The 4 Day Week - An Employee's view

When it was initially announced that Arken.legal would begin the 4 day week trial, I was naturally very excited at the prospect of a day off work every week, but once the excitement sunk in, my logical brain took over, and I had lots of questions. It almost sounded too good to be true, I felt I was already really productive, and I wondered how we would be able to change things to a large enough extent that we could manage a whole day off each week.

I was quickly reassured, as a lot of planning went into setting up the structure of the trial. It required careful thought, and the planning group, which I was part of, involved members from all areas of the business. Together we came up with a huge number of questions and potential answers to these questions, which went to the management team to make decisions on. It felt very empowering to be a part of this process, and really made me feel like a valued member of the team.

The big focus word for achieving success with the 4 day week was productivity.

We had to look at all areas of the business and identify where we could make changes and what we could improve as individuals. Everyone would after all, have their own things which they know they wasted time doing on a daily basis, and identifying those things in an honest way, was a big step to getting started.

Once we began the trial the first change was getting used to working in sprints. At first these were a little daunting, as it was a completely new way of working, but now we are settled into the rhythm of them, I think I would struggle to enjoy work without that level of structure in place.

When it was time for me to look at my day to day schedule and how I could improve, I realised time was often made unproductive by helping out in areas which weren’t strictly part of my job description. Of course, knowledge sharing is important, but instead of teaching colleagues how to do things, it had always seemed easier if I just did them myself. In order to prepare for the 4 day week, I began sharing knowledge of different systems, developing some key checklists for people to follow, and documenting processes. All of this meant that when things did arise in the 4 day week I could direct my colleague to the guides.

Knowledge sharing in this way has been a great way of increasing productivity, and also enables all members of the team to up skill. It has of course meant from time to time I have needed to go into more detail, however within the 4 day week I have also learnt how to say no to people. Not no never, but sorry, not right now. With a set body of work to complete in a 2 week sprint, timings are tight, and if I get waylaid by helping a colleague I simply won’t complete my own workload.

It is very common now to say to one another, sorry, I won’t be able to fit that in this sprint, put it in the backlog for me for next sprint and we can look at it together then.

In terms of my personal life, the 4 day week has given me so much more time to spend on things that make me happy. I often spend my day off visiting friends and family, practicing yoga, and even having a massage or getting my nails done. It also gives me a day to get some household chores done, meaning weekends can be freed up for the things we all want to use them for.

As an employee here are my top 5 things the 4 day week has done for me:

• Given me a new focus in my day-to-day work – The 4 day week requires super power focus. Instead of writing a weekly to do list and hoping things get done, I now write one every day and even break the day into hourly slots some days to ensure things get done on time
• Helped me to say no – I am a real people pleaser and find it hard to say no in many aspects of my life. The 4 day week has meant I have to focus on my own personal productivity, and this means chipping in to help others has to be something that is structured. If a colleague needs me to show them how to do something, I absolutely will, but more often than not now, it’s not a case of me just dropping whatever I was doing to rush to their aid
• Cut out wasted time – We are far more focused as a company overall, and since adopting the 4 day week I spend a lot less time sitting in meetings that I do not need to be in, and it has become far more acceptable to question whether my attendance is really required
• Made me feel like a valued employee – working for such a forward-thinking company has even further cemented my love for Arken.legal. As a company our values really instil a sense of passion for the business, and adding the 4 day week to our employee benefits only reinforces what an amazing company I am working for
• Given me the gift of time – the 4 day week has allowed me to spend more time visiting relatives both young and old, which is so precious, and time to focus on my own self-care

Overall, implementing the 4 day week has been amazing both for my own personal development, and for helping me to achieve ninja like focus in my working days. To learn more about it I downloaded the 4 day week audio book, available on audible. You can also purchase a physical copy of it on Amazon. Have a listen or a read and see if it sounds like something that could work for your business, and perhaps give your boss a copy for Christmas!?

You can also find out more about the 4 Day Week over at www.4dayweek.com .