Why this company reinstated a 4-day workweek for the summer

The summer often amounts to employees spending longer and hotter days working from their homes or offices — but this CEO wants to give his team some time back.

Robert Graham, CEO of software company Poll Everywhere, has helped initiate another summer of four-day workweeks. First trialed in the summer of 2022, Poll Everywhere decided to reduce their workweek to 32 hours again, giving employees three-day weekends all season long. 

"Life is very much about how you spend your days," says Graham. "And it's not as if people are going to Europe every weekend, but somebody seeing their grandpa for the first time in a while or walking on the beach with their nephew — those things add up."

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Poll Everywhere even has a Slack channel titled "Summer Fridays," where employees post how they spend their long weekends. For Graham, that channel is proof of just how valuable the three-day weekend can be. 

Still, Graham recalls just how hesitant the company was before the first trial, noting that Poll Everywhere reduced their workweek in the summer partly because the company is less busy during those months.

"We had internal conversations about it for a few years, and it felt like it was unclear whether it was going to be beneficial or not," says Graham. "Maybe people weren't career-focused enough and would be less productive. But I think a lot of that was fear driven."

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Ultimately, the executive team wanted to reexamine their work culture and test whether more rest could revitalize productivity and morale during a season when employees everywhere are already less focused on work. According to digital media company Captivate Network, workplace productivity drops by 20%, attendance falls by 19% and workers are 45% more distracted between June and August. 

While Poll Everywhere didn't see a substantial increase in productivity in 2022,  Graham isn't giving up on the four-day workweek just yet.

"The reason we didn't see a surge in productivity was for reasons like communication," he says. "But these things are fixable."

In fact, before the company's first trial, leaders had assumed engineers would benefit the most from a reduced workweek, given that these workers already work independently. But it soon became clear that engineering teams needed to have a better system for collaboration and communication in order to still meet deadlines. 

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Graham also points out that during weeks when employees are squeezing 40 hours or more worth of work into 32 hours, people can feel just as tired as if they'd be finishing the week on Friday. But Graham is hopeful that through leadership training and better communication company-wide, Poll Everywhere employees can avoid some of the pitfalls they experienced last summer while still enjoying more time outside of work. The company even hired more staff to lessen the workload on the existing employees.

As for other employers trying to fight the summer slump, Graham encourages them to give it a try if it feels like it could be a fit for their industry and business, rather than letting fear of the unknown decide for them.

"We are staying open-minded," says Graham. "If we see big gains in employee retention, productivity and happiness then we would definitely consider taking the 4-day workweek on a full-time basis."