“It’s up to us to initiate the dialogue and question work norms.”

Here’s our experiment: one year of working four days a week, tested by a small group of the team. Our COO Vidmantas Girskas is observing, taking notes, and trying to make sense of the process. There are no definite answers — it’s still an ongoing exercise, one that is joyfully picking up speed. That said, one year is enough to collect a series of observations, which are worth talking about. One thing can be stated with certainty — flexibility and willingness to test new work formats is important, especially when businesses are looking for effective ways to deal with uncertainty.

When did you decide that a four-day work week should be tested at the agency?

Taking brave decisions (and possibly making mistakes along the way), trying and discovering new things are values that we all agreed upon before joining the forces of CRITICAL and Xwhy. These values are important in the creative sector, even more so when we’re facing uncertain times.

We first became familiar with the concept back in 2019, and we started discussions at the executive level. Discussions were dynamic because we had various opinions, some of them were polar opposites. The rational voice whispers that a four-day work week means 20% bigger expenses. Who owns them? It’s a fair question. However, if you develop this thought further, it gets really interesting. Should we cut our expenses if a teammate gets sick? Should we raise our financial goals if we buy new equipment or hire more people? Viewed in such light, this argument becomes quite limiting.

Then it was 2020, a year marked by the pandemic. The discussion was enriched with braver arguments from the other side. We realized that if we wanted to retain the agency talent during difficult times, we should be open to testing new work formats. In the summer of 2021, we started the four-day experiment with our first participant, senior designer Mykolas. Gradually, the experimental group grew. Now, in September of 2022, we already have four colleagues working in this format.

Have the experiment participants brought up any benefits?

They mentioned they feel happier. Having an additional day off means better rest after an intense week. We have fewer cases of anxiety and burnout, which is particularly important when working with younger and more sensitive creatives. A four-day work week seems to be effective in retaining and attracting talent to the team. Lastly, this format encourages the team to seek out alternative working methods so we can be more efficient and achieve the same results with less resources.

What about difficulties?

When following the four-day format, it’s important that the team reaches a unanimous decision on the day off. It should be the same for everyone. Scenarios, where someone isn’t working on Monday, and someone else isn’t available on Friday, makes the project and personnel management more complicated. I would also mention that businesses oriented towards the best possible client experience need to adapt to their client’s needs. When clients reach out with questions and worries, the teams should be operating at full capacity. The bigger part of the team would find it difficult to fit all their work in four days, because the market demand for receiving high quality services speedily hasn’t decreased.

Which methods do you rely on to analyze the success of the four-day work week practice?

At the moment of speaking, we don’t have a fully worked out system to track the outcomes of this practice. We have talents whose work can be evaluated objectively (measuring their creative output against time restraints), so it’s simple to see if this practice is beneficial for them or not. On the other hand, we have talents whose primary focus is brave, authentic creation (coming up with valuable, trend-generating concepts), where analysis becomes more challenging, because we can only understand the result over the course of a few years. A weekly get-in-touch with a talent could be helpful in tracking their emotional pulse and understanding the dynamic of change, if it’s helpful or not.

Do you think the four-day work week is more relevant to the creative sector than others? If so, why?

For now, I don’t see a clearly supported connection between the four-day work week practice and the creative sector, nothing that could meaningfully differentiate it from other sectors.

Talking about the impact or possible manifestations of inequality, isn’t it challenging to compare one creative who works five days a week (and who possibly thinks about projects even during the weekend) with someone who wants to work four days a week and dedicate the rest of the time for personal projects? How do you measure the impact of the agency’s talents?

This experiment is still in progress, and we aim to create spaces where we can openly discuss the topic (weekly agency calls or 1:1 conversations). I have talked with someone who would prefer to work more than forty hours a week, and that’s the opposite of what the four-day work week is set out to achieve. Judging from what we’ve seen so far, it seems that imposing one time-related rule for everyone to follow is very limiting for the creative sector. Our strategy reflects our versatility. Each one of us brings our unique experience, unique speed, unique needs. At the end of the day, agency is a platform where a lot of people are willingly engaged in creative play. When we come up with a clear, flexible system, addressing all of our needs and encouraging even braver, even more effective play, we can consider our agency a successful one. This experiment is just the beginning, and it’s picking up speed.

Would you personally prefer to work four days instead of five?

My first impulse is to say yes. However, upon reflecting a little bit more, I find compelling alternatives. For me personally, the most suitable format would be to work five days per week, seven hours per day (and six hours on Friday). Why? Because “work” is my sandbox, it is part of my self-expression, and I like playing this game. When I think of shorter working hours, I also ask myself: what am I planning to do with my time off? I spend all my free time on professional self-development, so I would be taking online courses and reading books. My top picks this year include IDEO courses, working towards achieving an executive coaching certification, and my book of choice is Donella H. Meadows and Diana Wright’s Thinking in Systems: A Primer.

Four-day work week aside, what are other ways to foster flexibility at work?

People are at the center of the agency. We do want work to be comfortable for everyone. Our people express their needs; this activates us, team leads, to apply a wider range of tools at our disposal. We offer a hybrid work model — some of our researchers and designers work regularly from the office, some prefer a mix of work and office, and some of our colleagues work while traveling the world. Working hours in our agency are also flexible, as long as it doesn’t prevent collaborating with others. I personally start work early, at 7:00am. But don’t be surprised if you receive an email from Jonas, our design strategy lead, at midnight.

Do you think that implementing a four-day work week for everyone is possible at the moment?

Not until we find a sustainable way to do it, without compromising our professionalism and work quality. These are other values that we all agree upon and they deserve a separate conversation. Maybe next time?