Starting this June London based craft brewery Pressure Drop will be joining a national trial to test the effectiveness of a 4-day working week. They will be offering all permanent staff an extra day off with no loss of pay. They hope to make the trial a success and be a part of progressive change in the modern working environment.
The trial, coordinated by campaign group 4-day Global, operates on a 100-80-100 model- 100% of the productivity, 80% of the hours, 100% of the pay. It follows many successful trials in different institutions and countries, which have consistently demonstrated no loss of productivity (and in some cases increased productivity) alongside significant benefits in terms of employee well-being, productivity, engagement, retention, environmental effects, parental time, and others.
As a manufacturing company, who makes and ships a physical product, and provides customer service alongside that, there will be challenges for Pressure Drop that are not faced in the same way by many other companies which enjoy greater flexibility around work location and timing. Pressure Drop will maintain its current hours of operation and spread the additional days off across the week.
Pressure Drop Co-Founder/Director- Sam Smith
“When we started Pressure Drop almost ten years ago now, we wanted to create a workplace for ourselves with a natural level of balance, which others could join, doing something that was both constructive and worthwhile. We wanted our work to produce something we could be proud of.
Brewing, packaging and selling beer was, and is, in many ways a simple life. There are periods of intense work, and other times when we must wait, and, as the cliché has it, let the yeast do the work.
We’ve never been the kind of brewery to crank the maximum possible from our kit by brewing multiple times in one day. We didn’t want our workplace to be one in which people started work at 4am, or finished work at midnight, with irregular shift times and patterns of sleep. We expanded into our current Tottenham site in 2017, building a larger brewhouse and taproom than the small railway arch brewery we started out in, but we never wanted relentless expansion to be our model. Endless growth is something we are taught is desirable for a business, but that cannot work if everyone is trying to do the same thing. There has to be a place for a small business to remain small. Today we are a team of 9 full-time employees, of whom 8 work at the brewery. We did not, and do not, want to take over the world.
For these reasons, we think we are a good fit for the 4-Day Week trial. We hope that our progress as a brewery will be a source of keen interest for the experts and researchers supporting the trial, as well as to others in the beer industry. We also look forward to their help in overcoming these challenges, while accepting that ultimately the solutions must come from within our own team.”
Ends
Further quotes: https://pressuredropbrewing.co.uk/blogs/blog/changes-ahead
Notes to Editors:
Pressure Drop Brewery
Tottenham based Pressure Drop have been championing craft beer in the capital since 2013. Founded by Sam Smith, Graham O’Brien and Ben Freeman, their small team have built a reputation for fantastic hazy, juicy New England style beers, although their offering ranges from crisp lagers to rich and luxurious stouts, all with a focus on quality and flavour.
The 4-Day Week Trial
The pilot programme run by campaign group 4-Day Global will take place from June 6th and will run for six months.
The pilot will be conducted in partnership with researchers at Oxford University, Boston College & Cambridge University.
This is the largest trial of its kind, there are 60 companies are currently signed up and over 3000 workers will take part.
4-day global have run successful trials in Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Ireland & the United States.
Participating employees will receive 100% of their salary for 80% of the time commitment with the goal of maintaining 100% productivity.
Links:
https://www.pressuredropbrewing.co.uk
https://pressuredropbrewing.co.uk/blogs/blog/changes-ahead
https://www.4dayweek.com/ukpilot
Press release from Pressure Drop Brewing
Contact details:
Sienna O’Rourke
07538425720
sienna@pressuredropbrewing.co.uk