80% of UK KPMG Partners Want 4-Day Work Week

More than 80 percent of United Kingdom KPMG partners have said yes to a company offer that would allow them to either work a four-day week or take a short sabbatical, Accountancy Age reports.

That figure means around 400 out of 550 UK partners have applied, the paper says, adding:

Eight other countries within the KPMG group are thought to be considering similar schemes.

Rachel Campbell, the firm’s head of people, said: "Like many other firms as part of our forward planning we said: 'What would the situation look like if the market worsens?' We simply didn’t want to be in the position where we would be contemplating large scale redundancies."

KPMG’s announcement comes amid a wave of job cuts in the profession. [UK] Firms including Deloitte, Grant Thornton and PKF have announced plans to cut hundreds of jobs in expectation of slower revenue growth this year.

Other [UK] firms, including Ernst & Young and PwC, said they already offered a limited number of staff the option of working a shorter working week or sabbaticals. But they added that they had no plans to offer a scheme on the scale of KPMG in an effort to avoid job cuts.