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
We try to prioritize.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Work life balance by sticking kind of to a nine
to five job, and in doing so, I think that
we'd either need to move to a roster system to
accommodate that because someone would always need to be on
But I also, yeah, I really see the meriton as
a person who works in a business just happens to
be our business. But like I never exercise, I never
find time to exercise, and we talk about that a.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Lot in the office. I think there's a huge sentiment
among everyone at TIDIA that everyone feels better after exercise,
and we talk about all the time, Yeah I've had
it's good for you.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But I just think there, yeah, there are lots of benefits.
I think for new businesses and for small businesses, it's
certainly more challenging. But if we are going to say
that we're innovative and we're new and we're capturing the
next generation, I do think it's something we have to
take seriously. I just would need some help with how
that actually looks and works in reality. So look to
the big dogs to see how it's working for them,
(11:27):
and then adopt what we can internally.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, cool, Well I'll be keeping an eye on that
one closely.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I'll keep an eye on the politics, and you keep
an eye on me.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And in the meantime, I have to go deal with
my provider.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
If we have any electricity providers listening, Please go and
help Nina.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
She needs it. Thanks for joining us on this episode
of The Daily OS. If you have any thoughts or
questions about the four day working week, there's a comment
box under the show description in Spotify. Would love to
hear from you, Sam and Zara. We'll be back as
normal from tomorrow. Until then, have an excellent day.
My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda
Bungelung Caalcuttin woman from Gadighl Country. The Daily oz acknowledges
that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the
Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the
first peoples of these countries, both past and present.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Good morning and welcome to the Daily os It's Tuesday,
the nineteenth of September, not August.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
If you were confused.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
By a yesterday's date, so was I, but we were
just trying to keep you on your toes anyway.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I'm Zara, I'm Nina tda's podcast producer, and I take
full responsibility for that date situation. Thank you to everybody
who sent us very kindly worded messages listening exactly. We
know you're out there. Thank you for that help.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
So it's the stuff that dreams are made of. Spending
your Thursday nine out partying with friends and not having
to set an alarm for the next day, but in fact,
just having a day off a four day work week
sounds too good to be true.
Speaker 4 (01:07):
You are effing that oh, that'll never happen in my organization,
or that'll never work.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
But a new development might mean a four day work
week is a step closer to reality. And I'm going
to explain why in the deep dive. But first, Nina,
some more news on that Qatar Airways story.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
It just keeps going, Zara. A Senate inquiry will begin
today to investigate the government's decision to block a tai
Airways bid to fly more services to Australia. And if
you want to know more about this story, we have
done a deep dive. I'll chuck that link in the
show notes. But the move to reject Guitar's proposed extra
twenty eight flights a week has drawn criticism in recent weeks.
(01:44):
The hearings will examine the rejected Guitar application and will
also examine an airline competition in Australia.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
More broadly, popular dating apps like Bumble and Hinge have
been asked to develop new safety codes for their platforms.
The federal government is calling for online dating companies to
work together to develop and implement an industry wide code,
but it hasn't ruled out legislative measures if safety practices
don't improve. The safety code is set to come into
(02:11):
effect in the middle of next year.
Speaker 3 (02:15):
Multiple Victorian venues have been charged with alleged underage gambling incidents.
The Victorian Gambling and Casino Control Commission alleged twenty seven
instances of illegal gambling by a miner across eight venues
last year. The operators are facing a combined fine of
over one million dollars.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
And the good news a soccer match featuring the Matilda's
will be relocated to a larger venue to accommodate soaring
demand for tickets. And that is a course off the
back of their history making run at the Women's World Cup.
The Olympic qualifier against the Philippines is now slated to
be played at Perth's Opta Stadium, which has a capacity
of sixty thousand, three times the capacity of the original menu.
(02:57):
All right, Nina, are you four or against a four
day work week?
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Well as you very well, mo I spent approximately fifty
five minutes on hold to my electricity provider today.
Speaker 2 (03:09):
You were growing in anger as the minute war on, and.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
I was trying to be like nice, because you know,
it's not the person's fault who's answering the phone but
you just everyone's experienced that frustration, and I just think,
you know, it's not a great use of my time
at work, and it would be an agree to that sentiment.
Thanks your boy. It would be nice to have a
day to be able to deal with those things that's
not cutting into your precious weekend time. Also when things
(03:33):
are closed and you can't do those things anyway.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I think it's funny because often when we talk about
four day work weeks, critics of four day work weeks
will automatically say, well, people are just going to lays
around and do nothing and all of this. But you're
saying you want to have that day to talk to
electricity providers.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
One hundred percent and go for runs and do my laundry,
just get stuff done.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Well, turns out you're not alone in thinking that might
be a productive thing to do. Because an Act Parliamentary
ca so it's a committee that is made up of
members of Parliament, from the government, from the opposition, from
the Greens, so you know, tripardersan if you will. They've
recommended that the public sector should trial a four day
work week in the Act, and the committee says that
(04:16):
the public sector is well placed to see how it
could work in Australia more broadly, so it could be
something that catches on.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
When we're talking about a four day work week. I
think there's still some misunderstandings and misconceptions about what that
looks like because it doesn't exist in most of our lives. Yet,
what are they talking about when they're saying a four
day work week?
Speaker 2 (04:34):
So typically a four day work week means that employees
are still paid their full time salary for only four
days of work. So essentially, your output isn't changing, how
much you're getting paid isn't changing. You're just rocking up
to work four days instead of five days, and the
idea being that you can be as productive with less
time as you are with the full five.
Speaker 3 (04:54):
Days, just get more done in that time.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Yeah, exactly. And so if we go back to the Act,
this Committee into the four day work Week was established
in twenty twenty one and it actually came about as
a result of several businesses worldwide trialing the shortened week.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
This does feel like a move forward, a step forward,
because we have heard all of these reports, all of
those studies that have been showing us that this is
a possibility but this feels like the first time a
government body has been really forced to acknowledge or reckon
with this as a potential action point. So what did
this committee find?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
So the committee found strong support among the act community
for a four day work week, and essentially what it
recommended was that a public sector trial, so that would
include anyone that's employed by the ACT government, so staffing,
government departments, public hospitals, public schools, things like that, that
they would move to a four day work week. And
(05:50):
one of the really interesting points that I think you
actually pointed out in the report was that it speaks
about what would happen in a school setting if teachers
went to four day and what happens to students. Then.
Speaker 3 (06:02):
Yeah, so I don't think we have an idea yet
of what this sort of look like, but I think
there is this idea being explored that if it was
a four day school week, that that could potentially have
benefits for students as well. They would have an extra
day to sleep, catch up on homework.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
I'm not sure how parents would feel about that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Especially working parents. Yeah, so a lot of questions I
think here still to kind of get into.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
Yeah, and so that was just for the public sector,
but the committee actually recommended a voluntary trial in the
private sector as well, but that would obviously be for
you know, for private companies to opt into.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
One of the things the committee's report did was address
some of the common preconceptions about how the four day
working week would operate. What did it say?
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So, I think one of the things that we hear
about often is this idea that if you're going from
a five day to a four day work week, your
productivity will inevitably drop. And you know, this comes up
in conversations. Employers might feel like they're picking up, you know,
the slack and that that's not fair. But what we're
finding is that the majority of evidence is saying the
same thing. The committee report pointed to a recent Australian
(07:06):
study which found that seventy percent of participating companies reported
an increase in productivity and thirty percent said that productivity
stayed the same. So none of those businesses were reporting
that there was a decrease in productivity.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
So that's kind of debunking that idea around a lot
of productivity. Yeah, what are some of the things the
report pointed to as the benefits of a four day
working week.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
So the committee heard evidence that a four day work
week had an and I quote overwhelmingly positive impact on
employee well being. So this was due in part to
employees having extra days off to do admin tasks like
talk to electricity providers, to attend medical appointments, and to exercise.
You know things that when you're working full time, I know,
(07:52):
you just don't find the time to do. We actually
did a story about the four day work week last
year where we spoke to employees who's companies are already
doing this, about the impact that it's had on their lives,
so really just trying to understand on a personal level,
what is this doing.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
I decided that I was going to use that time
to start my own little business. I went and did
my bar certification, which is a combination of yoga, pilates,
and ballet, so I do coaching on Fridays. I've really
just filled my week with more work, but it's something
that I really enjoy.
Speaker 5 (08:26):
One of the biggest things is getting that pesky admin
out the way, which generally takes up your whole Saturday
or Sunday, so your grocery shopping, medicare going to the bank,
lining up as service New South Wales.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
And because I do feel like we have focused a
lot on the employee perspective, and I'll just fly the
employer perspective flag for a second. It's really interesting that
according to studies the four day work week is actually
benefiting employers too. So there was a swim Burne University
study that found a correlation between better work life balance
and a reduction in absenteeism sick days, so more people
(09:01):
were rocking up.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Well, I'll remember that when I ask you about plans
at TDA in the future. So the committee's provided all
this evidence, they've recommended this trial in the public sector.
Does that mean that's going to happen? Is it around
the corner?
Speaker 2 (09:14):
Well, essentially, all the committee has done is make a
recommendation and it's ultimately up to the Act Government to
do without what they will. They can reject it, they
can accept it, they can really do whatever they like. Interestingly, though,
the ACT Labor Party, who forms part of the Act government,
did actually agree to support moving towards a four day
(09:34):
work week at the party's annual conference a few months back,
but the government does have until the end of the
year to formally respond to the committee's findings, So we'll
just have to wait and see whether they decide to
adopt this one. In particular, I do think it's worth
noting that new laws would need to be passed at
a federal level for the entire act workforce to transition
to a four day work week, and as with anything,
(09:57):
likely to be a fair bit of politicking that one.
Speaker 3 (10:00):
Okay, Soizara, you can't be surprised that at the end
of this conversation I have to ask you, is there
in your mind a real potential for you as an
employer to introduce something like this. Do you think it
would work at TDA?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
I think it's challenging when you work in news because
we don't work like most other newsrooms. We don't roster
people on. So when I worked at Sky News in
the past, you know I was rustling on at three am,
four mornings away. I know it was such fun and
that was the way that you were able to capture
the twenty four hour news cycle.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
We try to prioritize.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Work life balance by sticking kind of to a nine
to five job, and in doing so, I think that
we'd either need to move to a roster system to
accommodate that because someone would always need to be on
But I also, yeah, I really see the meriton as
a person who works in a business just happens to
be our business. But like I never exercise, I never
find time to exercise, and we talk about that a.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Lot in the office. I think there's a huge sentiment
among everyone at TIDIA that everyone feels better after exercise,
and we talk about all the time, Yeah I've had
it's good for you.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
But I just think there, yeah, there are lots of benefits.
I think for new businesses and for small businesses, it's
certainly more challenging. But if we are going to say
that we're innovative and we're new and we're capturing the
next generation, I do think it's something we have to
take seriously. I just would need some help with how
that actually looks and works in reality. So look to
the big dogs to see how it's working for them,
(11:27):
and then adopt what we can internally.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Okay, cool, Well I'll be keeping an eye on that
one closely.
Speaker 2 (11:33):
I'll keep an eye on the politics, and you keep
an eye on me.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
And in the meantime, I have to go deal with
my provider.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
If we have any electricity providers listening, Please go and
help Nina.
Speaker 3 (11:44):
She needs it. Thanks for joining us on this episode
of The Daily OS. If you have any thoughts or
questions about the four day working week, there's a comment
box under the show description in Spotify. Would love to
hear from you, Sam and Zara. We'll be back as
normal from tomorrow. Until then, have an excellent day.
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