Six months on after taking part in the world's biggest pilot of the four-day working week, Andrew Rose says you couldn't pay him any amount of money to return to five days. He's a director at a brain injury case management firm - AKA Case Management - which was just one of the 70 companies that signed up for the global experiment into the reduced working pattern.
It saw 3,000 people being paid 100 per cent of their salary but for 80 per cent of the hours they would usually work, with many going from 40 to 32 hours per week. It came to a close this week, with results to be published in February 2023.
Culling meetings and being told to close down email when working on a task are just some of the initiatives Andrew's firm has been doing to fit their workload into a shortened period. And on their extra days off, colleagues have picked up hobbies, enjoyed downtime and have been able to get through chores and life admin without it eating into their weekends.
Like other companies, they're extending the practice after seeing success both with job and customer satisfaction.
Andrew, 47, who hasn't worked a Monday since June, says it took a while for him to adjust to having the time off and at first was unrealistic about it as a busy dad of two young children.
He initially had big ambitions for volunteer work and time for himself, but quickly realised the benefit of his Mondays away from work meant he could do jobs around the house, making way for quality family time at the weekend.
He cites an example of painting that needed doing around their house in New Mills, Derbyshire.
Previously, his wife would have had to have taken the kids out on Saturday so he could get on with it, but instead, he's been able to get it done on Mondays, allowing him to go out for lunch with his family at the weekend and do more of the fun stuff.
"You could not pay me any amount of money to go back [to five days] because that wouldn't motivate me," he tells the Mirror.
"The feedback we've had from staff has been overwhelmingly positive throughout.
"It has taken the pressure off - weekends aren't as rushed as you're not trying to get everything done in two days."
The trial was organised by 4 Day Week Global in partnership with the think tank Autonomy, the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, and researchers at Cambridge University, Oxford University and Boston College.
While evidence from the researchers showed how productivity could be increased, for those at AKA Case Management, joining the trial was primarily about boosting staff wellbeing.
The team of 14 remote workers have either a Friday or Monday off, allowing for a three-day weekend, but it also means there is still cover for their clients across the typical five-day business week.
And in turn, they have even seen improvements in client satisfaction, with scores going from 8.2 to 9.5, Andrew says.
He explains: "Wellbeing has always been something really important to us.
"As a business, we support individuals with complex brain injury in the community⦠we're wanting them to look after themselves⦠if we're not doing that, then how can we be truly modelling that behaviour?
"I'd been looking at four-day weeks ever since the first trials around the world, it's something we thought would be beneficial.
"We thought it would be a few years down the line - then we saw the global trial come up. We had about a 30-second discussion and thought 'let's go for it'."
Andrew believes the way a four-day week can be achieved is through a change in behaviours. He argues workforces have gotten into "bad habits".
"We use email in a way it wasn't designed to be used - it's used nowadays as a synchronous tool.
"If I send someone an email they expect it's being opened and read immediately, we all had our emails open all of the time, which wasn't an efficient way of working," he adds.
Andrew and his co-director armed their staff with a tool kit of evidence-based suggestions on how to work more efficiently and looking back, being thoroughly prepared before the trial has really paid off, he says.
They've checked in on their team regularly to ensure no one was cramming or working overtime.
But how have they managed to do it?
One of the tools they have used is monotasking - where you just work on one thing at a time.
If you're working on a report, sign out of your email and close down the internet, Andrew suggests. If you have two computer screens on and don't need two, turn the other off to avoid distraction.
One principle of efficient working is Parkinson's Law - where work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion.
Another in the trial talked about simply stopping things - if you find something is needed then start doing it again, but don't if they don't add value.
A big one is also getting rid of unnecessary meetings without an agenda, which could be replaced with an email instead.
The experiment also suggested those enrolled start by reducing meetings by 10 minutes each time.
"You might attend meetings and think why am I here?" Andrew asks.
"We stopped our two-hour operations meeting and only had one if there was something specific to raise.
"I work a lot more efficiently now. I've wasted a lot less time.
"It's also made us all aware of how we impact on other people so do I really need to copy someone into an email, would it be better as a quick phone call?
"We work a lot smarter now and we're more focussed on what we do.
"It's also set boundaries - if people know you are off spending time with your family they won't email you."
Andrew hopes that the more organisations that follow the same time-saving practices, the more it will become the norm to break away from the traditional 9-5 Monday to Friday work pattern that was established in the industrial revolution.
However he argues that it's hugely important for those at the top to be fully on board.
"People will see that not only can it work, but it's a very positive thing to do," he adds.
"Obviously, the more people do it the more pressure there will be on those other organisations that don't do it to make it work.
"But I think for it to work your leadership team has to believe in it and to trust their employees because if you go in not having that and not the right attitude going in, if you don't want it to work, you'll find a way for it not to work.
"Whereas with the right attitude, they'll think absolutely, this is amazing and businesses will reap the benefits of it."
What do you think about the four-day week? Let us know in the comments.
