Hey everybody!
Jake here, the CEO and Founder of Brick Media. I have an exciting (and interesting) piece of company news to kick off this new year.
As of January 2023, Brick Media has officially started a 3-month test of a four day work week. The idea is that our team works Monday through Thursday, while maintaining our typical amount of weekly output.
We have every Friday off.
We’re testing this methodology until March 31 and if it goes well, it will become permanent.
We have already made all of our existing clients aware of this 3-month pilot test. Our team and clients will always be at the very top of our priority list, and if anything were to ever impact either of those things in a negative way, we would immediately change it back.
However, we’re optimistic that this will be a nice change that promotes work-life balance and maybe even causes other leaders to ponder the way they do things too. Whether it’s about a four day work week or not, it could at least inspire somebody to challenge their norms.
One of our core values is to “stay curious and never stop evolving” and we want to back that up with innovative thinking and being open to change.
In the social media and digital space, there are always random times outside of the Monday through Friday business hours that things need to get done anyway, and that will never change. Sometimes, on a Saturday morning, a post needs to go up. Sometimes, on a Sunday afternoon, a caption needs to be tweaked with a last-minute change.
However, all of our meetings, planning, content shoots, strategizing, brainstorming, and deliverables will be completed on the first four days of the work week.
There are many large, established forward-thinking companies with a 4 day work week that we got nuggets of inspiration from. One big thing that stood out was a company called Bolt. They did a survey that noted 94% of workers wanted the 4 day work week to continue after their test. Also, 84% noted an improvement in work-life balance, 84% said they were more productive, and 86% said they were more efficient with their time.
They also saw a 200% increase in applicants in 2022 compared to the same time period in 2021.
I was also fascinated by a lot of the things European countries are doing, and they’re seeing promising results as well.
We’re not saying it’s the right move, or the wrong move. That’s why we decided to do a three month test program first. However, one thing we can’t argue is that it has clear potential, and it’s very interesting to say the least.
As time evolves, people are starting to care more and more about company culture and work-life balance. We’re here for it, and we think it promotes positive behaviors and changes from companies.
We’re excited to see what happens, and we will keep everybody updated.
Have a great start to the New Year!
– Jake
