Periodically, someone will float the idea of the 4-day work week. Usually it is me during summer when I would like to have a standing Friday tee time. However, others talk about it occasionally as well.
I am not going to advocate for or against it. I want to discuss the Do's and Don'ts when considering this option.
DO
Ensure you have strong managers who believe in the concept. Managers who can't set expectations or hold people accountable - or who simply are old school in their thinking - won't support the initiative.
Understand if you will need to hire additional people and the cost of these people. This needs to be part of the decision-making process and how you evaluate if it is a success. Some studies have shown hiring people can be offset by additional productivity. You can only prove this if you are tracking specific cost and productivity metrics.
Create an experiment. Don't just start it - figure out how it works best with your culture.
Start small and make adjustments as you expand the policy.
DON'T
Consider reducing pay for people. You should expect the same amount of work in 4 days as in 5, so you should pay them the same.
Think this means your people are lazy and not working hard enough for 5 full days. Work expands and contracts to fit the time you have - it has nothing with how hard people work.
These are by no means the only things to consider, so go into any decision having thought everything through.
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