The 4-day week is a working model that reduces the number of weekly working days to 4, balancing the total number of working hours while offering more personal free time. By reducing the number of working days, the 4-day week gives employees more time for personal activities, leisure and family. Many may wonder about the impact of this initiative on many aspects of our professionals’ day-to-day work.
It’s been a year since the reduction in working hours to 4 days a week came into effect in our company. What are the advantages and disadvantages of this experience? What can we learn from it? One year on, here are our findings on the 4-day week.
Why the 4-day week? No argument against it.
The simple aim of this innovative policy was to improve employee well-being and offer them a better work-life balance. In a performance-driven industry, this kind of implementation can make a real difference, provided everyone benefits.
As our Managing Partner Dino Masciotra points out in an article published in Les Affaires, we want to respond to “the expectations of new generations and the changing vision of work-life balance”.
This is also why our reduced week is limited to the number of days worked, not the salary. Since the salary remains the same (yes, no pay cut), there’s no reason not to take advantage of it.
4-day work weeks: Yes, but?
Yes, but you’re more stressed during those 4 days.
In fact, over 64% of employees claim to have felt no change in their stress levels as a result of reduced working hours. Even better, over 32% of workers say they have better stress management.
Yes, but not all employees can take advantage of the 4-day work week.
This offensive is indeed for all members of the firm, no one is left behind. It goes without saying that some people find it hard to take the whole day off, but they still enjoy a day that’s much more suited to what they want to do. In order to maintain a continuous presence at reception, for example, a schedule based on a rotating presence on Fridays has been introduced. That way, there’s no injustice!
That’s nearly 52% of employees who say they took most of their Fridays off, and over 31% who took advantage of ALL their three-day weekends. Whether they take advantage of Fridays to start later, or simply to clean up their e-mail inbox, we consider that the impact is still present.
Yes, but your customers pay the price.
Again, no. The vast majority, 76%, consider that they offered the same service, and even 19% say that they offered a better service due to greater motivation.
Needless to say, the first few weeks required a few adjustments. A specific emergency number was integrated into the automatic responses, and the definition of emergency was reviewed, because ultimately, we know that not all our customers are on a four-day schedule. In the end, after a few adjustments, the result remained the same, and in some cases was even better for some of our customers.
Yes, but you’re less motivated to get back to work on Monday after a long weekend.
Well, that’s not true. Over 66% of our employees tell us they feel more motivated and have much better energy on Monday mornings. What’s more, almost 27% notice a slight increase in motivation on Monday mornings. The positive effect of the extra day off is considerable, and having colleagues in a good mood on Mondays is priceless!
The benefits of working 32 hours a week in 4 days: a job to suit you.
Of course, the 32h/week, 4-day schedule has its advantages. What comes to mind most quickly is work-life balance, and this is probably the main motivation behind this offensive. The positive effects are undeniable, with almost 77% of employees saying they have noticed a LOT of benefits for their work-life balance.
To emphasize that the 32h/week schedule is an incredible advantage, it not only means that the workweek is reduced to 4 days, but also that all weekends are longer! It’s two in one. So you can take advantage of your extra day off to do all the things you don’t have time to do on a two-day weekend.
Does our vision appeal to you? Find out more about our culture and build a career with us!
