It’s Friday again: Atom Bank shifts to four-day week

Digital lender Atom Bank has become the biggest UK employer to shift to a four-day working week.

Staff at the challenger bank, launched in 2016, will work a 34-hour week spread over four days for the same monthly pay.

Staff are being encouraged to work “core hours” of 9.30am – 4.30pm between Monday and Thursday.

The move reinforces the seismic shift in working patterns the pandemic has engineered.

It comes as employers across the UK are increasingly switching to a flexible working model, incorporating technology used to avoid disruption to operations during Covid-19 lockdowns by allowing staff to do their work without being tied to a physical office.

Firms are struggling to recruit staff amid a severe labour squeeze, prompting employers to offer fresh perks in a bid to attract talent.

A four-day week has been argued to boost productivity, meaning the level of output businesses produce is broadly in line with the volume produced under a five-day week.

Mark Mullen, chief executive of Atom Bank, said: “If you can do things as effectively over four days as over five, why be dogmatic?”

Staff will automatically take Mondays and Fridays off, Atom Bank said.