How the four day work week helps me align with the seasons and find balance

Written by Maya Higgins

As we kick off the New Year, my inbox is filled with messages focused on developing new goals and diving into a more ‘productive’ and ‘successful’ year ahead (with various workshops, tools, and products that I can pay for to support these attempts). The heavy influx of capitalism telling me that I need to urgently start something new is draining, and the general vibes of January’s messaging often leave me exhausted. For me, in the deep of winter, as we prepare for our first snow of the season here in Albuquerque, what my body is craving is time to be cozy, to rest from a busy summer and fall, to notice the changes in light and sandhill cranes migrating near our home, and to reflect on and integrate learnings from the previous calendar year so that I can thoughtfully move into a new turn around the sun. I need a bit more quiet than usual and so the steady onslaught of digital communication is particularly jarring. 

Although I have little control over how much the world communicates to me about my need to be productive and busy at all hours, I have learned that I do have some control over how much I engage with or buy into the messages that I’m receiving. In my 20’s I wholeheartedly accepted the messaging that I need to work non-stop in order to be worthy, and I quickly and repeatedly burnt out as I resisted my body’s own messaging to slow down. Now in my late 30’s, balance is one of my biggest priorities and, although I love the work that I do and am excited to continue to learn and grow as a professional, I also know that in order to stay in the work long-term, I need to do so sustainably and allow my mind and body time to rest and recharge, time to replenish my well of creativity, and time to connect with the natural landscape that our work at Switzer is committed to preserving. 

This January, I’ve been reflecting on the theme of balance in my life. In doing so, I am finding myself feeling incredibly grateful for my work here at the Switzer Foundation. In my work, I feel I have a clear purpose, a sense of autonomy and also a collaborative team, meaningful relationships, and alignment with Switzer’s mission, vision, and values. Additionally, my work is right-sized and achievable and I have appropriate time off to rest and recharge. For perhaps the first time in my professional career, my work life truly feels balanced and sustainable. Although I’m certain that this feeling is due to many factors, including the incredible leadership on our team, one of the biggest factors that makes Switzer a sustainable workplace for me is our commitment to a four day, 32 hour work week. 

For the past several years, the Switzer team has worked a maximum of four days a week. For me, that has given me space to better align my life with the seasons. In the winter I can use that time to rest and recharge, taking one additional day off a week away from screens, before diving into work on my family’s small farm throughout the rest of the year. Right now, though I am returning to work after a few weeks away, I still feel as though I have space to read, rest, learn, play, and connect with life outside of the Switzer Network. 

I can honestly say that working four days a week has improved my health, happiness, and overall well-being, and, if I had to guess, I would say it accidentally improved my productivity as well. 

We all know that a few years ago, the four day work week was all the buzz in organizational news. Many organizations dismissed the idea, others embraced it wholeheartedly, and some had circular discussions as to whether or not it would actually be possible. Although I know that there was mixed success in different workplaces with considering or potentially offering a switch to a four day workweek, I can say that for me at Switzer, it was completely successful. That success, however, was not due to chance alone. From my perspective, three key components make our four day work week actually feel sustainable:

Reducing Rather than Compressing

At Switzer, the Foundation did not choose to cram 40 hours into four days by shifting the schedule to include four 10 hour days. Instead, the team removed eight hours from the work week. It is important to note that in doing this, Switzer did not reduce benefits for employees for having a shorter work week. This change allowed employees to continue to feel stable and secure in their jobs and to truly have an additional day back in their week to do with as they choose, without causing more fatigue during the week.

Right-Sizing Workloads

Many workplaces condense the work week to four days while still expecting their employees to produce five days worth of work. Although this might happen unintentionally, it should not be expected, as that will ultimately lead to more burn out. When choosing to reduce the work week, the team at Switzer did the important work of right-sizing our expectations of workloads by taking items off our to-do lists or lengthening timelines as needed, and continuing to check in on this to avoid workload creep. This has allowed the team to practice our skills prioritizing and has ensured that the work continues to be manageable.

Having Clear Boundaries & Expectations 

At Switzer, everyone currently takes the same day off: Fridays. We communicate clearly about not working on Fridays and we do not reply to emails on Fridays or over the weekends (with a few very rare exceptions). By having strong boundaries and committing to the work schedule we agreed to, we have all truly given ourselves permission to be “offline” on Fridays. I’ve noticed how tempting it is to schedule an occasional meeting or project on a Friday when that is what works best for scheduling. However, something that has supported me in feeling balanced at work is having the encouragement from the team to ignore these temptations and prioritize my own rest, well-being, and humanity on Fridays instead of putting that to the bottom of the list in order to squeeze in more work. These boundaries have been essential for us to actually practice what we have put into operation.

As we kick off another calendar year, I’m wondering about the well-being and balance of others within our network. Do you have a four day work week at your place of employment? What do you love about it or what’s not working? Are you interested in advocating for one? Have you found other organizational practices supportive of balance and employee well-being? If so, I would love to connect with you about it (though not on a Friday…). 

Yours in setting fewer goals and resting a bit more this January,

~ Maya