Knowledge From Three Years of Working a 4 Day Work Week

Since we adopted a four-day workweek in 2020, everybody’s been leaping on the prepare throughout completely different industries and international locations. Most notably, nevertheless – and the rationale we’re gathered right here right now – is the UK’s four-day workweek experiment that has yielded optimistic outcomes. It’s additionally confirmed what we already know — that working 4 days per week works.

With the four-day workweek gaining traction worldwide, we thought it was about time to test in, but once more, with the oldsters working at Buffer about what it’s prefer to work 4 days per week.

Background

We carried out a four-day workweek experiment in Might 2020 to check its results on our collective well-being, psychological well being, and private relationships.

The experiment wasn’t meant to trace its results on productiveness, so we set low expectations round this measurement, however we have been pleasantly shocked by the outcomes.

On the time, our Chief of Workers, Carolyn Kopprasch, wrote, “…as a result of elevated relaxation and reflection, lots of you may have shared that you just felt your weekly productiveness was the truth is not all that completely different, and that your high quality of labor was greater whereas experiencing improved general wellbeing.”

We in the end shifted to a four-day workweek via the remainder of 2020 and at the moment are approaching the three-year mark.

We’ve checked in with our staff a number of instances since implementing the four-day workweek — sufficient to know it really works. However the current enhance in curiosity had us pondering — what does the four-day workweek appear to be for us, three years in?

That led us to place out a survey stuffed out by 53 Buffer staff (out of 78), 60 p.c of whom have been working at Buffer for over three years, which is so long as we’ve been operating the four-day workweek. Right here’s what they needed to say.

Everybody loves the four-day workweek

Unsurprisingly, 100% of survey respondents said that they’d prefer to proceed working remotely for the remainder of their careers.

That is in keeping with outcomes from the UK experiment, with 90 p.c of staff saying they positively need to proceed on a four-day week with nobody saying they positively don’t need to proceed.

Most staff — 78.8 p.c — work 4 days per week OR 5 shorter days, up from 73 p.c the final time we did a survey. In the meantime, 21 p.c work greater than 4 days per week, down from 27 p.c the final time we did this survey.

We will infer from this that point spent working a four-day workweek has allowed every particular person to determine what works greatest for his or her schedule. We will additionally join this consequence to adjusted inside expectations for the four-day workweek.

As Carolyn explains, “Now we have considerably adjusted the expectations of the fifth day in order that it’s extra of an “overflow” day if wanted. That is in keeping with our common flexibility, however now managers are being extra express: we encourage teammates to work on that fifth day in the event that they select to or if wanted, primarily based on their workload or the staff’s wants. (If it’s not wanted, then the teammate is inspired to take it off completely as common.) Engaged on the fifth day is just not essentially a failure of the system or an issue. It’s simply not anticipated or required like in a five-day work week surroundings.”

Burnout has no place within the four-day workweek, say 100% of Buffer teammates

We predict and speak so much about burnout right here at Buffer, so it’s encouraging to see teammates not really feel burnt out working a four-day workweek. A majority, 73.1 p.c, of teammates said that they really feel extra energized, whereas 26.9 p.c don’t really feel significantly completely different.

The UK experiment had ends in an analogous vein — 71 p.c of staff had lowered ranges of burnout by the tip of the trial.

Moreover, 99.1 p.c of teammates are much less confused since they began working a four-day workweek.

Measured towards the trial respondents, 39 p.c of whom said that they have been much less confused, this may increasingly look like an outlier. Nonetheless, it’s essential to contemplate that Buffer is each distant and operating a four-day workweek. That is doubtless a significant component within the decreased stress ranges discovered among the many survey respondents.

Work-life steadiness is a significant advantage of the four-day workweek

Most Buffer teammates, 61.5 p.c of, discover it simpler to steadiness work and life. One teammate particularly highlighted, “There’s extra time throughout regular enterprise hours on Friday to handle the “Admin” of my private life.”

A more healthy work-life steadiness can also be mirrored within the UK’s trial outcomes, with 60 p.c of trial respondents reporting an elevated capacity to mix paid work with care tasks and 62 p.c reporting it was simpler to mix work with their social life.

The lowered workweek isn’t with out its challenges

Whereas 65.4 p.c of teammates are in a position to full their work inside 4 days, 40.4 p.c really feel like they will’t end all their work in that timeframe. Nonetheless, as highlighted by Carolyn, we encourage utilizing the fifth day as an overflow day, which 61.6 p.c of teammates discover that they should do most or among the time.

The downsides of working each a distant and four-day workweek system are additionally mirrored within the survey responses, as teammates spotlight that making connections with coworkers is difficult.

One respondent said, “Distant work mixed with a 4-day work week signifies that reference to staff members typically takes a again seat to make sure that the work will get accomplished.” One other shared, “You quit among the issues that are not core to your job however have been sort of enjoyable to do at work.”

Different highlighted challenges embrace:

• Time administration: “Managing my time nicely in the course of the 4 days to account for one much less day.”
• Overwhelming assembly schedules: “It is close to inconceivable to have a meeting-free day with a condensed schedule.”
• Feeling remoted from different teammates if you happen to work a much less widespread schedule

Many individuals use the day off for non-work actions

The UK’s experiment discovered that most individuals don’t use their further time off to tackle paid work elsewhere. They use it for hobbies and leisure, home tasks and caring, and private upkeep.

The identical is true at Buffer – a teammate highlighted that they use their time off for all times admin, particularly mentioning that they deal with issues like grocery purchasing and meal prep to totally benefit from the weekend.

We’ve lined how some teammates make the most of their distinctive schedules – take a look at this text to learn additional.

We’ll preserve working the four-day workweek

Total, we’ve had an overwhelmingly optimistic response to the four-day workweek. The lowered schedule permits staff to give attention to private pursuits, hobbies, and self-care throughout their further time off. Life admin is best dealt with throughout a four-day workweek — individuals have extra time for his or her households and associates.

We aren’t planning on shifting away from a four-day workweek – we’ll preserve refining our strategy to make sure its success for each our teammates and Buffer as a complete. We stay up for extra information on this new technique to work and extra corporations becoming a member of us on this journey.