Want to Negotiate a 4 Day Work Week? Here’s What You Should Know
Maybe you’ve heard about the 4 day work week, a move where organizations are structuring their workforce so that their typical work week is 4 days instead of 5 days. While organizations such as 4 Day Week Global are partnering with companies to help them pilot this change effectively, most individuals still work at an organization where the norm is a 5 day workweek.
However, even if you find yourself in a 5 day workweek organization, it's not impossible to negotiate a 4 day workweek for yourself. To help you think about how you can make this a reality for yourself, I spoke with 3 individuals who have successfully negotiated a 4 day workweek and share their learnings and advice. Here’s what they shared:
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INTERVIEW 1:
Who: Director of Data Science
How long have they been working a 4 day work week?
3 months (this is a temporary work schedule change to allow time to dedicate towards a personal project and goal. The total time working the modified schedule will be < 6 months)
What is the company culture around 4 day weeks at their current organization?
This individual works in an organization where they know of a handful of other employees who have successfully negotiated a 4 day work week. That gave them confidence that it could be done and a process they could follow for requesting the time. In their organization, they have experienced a culture that values work life flexibility.
What was the process for negotiating the 4 day work week?
First, they brought up the idea of a 4 day work week to their manager through a casual discussion. However, they still approached this conversation as if they needed to make the case for the 4 day work week.
As they put it, “I outlined what work would stay and what would drop from my responsibilities. I [also] outlined plans to upskill my immediate team to work with my schedule.”
Because there is a formal process that allows for this type of request, once they got their managers blessing they were able to submit a formal request to their HR team.
What is important to call out though is an acknowledgement from the beginning that this arrangement would require them to let go of some work and ensure their team was skilled to take on that work in their absence.
What are your biggest learnings around working 4 days a week instead of 5 days?
On the plus side, working one less day enabled them to dedicate time to a personal project/hobby they were passionate about. As a result, they were able to still feel committed to and engaged in their work vs. the option of taking a sabbatical.
To make this 4 day work week successful, they had to start being more flexible and accommodating of meeting requests at the expense of blocking off “heads down time”. They also needed to ensure they were delegating effectively to balance their workload.
There are some downsides to working a 4 day work week. From a financial perspective, they had to take a 20% pay cut to accommodate the 1 less day of work. Additionally, one extra day off can blow by quickly.
As they put it, “That extra day isn't as much extra time as I thought. Things still fall through the cracks or get deprioritized. [My family] still treats it as a day off instead of recognizing it as my working a different job essentially.“
What advice would they give someone who was interested in working a 4 day work week?
If you are thinking about asking for a 4 day work week make sure you are deliberate with how you plan to spend that time. Make sure you have a clearly defined goal for it so that it feels well utilized.
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INTERVIEW 2:
Who: Talent Strategy Leader
How long have they been working a 4 day work week?
Almost 5 years.
What is the company culture around 4 day weeks at their current organization?
This individual works in an organization that has a formal AWO (Alternate Work Options) policy in which 80% (4 days) is an option if agreed upon by manager and the associate is in good performance standing. Before requesting the 4 day/week arrangement, they also knew of other working caretakers who had taken advantage of the policy in their organization. Another option instead of working a 4 day work week was to work a compressed day each day, still at 80% schedule and compensation. Since starting the 4 day week option, this person has since met other individuals who are not parents or caretakers that also work a 4 day week. Net-net: the organization has a decently established culture in the space now.
What was the process for negotiating the 4 day work week?
This individual was what you call a “boomerang employee” in that they had worked at their company, then left for a new company, and then returned to their original company. As a result, they negotiated the 4 day work week as part of their offer to return. This was successful because they had a track record from their prior time working at the company. To get approved, they still needed to get approval from both their Manager and HR.
As they put it, “I didn’t necessarily have to make the case so much as have conversations around if the role I was taking could reasonably be done 4 days/week.” In other words, it became an exercise in job crafting. Since starting in this 4 day/week schedule, this person has moved into multiple new roles and used a similar job crafting technique to ensure a next role can still honor the schedule.
What are your biggest learnings around working 4 days a week instead of 5 days?
This individual uses their extra day to take care of themselves and some household responsibilities. As this individual shares, “For me, I need the mental break and feeling of ownership over my time. I can exercise, engage in hobbies, lead activities with my kids, etc. It gives me time to be CEO of my household and care for myself so that I am then a better caretaker to others.”
In order to accommodate this extra day off, there were some adjustments needed in the way they work. As they shared, “Boundaries are really tough if I’m honest. I’ve learned that working at night isn’t good for my anxiety levels, so I do often log in for an hour or two on Fridays to catch up. It’s a balancing act.” The key here is they get to decide how to work that best suits them and their needs.
The downside to working 4 days a week is that it can be difficult to determine what can be taken off your plate if you are already in the role. You also have to deal with the challenges that come with everyone else around you still working 5 days which means people may need to schedule around you. And of course, there are compensation implications with taking a 20% pay cut to accommodate.
What advice would they give someone who was interested in working a 4 day work week?
There are three main pieces of advice that they would give others interested in this accommodation. “[First], have a goal or purpose for how you want to use that 5th day. It doesn’t have to be intensely structured, but I find I am best able to honor the 4 day week (and not just work anyway) when I have things planned for myself on my off day that don’t involve work.”
The second piece of advice is “Let go of compensation resentment….I try to be a whole life person and think about why I do it and what I gain from the immeasurable gift of time. I ask myself if I have what I need to live the life I want to live and the balance I need to be the person, mom, wife, friend, etc that I want to be. 4 days enables that for me, which is priceless. [However,] if you do find that the balance really isn’t there and you aren’t benefiting in the way that you need to, it’s time to consider a full time role or another flexible model.”
The third is a bit tactical, but choosing a Friday or Monday as the “off” day seems to work best for most to bookend the weekend. It also limits some degree of context switching between personal and work and limits having to start and stop the workweek twice in a single week.
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INTERVIEW 3:
Who: Director at a Marketing Agency
What is the company culture around 4 day weeks at their current organization?
At this individual’s organization there was no formal policy. However, they knew of one other person who had received approval of a 4 day work week. This encouraged them to try and explore the option as well for their side business.
What was the process for negotiating the 4 day work week?
In this situation the individual had received a competing offer to move to a new company. Under the new company’s offer, they would have approval to work 4 days a week, which was part of the appeal in applying for that new role. As a result, their current company counter-offered the 4 day work week in a retention effort. This spoke to the high performance of this employee that their company was willing to counteroffer.
What are your biggest learnings around working 4 days a week instead of 5 days?
The positives of the 4 day work week is that this individual has more time to focus on their side hustle and invest in growing their business. Since they have chosen Friday as their day off, they also enjoy the benefit of a 3 day weekend.
Moving to a 4 day work week also forced this individual to get better with setting and honoring boundaries. When they first started working 4 days they were still checking emails and doing a bit of work on their day off. As they have settled into the new routine they have gotten better at not engaging in work on their day off, which is important because they had to take a pay cut. Like others they have found that not getting paid is a motivation to not engage in work on their day off.
The downsides of moving to a 4 day work week, aside from the pay cut, is that they have to reduce their workload and work on less projects as a result. They also don’t have time to engage in extracurricular work activities that they have enjoyed in the past.
