4pm Finish Day – what does it mean to you?

Millions of Britons will be finishing work at 4pm today – giving them just seven hours to sit at their desks Googling things to do at the weekend instead of the usual eight.

An energy drinks firm has passed new legislation making today 4pm Finish Day, in a move designed to promote workplace productivity and encourage people to drink more taurine.

Some have raised concerns, however, that the foreshortened working day could leave employees struggling to complete all of their usual Friday tasks, such as looking up holidays they’d never be able to afford and hiding in the kitchen.

The Ugly Truth has travelled the length of Britain to find out how workers who work in workplaces are adjusting to the early finish.

Jessica, 27, from Rotherham: “Normally by mid-morning, I’d have had three coffees and trawled all of twitter to find out who Taylor Swift doesn’t like anymore, but today I’ve only had time for two coffees.”

Brian, 52, from King's Lynn: “When you've got less time, the key is to prioritise the most important tasks. So today, I’m only going to cyber stalk the five prettiest girls from my old secondary school, instead of the top ten.”

Alan, 43, from Leeds: “I will typically start a Friday shift by putting my work phone on silent and spending a couple of quiet hours looking up new soup recipes, and then maybe an hour or two Googling what happened to the cast members of old soaps like Eldorado.  I guess this probably makes me a terrible paramedic, but I’m not going to have time to do any of these things now anyway, thanks to 4pm Finish Day.”

Theresa, 60, from London: “I normally spend Fridays in a quiet room thinking about how I can make already bad situations much, much worse. I guess this probably makes me a terrible Prime Minister, but I don’t see 4pm Finish Day changing things much.”