This month is 4ugust!
4ugust is an initiative from the 4 Day Week Campaign crew to encourage organisations to try out a four-day week while maintaining salary levels.
We’ve been officially operating a 4 day week at Agile since last April, but I’ve been working this way for nearly 14 years, ever since my first daughter was born.
As we’ve been refining our structure and systems for the 4 day week, we’ve taken inspiration from the amazing team at Whyfield Accounting Services.
We adopted their term “GSD Days” (Get Stuff Done, or sometimes Get Slug Done – for those days when you need to relax under a duvet and watch Netflix).
Making It Work
Goal setting
We hold monthly goal-setting meetings where we review performance from the previous month and set expectations for the upcoming month. These goals typically include financial targets, project/client work delivery, and marketing objectives. The team knows exactly what needs to be delivered within the time they have.
Planning capacity
We meticulously plan our capacity for workload, whether it’s client work, non-billable activities, or our own marketing efforts. We then time-block these tasks into our workflow, ensuring we know how much work needs to be completed each month.
Flexibility and pre-booked GSD days
We choose different GSD Days depending on our schedules, including event attendance, personal commitments (like kids’ sports days), and client requirements. These days are added to our shared calendar and capacity planner.
Team visibility and collaboration
Stand-up meetings are an ideal Agile ritual for a 4 day week structure! At 9:20 am every morning, we cover:
- What we achieved yesterday
- What we plan to achieve today
- Any blockers
- A gratitude moment
- Our energy levels as a percentage (80% is the optimum)
Enabling productivity
We set the team up for success, wherever they work. Most of our team works remotely, enjoying the convenience of working from home, while some, like myself, are currently enjoying working from our office. We encourage everyone to lean into their Deep Flow moments.
By implementing these strategies, we’ve been able to make the 4 day week a sustainable and productive model for our team.
“The 4 day week is a trending topic among businesses, and Whyfield inspired us to make the leap. By maintaining employee salaries and offering flexibility with our GSD day, they demonstrated that a business can still run smoothly and meet client needs while granting employees a healthier work-life balance. Following their example, we have embraced this change, ensuring our team remains productive and energised, while continuing to provide exceptional service to our clients.”
Charla Symons,
Agency Manager
“The four-day week is something we adopted over 2 years ago now, no trial period and no looking back. We ensured we planned ahead so that our business could stay open for our amazing clients for the whole week, while giving our employees an extra day to live life outside of work. It’s absolutely possible to have a thriving career and thriving homelife, one shouldn’t have to be sacrificed for the other, and we are chuffed to be offering this to our team. We’ve proven to be more productive, in fewer days. Once you cut out the typical ‘Friday afternoon slump’, get organised, and asses your ‘needs’ and ‘nice to haves’, you can absolutely make it happen.
As we’re accountants, here’s a fantastic stat for you:
A 4-day week means an extra 47 days off a year which, with annual leave, means 75 paid days off per year opposed to 28 in a ‘standard’ workplace.”
Megan Searle-Thomas,
Marketing Manager, Whyfield
