It's been interesting to watch Buffer move to a four-day workweek and share their results.
The four-day work week resulted in sustained productivity levels and a better sense of work-life balance. These were the exact results we’d hoped to see, and they helped us challenge the notion that we need to work the typical ‘nine-to-five,’ five days a week. It’s worth noting that though we’ve seen sustained productivity levels, we’ve been gauging that based on teammate feedback and not company-wide goals, that is changing in 2021.
As a team that is coming up on our fourth full year of 4DWW, Wildbit is pretty familiar with the benefits it brings. But it was odd to see this post focus so much on statistics rather than focus on how people feel. Yes, their surveys are focused on people's perception of stress and happiness. But overall, the piece seems to stress productivity over all else.
Perhaps that is due to the questions that a team is inevitably asked about when making this kind of change. But, perhaps, in the middle of a global pandemic and related increases in mental health issues, we should encourage businesses to focus more on community, people, and impact instead of profits.
