A significant amount of press (a selection that is by no means exhaustive has been linked below) has been given to companies and organizations that are doing 4 day/8 hour work weeks without a change in compensation. Organizations that adopted a 4 day work week experienced
- Sustained or improved productivity.
- Worker happiness increased dramatically.
- Stress, burnout and turnover decreased.
- Companies had an easier time attracting and retaining talent.
- Customer outcomes improved.
- Number of sick days declined.
- Carbon footprints could be reduced significantly.
These trials have been run over a wide breadth of industries and locales in both the private and public sector, and include software companies like ourselves among their ranks.
Given these obvious benefits, I believe that Company Name should adopt a 4 day/8 hour working schedule without a change in compensation at the very least as a trial.
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Nursing home sees better staff retention and better patient outcomes after adopting a 30 hour week
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Perpetual Guardian experiences sustained productivity and improved worker happiness
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Platform London reports that a 4 day work week would cut the UK's carbon footprint by 21.3%
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The governments of Spain and Scotland begin subsidising companies that offer 4 day. workweeks.
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[Update Jul 12, 2021] Japan's annual economic policy guidelines unveiled plans to push employers to adopt four-day workweeks
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[Update Jul 29, 2021] US representative from California introduces legislation to shorten work week to 32 hours
- [Update Feb 8, 2022] The Congressional Progressive Caucus endorsed a four-day work week bill.
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] The Financial Diet adopts a 4 day work week.
- "revenue increased, everyone's happier, the same work gets done.revenue increased, everyone's happier, the same work gets done." - Co-Founder and CEO Chelsea Fagan
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] Staffing firm Wonderlic trialed a four day work week over the Summer and it was so successful they made it permanent.
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] Glasgow-based marketing firm Pursuit Marketing switched to a four-day week three years ago, giving every employee Fridays off without cutting pay.
- "When we raised it initially, our finance director looked at it as just a salary cost," says Lorraine Gray, Pursuit Marketing's operations director. But she says that since then, the gains have been obvious. Productivity has increased by about 30%, sickness leave is at an all-time low and there have been unexpected cost savings too: the company no longer needs to pay professional recruiters to hire staff, as so many people want to work for them.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] The Sun's list of 45 UK companies operating on a 4 day work week.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] The Sun's list of 13 US companies operating on a 4 day work week.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] The Landmark London hotel offers 4 day work week at increased pay to it's chefs.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Canon's (camera manufacture) UK arm trials four day work week with it's 140-odd staff members.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Panasonic plans to trial 4 day work week.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Survey shows 66% of workers want to work fewer than 5 days a week, but only 17% of employers offer that option.
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Four-Day Work Week Pilot Launches in U.K. With At Least 30 Companies Taking Part
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Ad agency Swash Labs adopts 4 day work week, sees productivity and employee satisfaction boost
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Buffer sees sustained productivity and an improvement in employee happiness
- For our Engineering teams, the number of total coding days went down. However, we saw significant increases in output. Our Engineering Manager, Ivana, shared: "Weekly coding days went from 3.4 to 2.7 for product teams, and from 3.2 to 2.9 for Mobile and Infrastructure, while the productive impact increased significantly for product teams and doubled for Infrastructure and Mobile! "
- [Update Feb 8, 2022] "At Buffer, the shortened week has had a hidden upside for parents too: Employees who pay for childcare now only need to cover four days of daycare instead of five, and those whose children were in remote school have been better able to juggle helping their kids learn virtually"
- In a recent survey, 91% of Buffer's employees reported feeling happier and more productive working four days each week.
- 84 employees
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Wildbit has been running a 4 day workweek for 4 years
- Wildbit: improved productivity, happiness. Easier time retaining and attracting talent
- “Sometimes I’m like, Man, I really haven’t seen my son in such a long time—like, you see him, but you’re just busy,” Brian Kerr, a customer-support agent at Wildbit and the father of a 2-year-old, told me. “Fridays are my day to slow down and just hang out with him.”
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[Update Aug,19, 2021] Arken.legal trials a 4 day work week for 9 months, decides to adopt it permanently after seeing sustained productivity, improved wellbeing and work-life balance.
- "...85% of staff polled internally [say] the trial [has] improved their view of the company."
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[Update Sep 15, 2021] Game studio Young Horses permanently shifts to four day work week after successful two month trial period.
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[Update Oct 6, 2021] Fintech startup Slice offers three day, work week at 80% compensation.
- The company has 450 employees and wants to recruit 1,000 engineers and product managers in the next three years.
- Bajaj said. “A three-day work week allows us to recruit a certain caliber of talent because it’s a perk big tech companies like Google and Amazon don’t offer,”
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] Uncharted is using its four day work week as a recruiting tool
- The Denver-based company maintained the same level and quality of work, despite the fact that employees were working fewer hours. At the same time, employees were happier, Benitez said.
- “There was a reduction in work stress,” he said. “There was a reduction in burnout.”
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] Outdoor tech company Wanderlust canceled Mondays on impulse
- Productivity is also up. The company has seen a 136% year-over-year growth in gross merchandise volume processed in the second quarter and a 100% year-over-year increase in second-quarter reservations, the company said.
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] Fintech unicorn, Bolt, is closing on Fridays for three months. If it makes workers more productive and happier, it will make the policy permanent.
- [Update Feb 8, 2022] Bolt made its four day work week permanent in January.
- "94% of employees surveyed said they wanted the program to continue and 86% said they were more efficient with their time"
- "Bolt, whose technology enables one-click checkout for e-commerce sites, has added 280 employees since September 2021. when it began testing its shortened week. It now has 550 full-time employees."
- "Within a month they saw a surge in productivity."
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] After 6 month trial, online retailer Primary made four day work week permanent.
- Thursdays have become known as “Friday junior” and “Thri-day.”
- The company’s voluntary attrition rate has fallen slightly to 7 percent this year, even as workers in the United States are quitting jobs at record levels
- “I definitely think everyone could do it. No question,” said Galyn Bernard, Primary’s co-founder.
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[Update Dec 7, 2021] The online bank Atom Bank has introduced a four-day work week for its 430 staff without cutting their pay.
- "Covid showed us that it wasn't necessary…I think doing 9-5, Monday to Friday is a pretty old fashioned way of working."
- He also hopes it will help attract talent at time when staff attrition at the bank is "unusually" high due to the pandemic
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Seattle startup Uplevel trying 4-day workweek in bid to enhance productivity, well-being and culture
- "Uplevel makes software tools to help engineering teams better measure how developers use their time and how they could best avoid burning out."
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Seattle startup Volt, makers of a fitness training app platform, also employs 27 distributed people and shifted to a four-day workweek that it calls “Flex Fridays” in July 2020.
- CEO and co-founder Dan Giuliani said it’s been “pretty fascinating” and overwhelmingly a “very positive experience.” The change has positioned Volt as a “human-centric company,” he said.
- "Volt was named this week among the “Best Employers in Sports” of 2021 by the industry media platform Front Office Sports."
- "...the shorter week has definitely impacted recruiting in a positive way."
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Armor Games permanently adopts 4 day work week after a three month trial.
- "After our latest survey 87.5% of employees were ready to implement the workweek permanently. 100% of employees felt their productivity was the same (or better) than a 5-day workweek."
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[Update Feb 8, 2022] Hundreds of open positions on SWE jobs site 4dayweek.io