Last updated July 2024
<aside> 💡 What is it? The concept of the four-day week is simple: employees work four days a week while getting paid the same and receiving the same benefits with the same workload.
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We’ve seen data coming out for the last 5 years showing that most workers only accomplish around three hours or less of genuinely focused work per day - yet there is this misconception that longer hours are the solution to greater productivity or outcome. In reality, working longer hours almost always means even less work ends up getting done.
One of the driving forces behind the 4-day week is challenging the mistaken assumption that simply being at work means that meaningful work is being done. At Wild Audience, we believe there’s a better way to do business and create a positive, supportive and inclusive environment in which people can do their best work while also living their best life —and there is plenty of data to back this up. However, the best data is the one you get by trying.
Here at Wild Audience, we are “designing work optimised for living, for everyone” so naturally we like experimenting with how we work. In February 2023, we started our 4-day workweek trials and never looked back. Businesses should be designed to support human beings—and the 4-day workweek is a powerful way to improve our team’s well-being.
It has been proven by many (Wildbit, Volt athletics, Buffer and more) and by us with a series of trials that we can do the same amount of work, at a higher quality, in four work days instead of five. We can spend the four days in deep-focused work, and then have three full days of rest and free time to live, reset, connect with ourselves, our family, friends and community, and cultivate relationships and passions. This way of working is helping us to thrive at work and outside work creating a more balanced and happy life.
There are many ways to approach this system we have decided to officially reduce our hours to 32 hours from Monday to Thursday* while also keeping our flexibility.
It means that we work a 4-day work week by default and our core working days are Monday to Thursday. However, we don’t track hours and everyone is free to schedule their work week the way they want. Some people use Friday as a buffer sometimes, some people work on Fridays and exchange with another day when necessary, and some people never work on Fridays... it is totally up to you.
*different for the customer support team alternating Mondays and Fridays off to make sure our customers are happy from Monday to Friday.