Flint to publish Gomes four-day working week argument

Flint, an imprint of The History Press, will publish Friday is the New Saturday: How a Four-Day Working Week Will Save the Economy by Pedro Gomes. 

Laura Perehinec, publishing director, acquired UK and Commonwealth rights including audio and serial from Jonathan Conway at Jonathan Conway Literary Agency, for publication in August 2021.

Gomes, a reader in economics at Birkbeck, University of London, will draw on economic theory, history and data to argue that working Monday to Thursday will bring about a "powerful economic renewal for the benefit of all society". 

The book’s narrative is centred around the ideas of four economists from the 19th and 20th centuries – John Maynard Keynes, Joseph Schumpeter, Karl Marx and Friedrich Hayek. Viewing the economy through their eyes, Gomes will show how each, if they were alive today, would regard the four-day working week as an invaluable step towards improving society.

Perehinec said: "I’m delighted to be publishing Pedro’s first book under our Flint imprint. He is passionate and knowledgeable about economic theory but wears this lightly, writing with both acuity and warmth. And it’s a great time to re-examine the four-day week model, as we look to repair a country that has been divided by Brexit and an economy that’s been pummelled by the covid pandemic. A key aim for Flint is to publish ‘books that spark’, be it awareness, debate or action – Friday is the New Saturday has the potential to do all of these."

Gomes commented: "There is nothing biological, teleological or astrological about working five days. The working week is a social, political and economic construct. Why should it remain the same, when everything else in society has changed so profoundly? Many have made the “social” case for the four-day working week, but implicitly there is the idea that it would harm the economy – the economy is a price worth paying for the “good life”. I want to change this narrative and show that the four-day working week is a social innovation with a broader political appeal that will improve the way we organise economic activity, bring the benefits of economic growth to everyone, reconcile a polarised society and make for a better capitalism. We should do it for the economy!"