The Australian company that banned work on Wednesdays

Would you be more likely to stick with a company that gave you a day off in the
middle of he week, every week?
On Wednesdays, while most of her friends are at work, Tiffany Schrauwen is on the tennis court,

be bad for her game.

where she works has

shut down on Wednesdays, giving staff a four-

Employees at the company do a standard-length day on Mondays and Tuesdays, then return for another
two on Thursday and Friday. No meetings are scheduled for Wednesdays however, if a client has urgent
work that needs doing, workers will pick up the phone.

When Schrauwen first was told of the plan, she was excited, then wary she was worried about how it
would work; as project manager, she was the main contact for both staff and clients, so she stood to bear
the brunt of any missed deadlines, stress or broken lines of communication.

tasks completed by the midweek break, meetings are more focused and idle chatter less appealing. Every

Making it work

The policy was implemented in July last year. Since then, revenue at the Australian company has
increased by 46%, and profits nearly tripled, says its CEO and founder Kath Blackham. Blackham is reluctant to
credit the four day week with the entirety of the

can be hugely appealing for potential business partners.

It is vindication for Blackham, who had to convince

her leadership team to trial the Wednesday-less week and vow to return to five days if it failed. She founded the
company with a toddler and baby in tow, determined to head a high-performing enterprise that respected the
need for flexibility.

a service-based industry known for

young people working super long hours it can work if you come up with says Blackham.

A mid-week break lets staff go to the gym, get on top of house work, look after young children, schedule
appointments, work on their start-
d

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Why Wednesdays?

-
ong weekend, which she feared may encourage her predominantly young staff

often unclear to other employees or clients when that staff member was available, and that hit productivity.

Professor Jarrod Haar

of human resource management at Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, as part of his own
research Haar has interviewed employees on rotating four-day weeks, and found they most enjoyed the
Wednesdays off.

The Wednesday break means you return to Thursday fresh, and this is when people feel most productive

For employers, shutting down mid-

break mea

Haar has tracked New Zealand estate management company Perpetual Guardian, which made headlines last
year when it trialled a four-day week without any loss in productivity. Sick days were down, staff wellbeing was
up, but the company did lose some staff who proved incompatible with flexible, condensed working.

For Andrew Barnes, CEO and owner of Perpetual Guardian, the four-

Barnes was prompted by a study that found workers were only productive for around two and a half hours a day.
There had to be a better way to organise work time, he thought.

The five-day week is not an ancient phenomenon. Car manufacturer Henry Ford was pioneering in giving workers
the weekend off in 1926, theorising it would make them more productive. Witnessing the march of technology,
economist John Maynard Keynes predicted in 1930 that eventually the working week would be reduced to 15
hours.

Nearly 100 years on, organisations around the world are again revisiting how work weeks are structured. Great
Britain and Ireland have shown particular interest in the four-day week, with the Trades Union Congress in the
UK, Forsa in Ireland, the Scottish National Party and British Labour Party all considering the concept, at varying
levels. Swedish regions have also played with offering shorter days or weeks, to mixed results, and even in
notoriously long-working US, fast food chain Shake Shack this March announced it was trialling a four-day week
in response to a tight labour market.

However, not all reduced hour trials have proven unmitigated successes. An experiment with six-hour days at
state-run nursing homes in Gothenburg, Sweden, found that while sick day and productivity rates improved, staff
costs rose considerably as more people needed to be hired to fill in the gaps.

Some start-ups which have trialled the four day week in the US have had to return to five day working
after finding the day off made the company less competitive and staff more stressed

Some start-ups which have trialled the four day week in the US have had to return to five day working
after finding the day off made the company less competitive and staff more stressed. Flexibility is important;

weekend on urgent client projects.

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Both Blackham and Barnes say that other business leaders have supported their four-day weeks, but insisted
that it would not work in their own companies. Barnes says allowing staff to come up with their own solutions,
and holding them to productivity targets is critical to its success.

The UK Labour Party have commissioned economist and historian Robert Skidelsky to analyse the value of a
shorter working week (Credit: Getty Images)

Barnes says his organisation is now mentoring around 50 companies on how to implement a four-day
week.

The New Zealand-based CEO says changes to the way we structure full time work can address a host of social
me. You address that issue,
what does that do to health budgets? If you have an ability for parents to spend more time with their kids, what
-to-tail in peak hour, what does
that

Professor Rae Cooper, a gender and employment relations academic at the University of Sydney, says the four-
day week goes to address another key issue: the loss of highly-
age of the f

iving them choices to be both mothers and productive

both career and family life.

she says.

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. 7. 'I'm staying for another two days.'
'...................................'
1. 'I'm tired.' ................................ So I am
So do I.
So do I
So am I
So am I
Neither do I
8. 'She has a degree in physics.' '..........................'
Neither am I So do I
2. 'I was late.' '....................................' So have I
So do I
So has I
So was I
So did I
So did I
9. 'I don't have his number.' '...............................'
Neither do I Neither have I
3. 'I didn't like that film.' '...............................' So have I
So did I
Neither I have
Neither did I
10. 'I found the problem very hard.' '...............................'
So am I So am I
4. 'I didn't finish it.' '.................................' So do I
Neither did I
So did I
So did I
So have I
Neither was I
11. Maria can sing beautifully and ...............................
5. 'I like coffee.' '................................' so her sister can
So am I
so can her sister
So do I
neither can her sister
Neither am I
12. 'I had never seen so much food in my life.'
Neither do I '..............................'
Neither have I
6. 'I can swim.' '.................................'
So I can Neither had I
So do I Neither did I
So can I

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Both or Either? Neither!
Choose one of the words "both", "either" or "neither" to fill the spaces in each question.

1. "Do you want the chicken salad or the tuna salad?" " . I don't like salad! I'll have the
pasta."

2. "Do you want the chicken salad or the tuna salad?" " ! I am absolutely starving."

3. "Do you want the chicken salad or the tuna salad?" " . It doesn't matter really. You
choose for me."

4. Tim nor John knew what to do about the problem and I had to think of a solution
quickly.

5. York and Chester are wonderful Roman cities in Britain. You would like of them if you
go.

6. you build a kennel for that dirty dog of yours out in the garden or you can clean the
floor every day.

7. "I really am not enjoying this film!" "Me ! Let's try another channel."

8. of the police officers knew the way to the school and I had to buy a map of the city.

9. I am proud and happy to present the winner of this year's Best Film award....

10. of us wants to declare bankruptcy but we may not have a choice. We can do that or
we suffer years of debt.

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