A trial that’s giving employees the chance to work just four-days a week is currently being trialled at some companies across the UK.
It may sound a little too good to be true, but it’s not.
This six-month pilot programme is being performed by 4 Day Week Global, along with think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week UK campaign, and researchers from Cambridge University, Oxford University, and Boston College, and as part of the trial, employees at each of the companies signed-up to take part will work for just 80% of their normal contracted work week at 100% of their pay for the sole purpose of monitoring the impact it has on productivity, as well as staff welfare.
It’s called the ‘100:80:100’ model – you will get paid for 100% of your work, but for it to be fair, the catch is that you must agree to work at 100% productivity.
Participating businesses and companies will receive support from those organising the trial, and that includes access to experts and pioneers within the field, mentoring, and research by top academics.
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The plan is to get 30 businesses on board, and mirror some of the successful programmes that have already been carried out, and are planned elsewhere in the world this year.
Once the six-month trial is complete, the programme organisers will take a look at the project as a whole, crunch the numbers, and attempt to ascertain what effect the four-day working week had on productivity for the businesses involved, as well as the wellbeing of its workers, and the impact on the environment and gender equality.
Other studies in the past claim to have found that a four-day week is better for both productivity and worker wellbeing, but there is undoubtedly more research to be done, and that’s what this trail is aiming to do.
Speaking on the trial, Joe O’Connor – Pilot Programme Manager for 4 Day Week Global – said: “More and more businesses are moving to productivity focused strategies to enable them to reduce worker hours without reducing pay [and] we are excited by the growing momentum and interest in our pilot program and in the four-day week more broadly.
“The four-day week challenges the current model of work and helps companies move away from simply measuring how long people are ‘at work’, to a sharper focus on the output being produced.
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“2022 will be the year that heralds in this bold new future of work.”
“This scheme has tremendous potential to progress from conversations about the general advantages of a shorter working week to focussed discussions on how organisations can implement it in the best possible way,” added Brendan Burchill, from Autonomy.
Kirstie Allsopp threw a banana skin at a driver in Stockport in littering row
Daisy Jackson
TV personality Kirstie Allsopp has admitted that she threw a banana skin at a driver in Stockport after she caught them littering.
In a furious rant on Twitter, the Location, Location, Location star said that she ‘leapt out of the car’ in order to pick up the fruity peel that was thrown out of another car window.
She then lobbed it straight back into the car, at the littering offender.
Saying that she’s been ‘horrified’ by the state of litter across the UK, Kirstie detailed the incident from her visit to Stockport.
Kirstie said: “In the last few weeks, travelling around the UK, I’ve been horrified by how bad roadside litter has become. Why is litter so much worse, who thinks chucking an empty red bull, for example, out of a moving car is acceptable?
“Last week in Stockport a banana skin flew out of the window of the car in front, we were at [traffic lights] and I was a passenger so I leapt out of the car, picked it up and threw it back into the car, the driver just threw it back out again.
In the last few weeks, travelling around the UK, I’ve been horrified by how bad roadside litter has become. Why is litter so much worse, who thinks chucking an empty red bull, for example, out of a moving car is acceptable? Last week in Stockport a banana skin flew
“But that’s not how to solve the problem. What is the solution…… £££ fines? In some places police take litter very seriously, I don’t feel that in the UK though. Closing roads to clear the litter? This would inconvenience us all, but would be a reminder of the cost of litter. Asking roadside landowners to clear their patch? What do you think?”
She later added: “I have a pet theory on this, I think a lot of litter is guilty eating, people consuming things they know they shouldn’t, and not wanting to dispose of the evidence at home.”
One fan replied to her: “Ohh you have been to my neck of the woods i have wrote to Stockport Council several times about cleaning all this litter up and there answer was ‘yes we are rotared to do a clear up in May’, i said ‘how about every month’, they replied ‘we do a clear up once a year only’. I just laughed.”
Yes, it’s true – in what is news that admittedly sounds fake, but somehow actually isn’t, one of the best rappers of all time has revealed himself to be an avid watcher of Britain’s longest-running soap, and is such a fan of it, in fact, that he said he’s “determined” to make an appearance on it sometime in the future.
The iconic ITV soap – which is set in the fictional Manchester suburb of Weatherfield, and celebrated an impressive 60 years of entertaining the masses back in 2020 – currently averages around six million viewers per episode, and has developed a well-deserved legion of loyal fans over the last six decades.
And it turns out, one of those loyal fans is chart-topping rap superstar Snoop Dogg.
In an exclusive interview with The Sun this week, the 51-year-old first spoke about how he’s “down to perform” at King Charles III‘s Coronation in a couple of months time, before he launching into how much he loves another type of coronation.
“Coronation Street, I love it,” the 17-time Grammy Award nominee admitted.
Snoop Dogg says he’s a massive Coronation Street fan / Credit: ITV / The Manc Group
“If they call me I’ll do it. I’ll play whenever they need. I love the cinematography, acting, the storylines and just the reality.
“I’d like to be a part of it because they’ve been a part of my culture.”
As bizarre as it all sounds, this surprisingly isn’t the first time the rapper – whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr – has publicly revealed he’s a fan of the soap, and even famously admitted all the way back in 2010 that he had his agent get in touch with ITV to see if there was any chance he could make an appearance.
“I had my agent reach out to them to see if they could try to get me on and they said they were interested so hopefully it might happen,” Snoop told the BBC.
“It would be perfect for me to be on the show.”
The chart-topping rapper says he’s ‘determined’ to get a role on it / Credit: ITV
The Drop It Like It’s Hot and The Next Episode rapper isn’t the only famous name who’s revealed himself to be a fan of Coronation Street in recent months.
One of the greatest and most well-respected singer songwriters of all time, Bob Dylan, also admitted in an interview with WSJ back in December 2022 that he loves binge-watching the soap.
Dylan explained that that he’s “no fan of packaged programs or news shows”, and that the ITV soap makes him “feel at home” despite being “old-fashioned”.
Emily Sergeant -
17th January 2022 
