The 40-hour workweek was established over a century ago by Ford Motor Company with automobile factory workers in mind. And while most companies still keep a nine-to-five, Monday-through-Friday schedule, it’s safe to say that a lot has changed for today’s average worker — so shouldn’t the workweek change too?
Employees spend just 39% of the day performing primary job duties, splitting the rest of their day between emails, meetings and breaks, according to a survey by software company Workfront. The Behavioral Science and Policy Associate estimates workers are only productive three hours a day.
It’s no wonder engagement levels are low and burnout rates are high, leading some employers to rethink and innovate. PR firm GillespieHall is working with
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“We recognize, especially after the pandemic, that some pieces of our working culture were unsustainable,” says Clara Mattucci, behaviorist and partner at GillespieHall. “So, we saw the opportunity to question how we work.”
To learn more about GillespieHall’s four-day week journey, EBN spoke with Mattucci and Bridget Paverd, a senior partner at GillespieHall, to gain insight into the wins and challenges their company has encountered in the last few months.
What inspired you to take the leap and reduce your workweek?
Paverd: I was hell-bent on having a four-day week in 2017, but it didn’t really work out. Our team lacked focus and discipline. I possibly lacked focus and discipline. But after the adjustments we had to make through the pandemic, Clara saw the opportunity. We've got a wonderful reputation with employee retention and we wanted to hold on to them, but quite frankly, we were all languishing.
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Mattucci: This is so important, because public relations and communications is high pressure work — it’s consistently rated one of the most stressful jobs. So, people need to pay attention to themselves and their well-being in order to contribute productively to a workplace like ours.
How is GillespieHall making the four-day week possible now?
Paverd: Truly, 2017 showed us the red flags. We had told employees they could leave on Friday, no questions asked, provided the work is done. We put that accountability on them, so they couldn’t leave early, dump work on their colleagues or miss deadlines. That didn't work as well as we had hoped. Now we know to transition to a 32-hour workweek, you have to be accountable to each other.
That’s why Clara and her team got back to human behavior and created this incredible covenant that everybody had to sign. We spent a morning discussing it, and it really spelled it out that this is a team effort. And if one of you fails, we all fail.
Mattucci: The covenant covers our expectations for each other and how we can support each other. If one person doesn't feel supported, then the agreement is not being upheld, and we need to rework it, and we are reevaluating all the time. We see this as an ongoing process because what we do now is not necessarily going to be the best way to do it a year from now or five years from now.
How has your company been able to effectively structure its four-day workweek?
Paverd: Half of our team is out on Friday and half is out on Monday, so we are still open five days a week. But that does mean there are two full days and the weekend where we’re not in direct contact with each other — so we have completely changed the way we communicate. Part of the covenant is making sure we're all completely up to speed on each other's accounts. If one person was out on Monday or Friday, someone else can step in.
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Mattucci: We measure success by how much our clients are feeling the impact. We don't remind them on a regular basis that we have a four-day week because we don't have to. For example, when we are scheduling meetings, we just give our availability. We stick to our deadlines and deliver at the same pace. And that’s possible because the four-day week is designed to give new energy and inspiration so employees come to work with more to give.
What challenges have you faced during the trial so far?
Paverd: I think to successfully message a four-day week as being the norm, we have to address that potential loss. That is your first reaction as a business owner: a fear of loss. In our case, we were giving 10 permanent employees and two part-time employees an additional 52 paid days off, alongside a very generous paid time off program. When Clara and I looked at the numbers with our accountant, we went into anaphylactic shock. We thought, ‘How do we absorb this?’ But you can't approach it that way.
But it can be frustrating. There was
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Then we also started at the most difficult time, because everybody was on vacation and we were running at 30% staff. So as partners, we actually had to bear the brunt of that. While everybody else was working 32-hour weeks, we were working a 60-hour week. But we knew and understood that this was a temporary thing and it was important to us that employees had their three-day weekend to really decompress.
What is your advice to other organizations who may be on the fence about implementing a four-day week?
Paverd: There are businesses who do not think what we’re doing is a good idea — the resistance is going to be more from my generation, and I'm 55 and over. My advice to them is to do it. Things have changed and there's no reverting back to what we were. This is it. There is fear of loss linked to revenue and income, but trust that’s not the case.
Mattucci: The more case studies we see, the more we’re going to see how profits increase over time. You are lowering your operating costs, lowering your carbon footprint and bringing extra energy and value to your employees and business community.
So, we're changing the structure of what we value and what we're paying staff for — instead of a certain number of hours, we work for a certain outcome. And our volume of work is higher now, but we've been able to maintain it because everyone and everything is falling into place.
Paverd: Your quality of life will improve and your retention will improve. It is a reward for everybody and you can make it work. We need to feed our souls, smell the roses or literally just go for a walk. We’re not good at doing that in the United States. Here, you wouldn't even take a full week of vacation because you know that there's somebody who wants your job or you just feel guilty. This is no way to live.
