Steven Keith says his employees get more done when they work only four days a week.
It may sound counterintuitive, but after nearly six months of clocking 32-hour work weeks, his staff agrees.
Keith is the founder of CX Pilots, a consulting startup in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, that helps companies better connect with their clients. In July, he joined an emerging national trend by implementing a four-day work week for his small office of seven.
“We were terrified of hypocrisy,” Keith said, explaining the impetus for the switch.
Work-life balance is a core principle CX Pilots preaches to other companies.
Most employees began taking off Fridays. Some Mondays. Their pay remained unchanged. Keith admitted he still averages around 70 hours a week, the kind of demanding startup pace he loathes but, at present, finds unavoidable.
Based on metrics collected by their company’s internal productivity-tracking system, CX Pilot staff say their individual performance has increased since their hours fell.
“When you have a three-day weekend, you feel much more fulfilled on the personal front, which translates into productivity,” said Joe Bell, the company’s chief marketing officer. “It creates a mutual respect and a drive.”
‘Life can be really short’
The 40-hour work week was federally codified in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1940, but it’s fallen under more scrutiny in recent years, especially since COVID-19 upended other long-held workplace norms.
In 2021, House Democrats introduced a bill to lower the federal work week from 40 hours to 32. And this fall, a six-month study from the advocacy non-profit 4 Day Week Global garnered widespread news coverage when participating companies reported higher revenue, fewer resignations, and fewer sick days upon switching to four days.
“The aftershock of the pandemic is ringing throughout,” said Nate Jones, a data analyst at CX Pilots. “Life can be really short, so I want to spend more quality time with people I love and also not burn myself out.”
Jones described Mondays as his “personal working days,” a time to handle sundry tasks (doctors’ appointments, car maintenance, laundry, cooking) that can more easily pile up when each weekday is occupied.
Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a program director at 4 Day Week Global, said it often takes time for employees and employers to acclimate to schedules that are 20% shorter than what they’re used to.
“The muscle memory that we must work long hours in order to do good work or to keep our jobs is one that is seeped into all of us,” he said. “Just about every company reports the first couple of weeks (of four-day work weeks) being a bit like moving to another country. Things are a little strange. People are driving on the wrong side of the road. But eventually you adjust.”
Can the 4-day model catch on?
Only a few local companies have tested four-day work weeks.
“Whenever we say we’re doing a four-day work week, we always get kind of the eyeroll of like, ‘Must be nice’ or ‘We could never do that,’” said Sarah Williams, co-founder of Offset Collective, a Triangle-based marketing agency that takes Fridays off. “I think there’s an assumption that it could never be done in other people’s environments.”
Fred Stutzman, the founder and CEO of the Triangle tech startup Freedom, noted four-day weeks aren’t something companies must commit to completely in order for them to work. Since 2018, he’s given his staff every other Friday off over the summer. The company employs around 25 people globally.
But operating on four days for 52 weeks a year, he said, “would certainly be too much for us to do.”
Keith is also unsure how the 32-hour week model will fare as his company scales. Incorporated in 2016, CX Pilot aims to have around 20 to 30 employees by this time next year.
“We’re gonna be taking on a lot more clients, a lot more work, a lot more responsibility,” Keith said. “And we’re gonna have to keep it in perpetual harmony with our brand, our culture. Is there a tipping point?”
Keith returns to the point more than once that this is an ongoing experiment for his company. Is the four-day week a luxury for a small startup or a feasible, beneficial goal for all? He doesn’t yet know the answer, but he and his staff have the passion to find out.
