We believe that working 80% of time for 100% pay will result in increased productivity, work/life satisfaction, and empowerment for the team at all levels, while positively affecting our culture and cross team relationships.
The four-day workweek has been gaining momentum in recent years as more companies and nonprofit organizations have experienced its proven benefits to both employees and employers.
A U.S. pilot study showed that after transitioning to the four-day workweek, 69% of employees experienced reductions in burnout, 40% of employees felt less stressed, 74% of employees were more satisfied with their time, and 60% reported reduced levels of conflict in their lives. Employers also report it improved employee retention, lowered overhead costs, and reduced sick leave and burnout, and 95% of companies who pilot a four-day workweek have stayed with the new schedule.
“We’ve seen first-hand that a 32-hour workweek works well. We started exploring this idea as we were going through the pandemic—we wanted to reduce stress, improve flexibility, and empower our teams – and this move helped us do that. Over the past year, we’ve doubled in size.”
—Common Future Co-CEO Jennifer Njuguna
At Common Future, we shifted to a four-day workweek in 2021, and felt the partnership with WorkFour is an ideal way to incubate new economic models that drive new pathways to economic equity.
With the support of Common Future, in 2024 WorkFour plans on scaling the movement for the four-day workweek via policy and public advocacy. Together, Common Future and WorkFour see policy and public advocacy as necessary components to scaling this movement in order to ensure equity and that hourly, non-unionized, working-class, essential, and industrial workers have a four-day workweek.
WorkFour’s leaders are actively working with House representatives to support the Thirty-Two Hour Workweek Act, and are collaborating with state representatives in MD, MA, NY, PA, CA, WA, NH, and RI who are pursuing four-day workweek policies.
“We live our values internally by challenging the traditional workplace models which are typically exploitative and don’t tend to favor folks who look or identify like employees in our organization. We’re already primed toward experimentation, challenging structures that don’t often work for BIPOC folks.”
—Common Future VP of People Operations Joann Lee Wagner
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"We want to restore rest and joy for staff doing work in an area that can often feel extractive…We want our staff to know that we see them and their humanity."— co-CEO Jennifer Njuguna
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