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Why Four-Day Working Weeks Don't Have To Be Just For Bank Holidays

Why Four-Day Working Weeks Don't Have To Be Just For Bank Holidays

One company in Gloucester has already made the pipe dream of a four-day week a full-functioning reality

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

Bank holidays really are the stuff of dreams, allowing you to have an extra day off work to squeeze in another night out or one more sunny barbecue with friends before heading back into the office.

You eventually head back into work feeling refreshed, as if you could conquer the world in the four short days you have left before you can call it a week.

A painfully common sight.
PA

But unlike any of our senseless desires for it to be Christmas every day (c'mon, that would just be silly), surely the extra-long weekend could legitimately become a regular fixture?

One company in Gloucester has already made the pipe dream a full-functioning reality.

Following a trial period last year, Radioactive PR now operates its office between Monday and Thursday - leaving employees to do whatever they like with the week's remaining three days.

The team at Radioactive PR.
Radioactive PR

Owner Rich Leigh assures us that business has never been better, and that it's been as much of a hit with clients as it has with his employees.

Rich told LADbible: "From a business perspective it works fantastically and I'd definitely do it again.

"From a team perspective, literally every single person says they feel like they've got a better work-life balance, and that they feel more relaxed when at home."

Employees now work Monday-Thursday, 9am-5.30pm, and are paid the exact same salary as they were on before when they worked five days a week.

Holiday allowance has gone down slightly from 25 days (plus birthdays and bank holidays) to 20 (plus birthdays and bank holidays - but they've gained 40+ days off per year as part of the new weekly format, meaning it sounds like more than a fair trade.

Meanwhile, since the four-day weeks were introduced, the number of sickness days across the company have dropped by 75 per cent.

The Radioactive team at their Christmas do last year.
Radioactive PR

He added: "I would say it's conducive to a better working environment - not that anyone was particularly unhappy before, but I think we're all just really on it now because it's ours to lose."

Fridays in the PR world are often a 'reporting day', where teams simply tend to feed back to clients about the week's developments.

However, now Leigh's employees capitalise on technology to help streamline these processes.

"We use a couple of tools now like Google Analytics and something called Coverage Book, which has really trimmed down a lot of the time that we spend reporting," he explained.

"It's just massively helped.

"We also use WhatsApp groups for every single client, which is just immediate, it's transparent - it lacks the unnecessary formality of email.

"It's trimming time here, there and everywhere - with the reporting, with how we communicate to clients."

Staff enjoying a spot of paddleboarding.
Radioactive PR

Rich said his clients have responded positively to the change, and that all they need to know is that the team can be there for them on a Friday if needed.

He continued: "[Clients] justneed to know that they can pick up the phone and you can support them in a crisis as expected.

"They just needed to know that a) if they needed to contact us on a Friday they can, b) if any journalist request comes in, we're on it."

Rich admitted there's just one downside, and that is that it may not be a model that will work for everyone.

"The key thing is that it wouldn't necessarily work in every industry and for every business," he said.

"If you know your business - and like I say it does come down to dull things like if you know your margins and you know that that time can be allocated elsewhere - why wouldn't you consider it?

"But the fact is it's not gonna work for everybody. I appreciate we're in a fortunate position - and industry - to be able to try to do this."

It's not just Leigh that believes in the business model, either - it's something that even science can back up.

According to a recent study from Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, a four-day working week could actually help improve both productivity and employee happiness.

Science favours the four-day working week as well.
PA

Over the course of six months, the researchers studied the happiness and productivity of 5,000 call centre workers, who were asked to rate their happiness every week on a scale of one-to-five.

It turned out that four-day weeks not only led to more positivity and fewer absences, but also an increase in the number of calls made, an increase in sales and, better still, happiest customers on the other end.

"I would argue the four-day working week is spot on in terms of finding or striking that right balance between improving the work-life balance and unlocking the happiness potential from that in terms of productivity gains," said Jan-Emmanuel De Neve, associate professor of economics and strategy at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford.

"This outweighs the net reduction in productivity from working a day less."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: uk news, News