3 Reasons Why We’ve Moved To a Four-Day Working Week

When we announced that, starting from 1st January, we had moved to a four-day working week, it was met with a mixed response, albeit very positive on the whole.

Life has changed a lot for our team during the course of the pandemic. So we started to re-evaluate our priorities as a business in the middle of last year. We started with one very clear outcome; to maintain our guiding principles, especially that of ‘extraordinary partnership’.

It quickly became clear that as we increased our usage and proficiency of Teams, productivity went up to the extent that we had already designated one day per week as ‘No Meeting Friday’. From there it was an easy decision to move the whole team to a shortened 28-hour week over four days, with no impact on anyone’s salary. I should point out though, that anyone can choose to continue to work a five-day week if they wish and if it’s due to an excess business need, they will be compensated.

We believe this change will benefit not only our own team (and ultimately our business) but also our clients too. We’re determined to make this a success and to continue to challenge traditional working practices.

Why have we moved to a four-day week?

We Are Extraordinary succeeds or fails by the people who work here. We believe that any investment that allows our team to enjoy a better work-life balance, is a good thing.

Simply put, we recognise that work as we know it has changed, and what we did in the past doesn’t work as well now. Everyone is looking for something more from their jobs – both in terms of their own role and the wider business. We know that moving to a four-day working week will deliver the kind of outcomes that have the potential to be life-changing for our team.

Here are three reasons why moving to a four-day week makes sense for us:

1. Improved work-life balance

The old saying goes that absence makes the heart grow fonder. Well, in the past two years, everyone has learnt just how important it is that we’re able to spend quality time with family and friends. The extra stress brought on by working through a pandemic has forced many of us to re-evaluate the relationship between our jobs and our personal lives. Indeed, someone just the other day said to me, “for the first time in my adult life, I’m working to live, not the other way round.”
A four-day week can help us all achieve a better work-life balance, where we have more time to focus on their personal lives but remain productive in their roles.

2. Greater focus on wellbeing

If we want to live up to our name, then we need our team to feel the happy and healthy. We already have a very flexible work culture – we are an all female team (at the moment), four out of six of our Leadership Team are mothers, three of them are mothers to primary school age children – so we have always made it easy to work flexible hours. It’s our hope that by dropping down to four days, we will give everyone the time they need to care for their own physical and mental wellbeing.

3. Increased productivity

Our name is more than just a name. It’s who we are and what we do. So, naturally, we’re always open to trying new ways of doing things that will help us live up to expectations.

Moving to a four-day week has not just been a case of giving everyone an extra day off. We have carefully reviewed how we operate and decided on what matters most to us as a team and as a business.

If you’ve read this blog post and are excited about the prospect of a four-day working week, get it touch with us about our upcoming worksessions and explore how you can be more productive.