4-Day Work Week
LifeCity Begins 4-Day Work Week Trial
LifeCity is proud to announce that we are beginning a 2-month trial of the 4-day work week on March 1, 2021. LifeCity’s offices will be closed each Friday during March and April to provide our team increased space to grow personally and professionally. The LifeCity team is excited to engage this opportunity to serve our community and our clients while living our values of place-based connectivity, continuous learning, and celebrating every day.
Why a 4-Day Work Week?
The 4-day work week has become an increasingly necessary foil to the idea that longer working hours increase productivity and that productivity outweighs social and environmental costs. Research has shown that a 4-day work week provides benefits for workers including increased work-life balance, reduced psychological distress, better health outcomes, and greater overall quality of life—which in turn actually increases productivity. Microsoft Japan discovered this when its employee productivity increased by 40% following the introduction of a 4-day week. These gains were realized alongside cost savings through increased efficiency in both energy and material consumption at the company. As an employment benefit, the 4-day work week also has significant talent recruitment and retention potential.
On an even broader social level, studies have shown that a 4-day work week, if widely adopted, could have economic and environmental benefits by significantly reducing commutes in major cities. Flexible work arrangements, including the 4-day work week, also increase equity in the workforce by allowing more people to become employable.
In perhaps the most well-publicized 4-day work week trial, Perpetual Guardian, a trust management company in New Zealand, saw increased employee engagement levels, employee collaboration, confidence and leadership among employees, intellectual stimulation and creativity, and trust between management and employees, all in addition to major productivity and efficiency gains. Afterward, the policy became permanent and company leadership started a foundation dedicated entirely to promoting the 4-day work week across the globe.
Following the success of the Perpetual Guardian trial, the new work arrangement is being considered or adopted across the globe. Shake Shack and Unilever are two large companies who have adopted some form of the 4-day work week. The 4-day work week has been discussed in a variety of countries beyond the US and New Zealand, including Finland, United Kingdom, and Russia. Spain has officially committed to piloting the 4-day work week in response to the COVID-19 pandemic by offering financial aid to companies who cut the work week to 32 hours without reducing pay.
Moving to 4 Days is Also Place-Based
Just as community context is necessary to measure impact, a major takeaway from Perpetual Guardian’s research is that the 4-day work week is not a one-size-fits-all project. What suits one company in terms of scheduling, employee input and feedback, and evaluation metrics, may not suit another. In preparation for our 4-day work week trial, the LifeCity team spent months building new workflow efficiencies including new project management software, meeting protocols, and time management practices.
Beginning the week of March 8, after the conclusion of our first 4-day work week, the LifeCity team will complete brief, weekly surveys designed to evaluate the trial’s success both in terms of work productivity and personal satisfaction. In May 2021, the LifeCity research team will evaluate the trial using a variety of metrics, and ultimately the team will decide whether to institute the 4-day work week as a permanent fixture at the company. LifeCity will publish a report documenting our findings and recommendations for other companies who want to explore their own 4-day work week trials.
The last twelve months have been uniquely disorienting and have necessitated honest and genuine discussions about social organization and priorities. At LifeCity, we are proud to continue fulfilling our mission in a way that prioritizes the physical and emotional health of our team and community. We believe that this new arrangement is the cutting edge of the future of work, and we are excited to take a leadership role in building an economy that works for good.
We look forward to sharing the results of our trial. Check back in May 2021 for more information! In the meantime, keep an eye out for LifeCity’s “New Economy” blog series, and check out all of the inspiring work being done by our Love Your City team!