In August 2021 we were planning to raise the salaries of the entire team, but we had talked before about trying out 4 days work weeks. So we decided to let each team member pick whether to get a raise or work one less day in the week. And guess what? Everyone preferred a 4 days work week. (Aside: four months later we had our collective raise too.)

How did we do it

From the beginning of Bloco, we always saved Fridays for working on internal projects, readings, research. With this system in place, we didn’t have to suffer a big transition with our clients and adjust all the contracts we had. We are also a small and agile team. It’s easier to accommodate significant changes like this. Having flexible work schedules helped us too. It allows us of having personal time when in need, going to the doctor, meeting an old friend, or just having time to pause.

For now, we’re all in sync with our extra day off: we all take the Friday off. That helps keep things simple. But we haven’t ruled out changing it in the future.

Disclaimer This is not a fake 4 days work week. We work the same amount of hours per day we worked before, between 6 and 8 hours. We didn’t increase the number of hours per day to 10 hours or downsize the salaries. We simply cut one day of work per week, we don’t work on Fridays.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• We all agree with this one: allows us a better work-life balance. For me is having time to experience the city, travel to my hometown, ride my bike, catch up with my friends and family.
• We are more productive, having 4 days compromise us to a goal-oriented work week, doesn’t allow us to ruminate too much.
• It is a competitive advantage for hiring. We’re big advocates of working in a calm and relaxed environment. And increasing the life quality the team deserves. We enjoy testing and experimenting with different ways of working. We work in a privileged industry where we have room for that and other significant changes.

Cons

• Our Fridays for internal work, readings, and research are gone. 😭
• It’s hard having time for “extra activities”, for example going for a walk or having our monthly picnic at the park. But we’re working on those two points, and trying to compromise on a new solution.
• Project delays can be harder to tackle since we need to account better for the time we do have available. If you work with creativity and design you know this type of thing happens. For now, it hasn't been a major issue, but I’m sure we will face it.

Testimonials

“I think everyone understands the main advantages of the 4 day work week. But my favorite one is I don’t have to ask to leave earlier or take days off just to make it to an appointment, I can normally just shift it to the 5th day. In terms of productivity, it basically balances itself out and ends up the same. The way I see it I have less time to jump between different projects but I ended up prioritizing the ones I work on more and finding work more pleasant and easier to focus on.”
Filipe Alves

"The extra day-off helps making sure I can start Monday energized. And I can leave most errands until Friday. Plus, I have more time to dedicate to my hobbies: reading, playing games and learning about new things."
Sérgio Santos