The ups and downs of the nine-day fortnight & why it's getting harder to sack underperformers

Accounting and consulting firm Grant Thornton Australia is the latest major employer to permanently adopt a nine-day fortnight after a 12-month trial coincided with record profits, employee retention and productivity.

The announcement means that employees can take an extra day off work every fortnight on full pay, provided they meet their objectives.

“We sit down as a team at the beginning of the week, agree what needs to be achieved, and then assess our ability to take off the extra day,” chief executive Greg Keith said.

“It’s not guaranteed. It’s a reward for having achieved [certain] outcomes.”

Keith told The Australian Financial Review that about 75 per cent of employees took at least one extra day off each month, with some still taking important client calls or meetings on these days and fitting in a round of golf or time with family in between these tasks. “And it’s worked.”

More than nine in 10 employees (94 per cent) said they supported making the nine-day fortnight permanent in an employee engagement survey conducted in February.

The poll also found that 85 per cent believed the policy had improved their wellbeing, with 84 per cent saying it had encouraged them to recommend the firm to family and friends as a great place to work.

As our story points out, however, moving to a nine-day fortnight is not without challenges.

Employment lawyers and HR managers also told The Australian Financial Review this week that it’s getting harder to dismiss underperforming and misbehaving workers.

They say this is because of the increasing number of legal options available to employees seeking to challenge a dismissal, which is deterring employers from terminating someone’s employment even when they have fair and valid reasons to do so.

Their comments came amid an increase in the number of employees claiming they were dismissed for exercising a workplace right.

Elsewhere, we reveal why so many top executives started their careers in accounting, find out how AI is changing the role of grad lawyers, and learn why 德勤 Australia CEO Adam Powick never accepts a Monday morning meeting.

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Listen Now

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Adam Powick failed to make partner twice. Now he runs Deloitte This week on 15 Minutes with the Boss, Powick tells Sally Patten why he never accepts a meeting on a Monday morning.

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