I’ll say it straight: young entrepreneurs can’t afford to work four days a week, so why on earth would anyone else think they can?
When I started out, I was up before sunrise, home after dark, seven days a week if needed. That’s what it takes to build something from nothing. But now, we’ve got this new fad doing the rounds, a four-day week, being sold as some kind of productivity miracle.
Let’s get real. The only people backing this nonsense are the ones who want an extra day off. It’s selfish, short-sighted, and it’s the public who end up paying the price.
Just look at South Cambridgeshire Council. Even Steve Reed, hardly a Thatcherite, has called it out. Council services delayed, bins not collected, taxpayers footing the bill — all so a few people can “work smarter, not harder.” Well, it’s not working smarter. It’s working less, plain and simple.
Work-life balance? Don’t make me laugh.
They call it a “win” for work-life balance. Except it isn’t.
Because when the economy keeps sliding, and it will if fewer people are actually working, all those people demanding shorter weeks might find themselves with seven days off. Except this time, it won’t be by choice.
Try paying your mortgage with that.
Bosses know it’s bonkers
Ask any real business leader, not a think-tank theorist, what they think about the four-day week, working from home, or universal basic income. You’ll get the same answer every time: it’s madness.
This bizarre movement is built on a myth that money grows on trees. It doesn’t. Money comes from graft — from showing up, producing, serving customers, and creating value.
If no one’s working, no one’s generating. It’s not complicated. It’s called basic economics.
Even Marx and Adam Smith agree
And here’s the kicker. From Karl Marx to Adam Smith, from the most famous socialist to the father of free markets, they both understood one thing: work is essential. It’s the foundation of a functioning economy and a healthy society.
No system survives when people stop contributing. Whether you’re on the left, right, or somewhere in the middle, you can’t escape that truth.
Careful what you wish for
So to all those cheering on the four-day week, I’ve got one bit of advice: be careful what you wish for.
Because once the economy grinds to a halt, when businesses close, and the tax money runs dry, those long weekends might just turn into long-term unemployment.
There’s no free lunch. There’s no money for nothing.
You want success? You work for it.
Simple as that.
