Hayley Knight is calling in from Cappadoccia in Turkey, the beautiful and remote network of cone-like rock formations and cave homes. But she’s not on holiday: the 36-year-old, who runs a marketing and PR consultancy with her husband Marcus, has spent her morning on client calls and fielding emails before she heads out to enjoy the local lunch spots and views. “It’s very hot. It’s 11am here and it’s 46°C already,” she says. “It gets a bit too hot in the afternoons.”
Knight is one of a fast-rising number of professionals dropping the hustle and grind for a part-time life, choosing to work four days a week even though she doesn’t have any children or other caring responsibilities.
A quarter of British employees now work part-time, according to 2023 findings from the Office for National Statistics – that’s 8 million people, up from 5.8 million people in 2018.
Data from social enterprise Timewise has shown the number of people wanting part-time work was outstripping the number of available part-time jobs, four to one.
Hayley Knight’s husband and business partner also works four days a week, and the pair have ensured their business can be run fully remotely so they can travel in their spare time.
After years of putting in long hours and longer weeks, she was desperate to regain control of her life – and her work. “I was running an agency in London before and during Covid, and by the end of it I was absolutely burnt out,” she says.
“We both packed up our jobs and left London and went travelling for two years. Then we set up our business. It’s been fun and exciting. It’s very different, but we’re making it work. We have an employee in the UK and an amazing list of clients who are completely understanding of our lifestyle.”
The shift to a four-day week, she says, has had a profound effect on her happiness and productivity. “I have a much better relationship with work and a much better work-life balance. I am generally happier and have better mental health.”
In Edinburgh, management consultant Philip Brocklehurst, 36, shifted down to a four-day week in 2021, just after the first lockdowns, to have more time to train for the endurance sports he loves.
He works for Deloitte, where a growing number of employees have negotiated similar arrangements, and says his request to drop a day was met with enthusiasm rather than concern.
“It was a really easy conversation to have. I do a lot of outdoor sports and I wanted a better balance between my work and my outside interests,” he says. “I’m a senior manager, so I often spend time between lots of different projects – it’s easier to manage a four-day week at my level.
“The big benefit is the reduction of overall stress levels. I use running and climbing as a way to manage my stress. I have ADHD and I find exercise helps me manage my symptoms and the four days concentrates you a bit more. It makes it easier to focus on getting the work done in those times.”
Rates of part-time work are rising all around the world. The Netherlands comes out top of the rankings: the latest date from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development from 2022 shows that 35 per cent of their working population do not work full-time hours. Japan, Switzerland and Australia come next, all with about a quarter of workers on part-time arrangements.
But we’re catching up. In the UK, between January and March this year, 8.15 million people were part-timers, while 24.85 million continued to put in five days a week.
Like many part-time workers, Philip Brocklehurst took a cut in pay by reducing his hours for a better work-life balance, but others are choosing to compress their hours over fewer days or work in other flexible ways to boost both their free time and their income.
According to Kate Field, global head of health, safety and wellbeing at BSI Group, many people going part-time supplement their income with other activities, often setting up their own businesses. And the part-time trend isn’t just a white collar one. Industries such as construction and manufacturing are also experiencing this demand for work outside the usual five-day week and are being forced to adapt.
According to experts, the growing interest in part-time employment was fuelled by the pandemic, as workers experienced having more free time. This has led to changes in workers’ rights: in April, the law was changed to give employees the right to request flexible working – including part-time working – from their first day in a new job.
Research shows that caring responsibilities and physical limitations are the primary reason for requesting part-time work. But this was the factor for fewer than half of respondents in a recent survey by Timewise.
Among women who work part-time, the most cited reason was to manage caring responsibilities (32 per cent, rising to 45 per cent among women aged 35-49), while only 13 per cent of men who work part-time mentioned caring as a primary factor.
More men than women reported working part-time to better manage their mental or physical health (25 per cent versus 20 per cent). Tellingly, health issues were a more common reason among lower-income groups (a trend that persists regardless of gender, ethnicity or highest level of education). However, more lower income households work part-time – which may be a Catch-22 situation.
Nevertheless, Simon Daly, employee experience strategy director at consultancy Qualtrics, says the most common request from employees since 2020 is simply taking greater control over their working lives. “Having a work-life balance is crucial to employee happiness,” he says.
Other studies back that up. International Workplace Group, a company that provides office space, polled more than 1,000 workers in May and found four in five said their wellbeing had improved significantly since they had gained more flexibility over their working pattern.
Work psychologist Dr Josie Perry works with many clients who face burnout because, as she puts it, “work has been too much of their life for too long”. That’s why she recommends finding an arrangement that puts work and personal passions – whether that’s running, sailing or even gardening – in careful balance so you are not relying too heavily on either. “It reduces your risk of burnout. If you’ve only got work and work isn’t going well, maybe through no fault of your own, that can make you really miserable,” she explains.
The part-time genie, she says, is now out of the box. Dr Perry believes that, like the shift from a job for life to portfolio careers 40 years ago, the shift to part-time work is this generation’s permanent adjustment to the way we see work and life.
For some industries or businesses, that is a more difficult adjustment than others and there will be good reasons for some people to be refused their request to go part time. Field says that refusals are still common and often defensible in roles in which staff have a frontline, “on call” or emergency response element.
And smaller businesses might also find that there are additional costs, particularly around the PAYE tax burden, when employing more individuals to cover the same amount of work.
“There may also be some challenges [for small businesses] in terms of reorganising work among existing staff and what that means for the people who are left. Are there enough people left to do the work? You can’t have the situation where people who are full time are having to do more work because some people are part-time, and that might be a very genuine reason for not being able to offer part-time work,” she says.
But some studies show that productivity is increased when staff work part-time – and recruitment or restructure may actually be cheaper over the long-term. “Offering or allowing part-time [work] may lessen the need for lay-offs and downsizing when a company needs to reduce its workforce.
It also allows organisations to expand their pool of qualified candidates as it may appeal to, for example, parents who want to be able to pick up kids or students,” says HR adviser Angela Champ.
Many who have already adjusted to part-time work say there is no way they would ever go back to their former working lives.
Kathryn Davies, a lawyer with media law firm Tan Ward, shifted to flexible, part-time employment on a contract basis two months ago and already feels better for it.
Like Knight, she is using the flexibility she has to travel while working, and is speaking from Bulgaria. “It’s like getting back the gift of time,” she says. “There’s huge amounts of freedom in the balance of work not being the dominant thing in your life any more and I work fewer hours because it’s more efficient.”
Would she consider a return to the rat race for the right role? Even after a few weeks, she can’t imagine it. “It would be very hard to get my head back in that space.”
As managers become younger, experts predict that even younger employees – perhaps as young as their twenties – will want to start embracing the part-time life, and find ways to afford to do so. But Champ has a warning for them.
“The relationships and reputation an employee fosters early in their career may have an impact on their career trajectory and potential future earnings,” she says. “An early career employee might do better working full time to learn the business before taking advantage of alternative work arrangements like part-time.”
Some bosses aren’t concerned about younger employees working reduced hours. Brighton-based Mo Kanjilal Williams, a 50-year-old former software sales rep, set up her business as a diversity and inclusion consultant four years ago. She works a four-day week, often doing short days too to allow herself time for volunteering, mentoring and writing her first novel, and offers the same flexibility to her team.
Williams says she doesn’t track their time, only judges output. She enrolled her company in a large UK-wide trial of a four-day week, during which the team had MRI scans and blood tests taken. For all participants, measures of health improved.
“I think this is the way forward,” Williams says. “We had a parent-child relationship to work. The pandemic forced the change and young people coming into the workplace will expect it.”