Can the MSP model sustain a four-day working week?

Which MSP is working towards this goal, and which doesn’t see four days working in the future?

Does the MSP model fit a four-day working week?

Recent data from hybrid meeting technology provider Owl Labs found that almost half (48 per cent) of UK companies are now offering a four-day week.

This is in sharp contrast to the return-to-office mandates recently implemented by tech giants such as Google, AWS and IBM.

Some VARs have already weighed in on this topic, while Highgate IT Solutions continues to sing the praises of its own successful four-day working model.

But will dropping one day suit the channel’s managed service providers who need to be on hand 24/7?

CRN speaks to three MSPs to hear their thoughts.

Russell Crampin, MD, Axians UK

In terms of four-day weeks – perhaps I’m too much of a traditionalist, but I can’t see this working in the near future.

Besides the obvious 24/7 nature of part of our business, we work with many different businesses all over the world.

So even if there is a big swing in the UK to four-day weeks, our international customers are unlikely to follow suit in the same period. So, I think five days will be here for a while.

Lee Robinson, co-founder & director, Meta Eagle

We've had the discussion, and it is my goal to get us to a four-day working week.

The way we will do that, though, is we won't just turn around to customers and say we're not available on a Friday or a Monday or whatever day we're going to cut out the week.

What we’d do is rotate it around the team, so everyone gets a four-day week.

In the MSP world we have to be available Monday to Friday from 9:00 - 17:30. People are going to expect that.

So, yes, it's achievable. Yes, I think we might end up getting there ourselves as a business, but it won't be at the detriment of not being available for one day a week. It will be staggered and put people in a rotated way, so it's fair.

Geoff Wing, CRO, Arc

Arc is always committed to offering support models that support our customers. Based on this and the increasing demand we see for out of hours and 24/7 support, we are not actively looking at implementing four-day working weeks.

Whilst this, of course, could be managed through shift rotas etc, as it stands, we've not seen any demand from our staff on this topic either.