It's time to reinvent the workday

May 1, 1926. Ford is one of the first American companies to implement the 40-hour work week. 

Monday through Friday. 9 to 5. We’re still following the same schedule 100 years later.

The world has changed dramatically over the last century. Why hasn’t the workday? 

As a founder and parent, I often think about how we can evolve our work to compliment our real lives...How can we ease new mothers transition back to the office? What hours would allow us to have dinner with our kids? How can we take care of our health without waking up at 5 a.m. to exercise? 

The concept of rewriting the norms that have long dictated our time feels like a daunting task, but like everything, change begins by asking questions and making adjustments in our own lives and communities. 

Within each of the forces that have shaped the last 100 years - from advancements in technology to the increase of dual-income families - lie countless opportunities for us to modernize our businesses to reflect them. It will require bold experimentation and evolution, but with time the changes we make at our own organizations can influence society. I’m always seeking to learn how other entrepreneurs are answering these questions and asked a few in The Female Founder Collective to share their perspective. Each is employing a multifaceted approach that includes many of the practices below. Here, I highlight a variety of their combined efforts across three themes - Family-friendly cultures, flexible schedules, and personal development - to depict the range of their impact and offer a diverse set of practices we may all try. 

Make family a company value 

We all prioritize our teams commitment to their families and are aiming to create environments that enable them to be present for their loved ones. 

Amy Nelson, a vocal advocate on this topic, launched The Riveter's co-working and community spaces with this goal in mind. She gave birth to three of her four children while building the company and welcomes parents to bring their babies to the office. 

I’m inspired by the strides these women are making to support new parents; Ranging from offering 12 to 16 weeks of paid parental leave to the comfortable mother’s rooms at LOLA and The Riveter HQ and spaces. One of my personal goals is to create more structured programming for women returning from maternity leave. So, I was excited to learn that LOLA founders Alex Friedman and Jordana Kier are piloting a program and that Nelson encourages mothers to feed their babies when they need to during meetings. 

Policies to address the entirety of the family-planning process are also taking shape. LOLA offers egg-freezing education, time off for pregnancy, and is integrating support for miscarriages. The Riveter similarly urges team members to use their bereavement leave for instances related to reproductive health. Strides like these are particularly important because they equip us with a deeper understanding of each other’s experiences. 

Flexible time is meaningful time 

Nelson said it best: We all need to manage the “human side” of life (for many of us, those are actually little humans) and these founders are disrupting the traditional work week. 

Katie Rosen Kitchens, Co-Founder of FabFitFun, empowers her managers and employees to set their own hours, in a way that best accommodates their needs and productivity. All team members receive equity and unlimited paid time off in appreciation of their efforts. 

LOLA similarly enables their team to merge the personal and professional. This manifests uniquely for each person, with employees leaving early on certain days or blocking “parent time” on their calendars. Along with The Riveter, they honor requests to work from home. 

Family is our most important value at Rebecca Minkoff. Your commitment to your family comes first and we encourage our team to be present whenever they need to be. We also strive to extend their time together on the weekends by closing our offices at 3 p.m. on Fridays and opening at 10 a.m. on Mondays. During the summer, we offer an additional five Fridays to be used for long weekends.

Cultivate the whole person 

Personal growth is just as important as professional, and a priority for Wander Beauty Co-founder and CEO Divya Gugnani. They not only provide all team members the opportunity for professional coaching and one-on-one mentoring but apply the same rigor to helping them develop personally. Managers prioritize the creation and execution of an individual’s life goals, like going to the gym or learning a new language, and even assist in paying for classes. 

These are just a few of the strides these founders are making to catalyze this evolution. I’m grateful for their leadership and hope this is the beginning of a movement to modernize the professional world. We all have the power to shape our culture and the only way to enact lasting change is to make a pact to do it together. There’s no perfect formula and we’re all a work in progress but every step forward, no matter how small, makes a difference. 

I know you’re all creating modern cultures at your companies and want to hear how you’re doing it. Let me know in the comments!