When Alice Will and her team at Edinburgh-based food and drink marketing agency Lux decided to trial a four-day working week, they didn't tell clients as a way of testing its effectiveness.
If our clients don't notice, that's a huge measure of whether it's working
That was one of the key performance indicators used to measure the trial's success. Some employees worked Monday to Thursday while others worked Tuesday to Friday in order to keep up with the workload.
The four-day week was written into employee contracts by the agency.
Since the trial began, the profits of the company have increased by 30%. Despite employees working fewer hours, the company was actually making more profit, thanks to the use of time- tracking software.
Will believes that moving to a four-day week has shown that it isn't about how many hours you put in.
A few years ago, the idea of a four-day working week was considered crazy. Demand for this working model seems to have increased in the wake of the Covid-19 Pandemic.
The author of a book on productivity and shorter working hours pointed out that there was a historical precedent for this kind of change to working hours.
The Ford Motor Company reduced the working week to five from six days in 1923, and it became a permanent policy in 1926.
The four-day working week has been successful in trials. The trial of shorter working hours in Iceland was praised as an "overwhelming success". In the year 2021, the country rolled out a permanent plan for its public sector employees, and one report found that almost all of the country's working population will be able to work shorter weeks.
Digitalvision has a production company called Hinterhaus productions.
Big-name companies have also conducted smaller four-day week trials, with consumer goods giant Unilever testing it out in New Zealand.
Dean and his co-founders of Big Potato Games read about a four-day week success story and decided to try it out with their own business. Big Potato's sales have increased by 350% since it began trialing a four-day working week.
There is some flexibility for certain roles within the company. Big Potato has a customer service team that works on contract hours. Big Potato needs to make sure that its customers always have access to that team, so that is not possible with a four-day week.
There is an understanding among all of Big Potato's staff that they may need to work on a Friday if there is a deadline, an event or a photo shoot.
Big Potato employees like to get a third day off a week. Hannah Cornish said having an extra day to do chores has made a big difference in her life.
The switch to a shorter working week didn't affect employees' pay.
There is an argument for a four-day working week. A report published in May 2021, by the 4 Day Week campaign and the environmental and social justice collective Platform London, found that shifting to a four-day week could slash the U.K.'s annual carbon footprint by 127 metric ton. It is the same as the U.K.'s entire fleet of private cars.
It was a good model for Legacy Events. The company has been operating on a four-day week for the last year. Legacy Events founder Abena Fairweather wanted to make sure that a real work-life balance was included in her company's culture.
She said that people need the same amount of leisure time as they do at work.
Fairweather has had difficulty in getting employees to take vacations.
The images are from HinterhausProductions.
She said that they don't think they need to take two or three weeks away from work.
Her comments show that there is still a need for a change in mindset in the workplace. The benefits seem to outweigh the costs for these companies.
A three-day weekend has given her more time to volunteer and visit friends and family.
She said it was nice to have that extra day to just go and visit her friends and family but also wind down mentally.
Legacy Events pays employees the same amount of money as they would make in the sector if they worked five days a week.
Can we expect a four-day work week in the next five years?
The 4 Day Week Global organization's CEO said the Pandemic has been a "game-changer" for the movement.
In sectors such as technology, finance and some parts of professional services, O'Connor said that he could see it going from an ambition to the norm really quickly.
Competition would lead to change, not only on a corporate level, but in terms of government policy, according to O'Connor. As we emerge from the Pandemic, there is a reality that taxation may not be the most important factor in determining quality of life in a country.
The four-day workweek could become something that even countries turn to when it comes to attracting investment.
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