Nearly 200 individuals at Pinsent Masons have opted to continue working a four day week on 80% pay.

The firm put in place a compulsory reduced hours and reduced salary arrangement at the beginning of May to insulate itself from the pandemic's expected impact on workloads, but ended it on 1 August. 

However, it left the scheme on the table for those who wanted it and, reflecting an appetite to WFH that outweighs the desire for full pay, "nearly 200" staff have grabbed it.

“We recognised that many of our people have benefited from working a shorter week for a variety of reasons," said a Pinsent Masons spokesperson " - childcare and caring responsibilities, taking more time for themselves and so on". So after ending the scheme, "we made clear that, for those who would like to continue to work in that way, we would be happy to accommodate that".

^{Knitting woollen breasts, painting dogs, collecting nails, playing dead: finally, there's time for that hobby.}

She said that even before the pandemic, a quarter of staff already had some kind of flexible working in place, and “as we look ahead we expect that will accelerate. Flexible working is a core part of our DNA". They should get that checked out.

A solicitor said the reaction to the part-time offer was "Yippee", although they claimed it was marred when certain partners "started speaking to lawyers requesting that they agree to a paycut, but with no reduced hours, rendering the firmwide announcement at the Webex meeting somewhat hollow".

Someone must have misheard. "No-one has had their remuneration reduced without a commensurate reduction in working hours", the firm's spokesperson assured RollOnFriday.