The 4-day work week
“I’d love to, but it’s just not possible for us to get done all we have to do with even less time. We already have such a work overload, so many meetings, etc.”
“Our investors/ donors wouldn’t allow/ support it”
“It can only work for office jobs, not in manufacturing or other such industries”
There are many reasons not to do it bouncing around your head as you consider implementing something pioneering, something which sounds utopian, something which you could only dream of in previous work environments: have every weekend be 3 days long. Implement a 4-day week for yourself and your entire organisation. As a leader, you might feel torn between the feeling that it is the right thing to do, the strong desire from your teams (with some hesitant voices, of course), and the fear that the 4-day week will cause you as an organisation to fail. Or, you’re convinced you want to do it, and you’re feeling stuck as to where to start.
Well then read on, as we’re going on a journey through those hesitations, through the myths we all hold about work, and about how to get started with your 4-day work week without causing your organisation to implode.
Our own experience
Since founding P+M in 2020, we’ve been working a 32hr or 4-day week (at times even a 28hr or 3.5 day week). It’s something which sometimes surprises clients or partners, and often which they find really great and even inspirational. We’ve been very clear that we want time for ourselves, our families and other passions, and this obviously has led to sacrifices and trade-offs. But we would have it no other way.
We’ve also supported a number of organisations to implement their 4-day week trial though this was always alongside other work developing their purpose and strategies, their leadership skills and team cohesion. Other organisations with which we work have been working with a 4-day week since before we started working together. We’re so convinced by the impact of our own experience and that of these other organisations, alongside the mounting research on the subject, that we feel very motivated to support those who are ready and interested to trial and then, if they so choose, implement the 4-day week. And maybe you are one of those people!
What does a 4-day week really mean?
Some people believe a 4-day work week means you take the usual 40 hour week, and cram it into 4 days — working 10 hours per day rather than 8. Others believe that a 4-day week means you are paid for 4 days or 32hrs of work at the same rate as you used to be paid the 5 day week, so earning 80% of what you used to.
The reality is, as 4 Day Week Global — one of the leading groups in the four day week movement — say: “Employees receive 100% pay for 80% time worked with 100% productivity targets achieved.“
Therefore, the intention is that it is giving employees more time for themselves (to do care work, volunteering, or whatever they chose), with the same productivity levels and pay as before. This is the claim which most people find hard to believe could work in reality.
The fears versus the reality of the four-day week
From the now dozens of pilot projects carried out, studies done and experiences we’ve also had directly with clients, the above claim is clearly true in the vast majority of cases. As Four Day Week Global state: “A wide range of organisations in a variety of industries all over the world have been extremely satisfied with their companies’ productivity when piloting a 4-day week, with 91% opting to continue once their trials conclude.”
Often, it’s the assumptions we make about work which lie at the core of our fears and hesitation about this model. Many of us have assumptions such as:
- Dedication to a job and a cause means we work long hours
- Productivity increases if we increase the numbers of hours worked
- People who already have a high workload need more time at work, not less
The reality as we’ve experienced it and from the research is that:
- When you work 4 days or 32hrs per week, you start being very careful with every hour you have. People reduce all activities which are not absolutely necessary to the minimum (scrolling through Facebook, LinkedIn, etc; joining meetings they don’t need to be in; etc). At first, it certainly feels more intense, but usually people adapt.
- We always recommend teams be very radical at the beginning, slashing as many meetings as possible or limiting it attendance to only the most needed people, cutting out any non-essential activities, and then only adding new ones when they are clearly needed.
- When people are more careful with their hours and have an extra whole day per week for themselves, they also are more rested, have more time to do care-work (for kids, parents, neighbours, or themselves!) in a less stressful way, take up new educational opportunities, do more sports, spend more time in nature, etc.
- People who are more rested, have a better balance between their work and their personal lives, and are more efficient during their working hours, are happier and more motivated to go to work, are more dedicated to their job, feel more grateful to their employer rather than that their employer owes them, and are more likely to be ambassadors for the organisation.
- Such employees and the culture which comes with it, increase the ability to acquire the best talent. Hiring people interested in a healthy work culture reinforces this. And people stay longer at the company.
- It also promotes gender equality, as care work is made more possible for both men and women.
- Oh, and it has a positive impact on the company’s carbon footprint, with people commuting less, leading commuting time to fall by an average of half an hour per person per week, according to 4-Day Week Global.
Of course, there are challenges, as with any new way of working. Organisations often go through a period of lower productivity during and briefly after the trial period (first 3–6 months of the implementation), though this is usually caught up within at most a year of the start of the implementation.
Some employees remain challenged or in disagreement with the policy, and still work over-time. This is most often the case with management or people in leadership positions, as they find it difficult to fully accept that the change would enable them to still do their work to such a high level of performance. (Spoiler: Those leaders who did fully apply it, found it made them far better leaders, and improved mental health!)
One of the most challenging examples we’ve encountered is where the call for a 4-day week became a rallying cry in the organisation from the staff, causing real tensions when it took a longer time to be implemented than originally promised. If the implementation of this model is already bound up in tension and disagreement, it can be a rough ride.
Furthermore, we’ve seen organisations go back to “full-time” hours when a crisis looms, and they feel they need “all hands on deck”. We however have also been deeply impressed by organisations who have held steadfastly to the 4-day week and other innovative ways of working such as self-organisation through deep crises and found how this has increased the dedication of staff, the innovative and compassionate nature of their collaboration through the tough times, and the end result of being able to pivot and co-create new avenues to success.
If we want to implement this utopian sounding innovation, how can we get started? And what can you, dear P+M, do to support us?
Well, these are the steps which we recommend you take to get started:
1 The most important first step is to check the mood in your organisation. As mentioned above, you don’t want to be forcing free time on people who don’t want it! Either through an all-team meeting, a survey or whatever works for you, check with people:
a. Whether they are interested in trying out a 4-day week (Important: trying it out, not necessarily implementing for ever)
b. Ask a set of questions as a baseline of how people are doing in their work today for measuring the impact of your trial. We often use these ones:
i. How would you rate your work/life balance currently (1–5)?
ii. How would you rate your productivity at work currently (1–5)?
iii. Thinking about your week this week, how would you rate your current energy level? (1–5)
iv. Do you feel you complete everything you need to complete each week? Always/Most of the times/Sometimes/Rarely
v. How do (or don’t) you know what you should achieve each week?
If you are not in the leadership of the organization, you will need to ensure they (leaders and board/ investors) are onboard before going too far with this initiative, as raising expectations can backfire, as mentioned above.
2Then, in an (online) meeting with the whole organisation (if you’re not too large) or with representatives of different departments (not only leadership, if possible), we help you:
a. Anticipating Scenarios of what could go wrong, and how to respond to them to avoid them happening.
b. Defining what success would look like (as specific goals) and how it will be measured
c. Define the trial period
i. What will our 4-day week look like (it can be a nobody-works-on-Friday/Monday; or everyone choses; or each department decides; work days are only 6,4hrs long…)
ii. When do we start and how long will we trial the 4-day week for? (we usually recommend between 3 and 6 months)
iii. What other expectations do we need to clarify? (“do the day off accrue, if I don’t take it?”, etc)
iv. What strategies can we implement to remain as productive as possible? (better use technology, slash meetings, etc)
v. How do we communicate about the trial to partners/ clients?
3 Then, you can get started, and have regular check in meetings (i.e. once a week at first, then once a month) to see how things are going, and what people need to adjust, what they have learned, done with their time, etc.
4 Sometime before the end of the trial, we recommend sending out a survey or having an all-team meeting to ask again the same questions as in the initial survey, and see what change has occurred. You will also assess whether the situation you are now in fits the “success” which you had outlined at the beginning, or the failure which you had planned to avoid. Based on this, it’s decision time: Either you keep going with the 4 day week, or you revert back to the old way of working.
5 We recommend then communicating about the implementation of your 4-day week (and highlighting “we’ve been doing this for 3–6 months, and you didn’t notice a thing, dear clients! Ha!”) so that everyone knows what to expect and can also be inspired by your company culture and become even more loyal customers!
6 Finally, we recommend having a check in or review at least one year after the end of the trial period, if not 6 months afterwards, to do another check in and adjustment.
So, there you have it: 6 steps to implement a revolution! As Mike Neundorfer, the CEO of Advanced RV, a manufacturing company which builds custom, luxury motor homes out of Mercedes-Benz cargo vans in Ohio, USA, says:
“It just seemed like the most significant thing I could do as a business owner and manager.”
We truly believe that the shift towards policies and cultures in organisations which focus on the achievement of goals rather than on hours worked, where wellbeing of all involved is seen as a paramount value to the sustainable success of the organisation, and where people are trusted and empowered rather than controlled, is the path towards creating a regenerative world of work. Our work can be so much more than a source of income.
Let’s make it happen, together!
