CofE and four-day week | what's our response?

"Those who have called for the introduction of a four-day week include the Green party and Frances O’Grady, the general secretary of the Trades Union Congress". I'm interested in the issue and would love to add the Church of England to that list. Having been reviewing a standard-ish clergy Common Tenure statement of particulars (close to being a 'contract of employment' without actually being one), I'm struct by the expectations on hours -and indeed the way that benefits are divvied up when it comes to housing and stipend etc. It used to be the case that clergy were paid in order not to take other work (so the myth goes -but I do wonder). I wonder how much a kind of feeling we ought not to be seen as lazy and workshy has formed attitudes. But it is this last matter that is precisely the point.



The pressures on many clergy to work to extinction is high, and it's precisely the enjoyment (at first), fulfilment etc that drive it and then the sense of duty that keeps you there when the fulfilment fades and enjoyment has become a distant memory. 'There' in this case is working 60 hour plus weeks.



So what's our theology of work when it comes to clergy, and indeed, other church employment issues. Especially given that in actual day-to-day psychology, the institution is running on a sense of lack rather than of provision, works rather than grace.



I'm thinking about how to surface the issue into CofE debate. Thoughts? I wonder whether diocesan synod and passing it from there to General Synod?



‘Miserable staff don't make money’: the firms that have switched to a four-day week | Money | The Guardian: