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28 Jan 05:44am

Filed under: Design, Lifestyle, Work

[Editors’ note: This is in response to an article published in The Punch on Monday about 10-hour, four-day working weeks. Michael Honey’s business does just that.]

Traffic: On a 4/10 schedule, you spend less time in it

The indignities of modern working life are many, and one of the most onerous is the grind of the five-day working week. Two days of play after five days’ work is inadequate to renew our enthusiasm for life: we barely recover from the quintuple routine of waking to the alarm, commuting to work and back (to say nothing of what transpires in between), dining with our weary family and crashing to uneasy sleep; than we have to confront the thought, on a Sunday afternoon, that it all will begin again. A five-day work week leaves insufficient room for us to develop our sensitive natures: it makes us dull and cranky.

We run a small design studio with four fulltime staff. When we started up the place, one of my aims, as a refugee from the advertising agencies where I built my career, was to build a kinder, gentler, more humane organisation.

So as soon as we could, when the cashflow fluctuations evened out and we knew the business was viable, we moved to a four-day week, ten-ish hours a day, 8am to 5.30pm or 6pm at night. Work hard Monday to Thursday: every Friday off.

Our clients and colleagues in other studios are uniformly positive about the idea, and wish they could implement it at their jobs. At the virtual certainty of coming across as a smug wanker, our clients are in par paying for the vicarious thrill of participating in our purportedly creative lives: and we all know that moments of inspiration are far more likely in the shower, while browsing in a bookshop, or best of all, travelling, than at your desk.

The maths is good too: the working week gets reduced by 20 per cent, but your weekend is 50 per cent longer. The inevitable morning half-hour of making coffee, checking emails and general stuffing around only happens four times a week. Same for the commute at each end of the day - we get the same hours of work in with eighty percent of the commuting time. Getting to and from work is never fun: it can only be made more bearable. And the best way of all is to do it less often.

Changing our habits has also made us realise that the other givens of working are mutable: we’ve moved to an apartment instead of an office, so we have shower and kitchen facilities; we’ve tried working a week in Byron Bay. Coming together in a shared work environment is good for communication and team cohesion: but that doesn’t mean it has to boring.

The good: obviously, a long weekend every time. Waking up on a Friday morning and listening to the other poor bastards driving to work. Attracting and retaining good staff who appreciate being treated like adults and who repay you in kind. Time for other interests, new ventures, side projects, fitness, community.

The bad: waking up early in winter and getting home late, darkness bookending your days. Long afternoons, when the gap between lunch and hometime seems uncrossable. Inflexible client schedules, with immovable Friday meetings. To some extent the benefits of the four-day week are dependent on it being a rare thing: if everyone did it, then the quiet daytime cinemas, the short lines at the market, the unhurried cafés will start to fill up. Paying seven days’ rent and only using the premises for four doesn’t make a lot of sense, so we’re looking at other ways to monetize the space. I’m sure we’d make a bit more money if we worked every Friday - but money’s not everything.

Should you do it? Yes. Is a four-day week perfect? No. But I have 52 long weekends every year to think about it. And whatever the problems, the payback is in the most valuable currency of all, the one you can never make more of: your time.

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16 comments

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- Callie says:
  
  08:43am | 28/01/10
  
  On the other end of the spectrum, I work 10-hour days, five days a week, but only get paid for 38-40 hours of that :/ I wish I worked where you did, and that other workplaces would catch on that overworking and underpaying/loving your staff is not a badge of honour.
  
  Reply
- Happy Worker says:
  
  08:56am | 28/01/10
  
  I have recently changed from a five day week to a four day week and find the transition totally rejuvenating. My work life now revolves around a four on four off basis which does take in weekends but however does enable me to have time home duringt he week to share duties with my wife who is still in the five day grind. The four day break has seen my blood pressure drop and I am by far a more happier person. yes working a ten hour day rather than an eight hour day means getting up at “sparrow-fart” but clearly the benefits far outweigh the negatives.
  
  Reply
- Craig Lambie says:
  
  09:14am | 28/01/10
  
  Sounds like an interesting proposition, although you didn’t really “answer” many of the queries from the comments the other day…. What about Kids, Fitness etc.
  And a new question I thought of this week, what do you do on weeks such as this, where there already is a 4 day week? Do you have a 3 day week? Or do you just work 8 hr days instead of 10 on the 4 days?
  
  Reply
- Joey Joe Joe says:
  
  10:39am | 28/01/10
  
  This would work better in a cmopany larger than four people
  with staggered some on monday to thrusday, some on tuesday to friday,
  to take care of those pesky friday meetings and deadlines
  
  Reply
- Dani says:
  
  11:18am | 28/01/10
  
  I think the thing with kids is almost negatable, because most people work 10 hour days anyway. So the difference being payed for that time, and having a whole extra day to be supermum/superdad and a super person to yourself too.
  
  Reply
- Adam says:
  
  12:03pm | 28/01/10
  
  I agree with Dani. I think quality time with your kids is more important than quality time. If I come home from work tired I will fake happiness and try and engage with my young kids. I am there physically but not really emotionally or mentally.
  
  If I have a day off and plan a days activities with my kids such as the park/movies/beach/pool I am far more attentive and far more enjoyable and I am sure a much better parent.
  
  Reply
- Schmavo says:
  
  12:07pm | 28/01/10
  
  Wouldn’t it impact on ones ability to read and copmment on blogs 5 days a week? Surely that’s not something to be done on personal time?
  
  Reply
- Adam says:
  
  12:49pm | 28/01/10
  
  You certainly paint a bleak picture of the working week. It doesn’t sound like you’re trying hard enough. The day doesn’t end when work finishes, and the weekend isn’t the only time you can have fun. I work a full time job at a university, then at night I perform standup comedy. At one stage I was doing breakfast radio from 6-9am, then my day job from 9-5, then gigs at night time. I was busy, but very satisfied that I was getting the most out of life. If you finish work and then just “dining with our weary family and crashing to uneasy sleep” then I say you should be trying harder to enjoy life. Especially with daylight savings. Not saying I wouldn’t welcome 3 day weekends. I just think that, no matter when you’re spare time is, it’s what you do with it that counts.
  
  Reply
Helen says:

05:05pm | 28/01/10

Hey Adam, it’s obvious you don’t have kids needing Dad to drop them off, pick them up, feed them, read to them, supervise and help with homework, and….. you get the gist. A good parent is “weary” simply because he/she certainly is “trying hard enough” to fit it all in and do a decent job of it. Don’t presume all have the luxury of being selfish with how they spend their time.
- Man says:
  
  02:02pm | 28/01/10
  
  Has anyone mentioned that having a weekday off means you can actually get things done while all the shops are still open. Every tried doing something during the week while working full time when the shops close the same time you do? 4-day weeks mean that extra day can be used instead of leaving work early and rushing to places of an afternoon before they close. Less rushing means less stress. ‘nuff said.
  
  Reply
- Rosemary says:
  
  05:23pm | 28/01/10
  
  Michael you’ve made a good start but you can take it further and offer real flexibility. Not only can you have one or two people working Tues - Fri but you can make sure when you next recruit that you offer Saturday as an option as a regular working day - either weekly or fortnightly. Weekends in an office offer a fantastic work opportunity with no phones and no clients - and they suit a lot of people who can work a day with no child care expenses. This will also spread the rent cost across the week and lengthen the time it will take to grow out of the apartment.
  
  Reply
- JenJam says:
  
  05:51pm | 28/01/10
  
  Due to a rather bad injury that is taking FAR longer to heal than anyone expected, I am currently restricted to working only 4 days a week, but a little differently. I work Monday-Tuesday, have Wednesdays off, work Thursday-Friday and then have my regular weekend (the idea being to have a day of “rest” for my injury in the middle of the week, to avoid it flaring up).
  
  .... and it’s bloody fantastic! Going to work for only 2 days at a time hardly feels like working at all! I’ve barely been there before it’s time for a day/s off, and having a weekday free for all those pesky chores of tradesmen, doctor/dentist appointment, or merely to have lunch with my friends if they are free (their weekends usually being devoted to “family time”) is absolutely brilliant :D Of course, in my case I am actually “losing” a day of work, so the budget is a little tight, but to be honest it’s not that unmanageable.
  
  I highly recommend it to anyone who may be able to explore their options with their employer, you’ll never regret it!
  
  Reply
- Rob Smith says:
  
  11:09am | 29/01/10
  
  ABC Radio News tried this concept about twelve years ago.
  Staff were rostered on for nine and a half hour days giving them five days works in four days.
  
  The problem was that the lazy bastards did as much work in one long day as they did in one normal day.
  
  On a personal note, I have started working four day weeks for four days wages….a paycut of 20%. I can’t even begin to tell you how much happier I am. Money ain’t everything.
  
  Reply
- Michael Honey says:
  
  03:04pm | 29/01/10
  
  Great to see that there are other people out there trying a four-day week. In response:
  
  Kids. Yes, four days is hard if your kids are at school. The five-day schoolweek, though, is also entirely arbitrary and to some extent designed as a childminding service for workers’ (and their bosses’) benefit. There’s no reason at all why schools couldn’t adopt a similar schedule (finding a school that’ll do it as another matter).
  
  Public holiday weeks: we still take public holidays. Some weeks are very short indeed! On the other hand, most public holidays are Fridays. It all works out. We have laptops and email: if something HAS to be done on a day off, we can do it.
  
  Adam: certainly agree with you about work being engaging—and life outside it too. Going four days has let me try new business ideas, go on short trips, and explore new creative outlets.
  
  Rosemary: love the idea of decoupling work days from the standard schedule—as long as people do it voluntarily. I find it important to synchronise my days off with my partner.
  
  Rob: Good on you for going four days. A 20% gross pay cut doesn’t hurt so much after tax if you don’t overcommit yourself financially. To quote Dickens: “Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen ninety-six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.” (You may wish to adjust for inflation.)
  
  Reply
- Swampy says:
  
  02:53pm | 01/02/10
  
  I work part time, four days a week, 8 hours per day. Our offices are manned 5 days a week as people have different days off. The only drawback is less pay. But if everyone worked four days per week, eight hours per day prices would come down anyway.
  
  Reply
- Kieran Given says:
  
  10:46pm | 11/03/10
  
  I think I could only pull off a 4-day week on occassion like in the summer time, as I’m solo in my business. I could possibly move it to summers and educate my customers that Fridays are no-go days or have someone fill in the Friday ‘phone calls’ and ‘emails’. I used to work a 4-day week in an agency before going solo and I really did like the Friday to do other things, it really was rejuvenating. As a solo artist in an agency though, it isn’t an easy option, but not impossible either. I like the benefits from doing something completely different than the usual grind, to give you fresh inspiration for the other 4 days.
  
  Reply