Over the last two years, I have been involved in the rollout of two separate pilots introducing a four-day working week in two different organisations. Both have been very different experiences, and both have had different outcomes. One hasn’t continued the pilot; the other has mainstreamed the approach.
Both have provided a lot of learning.
Any organisation looking to pilot a 4-day working week should be applauded. The two-day weekend was introduced almost 100 years ago and since then other than the increase in remote working, forced through the crisis circumstance of a pandemic, very little has been done to evolve how we, as a society, structure our working week. Organisations looking to do things differently are those actively taking measures to deliver on the long-trotted-out ‘work/life balance’ aspiration, and this should be applauded. But, doing so in the absence of legislation, regulations or even official guidance can be daunting, particularly for not-for-profit organisations.
The Lessons: