Our Four-Day Working Week Trial

My name is Daniel, and I work for a small design company. Earlier this year, our company tested a four-day working week for three months. We worked from Monday to Thursday and kept the same salary. The aim was not to do forty hours in four long days. Instead, we had to organise our normal work more carefully.

Before the trial began, we looked at how we used our time. We discovered that some meetings had no clear purpose, and people answered messages all day. During the trial, most meetings lasted twenty-five minutes, and every meeting needed a short plan. We also chose two periods each day for quiet work, when we did not send internal messages.

At first, Thursday afternoons were stressful because everyone wanted to finish everything. After a few weeks, we became better at deciding what was important. My team completed the same number of projects as before, and sick days fell. I used Fridays to visit my parents, exercise and deal with personal appointments.

There were difficulties. Our customer support team still needed to answer clients on Fridays, so its members took different days off. Some clients also worried that they would receive slower service. We gave them a special phone number for urgent problems and published clear opening hours.

At the end of the trial, most staff wanted to continue. The company agreed, but it will review the system every six months. For me, the extra day is valuable, but the biggest change is that we now protect our working time much better.