Summer Hours – Why we’re switching to a 4-day week
For 6 weeks this summer, Fiasco Design will get zero work done on a Friday. Absolutely nothing. We will be working Summer Hours.
Summer Hours – a concept borrowed from the team at Basecamp, is a practice we’re trialling for the first time this year. From mid-July until the end of August we’re moving the whole studio to a reduced 4-day working week. Simply put, we’re switching our working hours from Monday to Friday, to Monday to Thursday. And when we say 4-day week, we really mean it. We’re not cramming 40-odd hours a week into a 4-day week. We’re taking a day out each week to rest, to reflect, to spend time with family and friends, to try new things. And, of course, to enjoy summer.
It’s been a turbulent 18 months that has presented different challenges for everyone. Similarly, working from home for months on end has meant that the work / life balance has been thrown out of whack. We’ve always championed a healthy work / life balance at Fiasco Design, and have successfully operated flexi-time for a few years now. More recently, having surveyed the team, we’ve built in even greater flexibility into the working week by giving individuals greater authority over exactly when, where and how they work. So far, so good.
With longer days, and brighter (here’s hoping) skies, summer feels like an opportune time to introduce the concept of a 4-day week. So, during Summer Hours, 4 is the new 5. Salaries for the team remain the same and it’ll be business-as-usual for the rest of the week. We’ll manage our workflow Monday to Thursday as we would normally. Our clients often work flexible hours and so far we’ve received nothing but positive feedback. We’ll keep conversations open with the team and look forward to hearing what they get up to.
There is plenty of evidence that links happiness and creativity; happier people perform better on creative problem-solving tasks. Additionally, research suggests that irrespective of how highly creative your team may be, a happier team is more creative and more productive. By empowering our team with the extra time in the week and the opportunity to enjoy themselves, we hope to see an improvement in mental health and wellbeing, along with an uplift in productivity.
We will share our findings on Twitter, and post about what we’re getting up to on our Fridays off via Instagram. Have a great summer!
