By Sean Kosofsky — a strategic advisor who has worked in nonprofits for 30+ years and served as an executive director for five organizations in the past 20 years. His consulting firm, The Nonprofit Fixer, focuses on executive director coaching and training as well as fundraising and board development.
The four-day workweek is having a moment.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly everyone has shifted their orientation to work. Where we work has changed. How we work has changed. And our orientation to productivity has changed.
Heck, many people have left work completely or shifted careers. Add to this the generational shifts and changing expectations that millennial and Gen Z workers have, and it is a recipe for something big. Enter the four-day workweek.
Thousands of companies around the world have been evaluating the four-day workweek because of burnout, productivity, worker retention, concerns about commuting, and even to address sustainability and climate change. Big-name companies worldwide are making this shift, and I don’t think it is a fad.
Politicians have noticed this public demand for a changing workplace so legislation has been introduced all over the world, including the US Congress, to move toward a four-day workweek. The historic United Auto Workers strike in 2023 won huge strides for workers and, for the first time, the four-day workweek as an initial UAW demand. This changed the national conversation about what workers are entitled to given all the demands on their labor.
Nonprofits are not exempt from this trend. The Climate Advocacy Lab, a national climate change organization, implemented a four-day workweek in 2022. Many other nonprofits have moved in this direction in every part of the US and beyond.
Why You Should Consider A Four-Day Workweek
The main reason for companies or nonprofits to consider a four-day workweek is to recognize that modern workplaces are more productive than they have ever been. However, that productivity has not been matched with increases in pay or benefits. Nonprofits pay less than their private sector counterparts and offer less-rich benefit plans.
One of the few ways nonprofits can compete with the private sector for talent is by offering something that costs $0 to implement and may actually result in better recruiting and retention: a shorter workweek. By offering this perk, you are helping your workers with burnout while also reducing turnover and attracting new workers who find the four-day workweek irresistible.
Another reason to consider a four-day workweek is that it can save an organization and its people money. Keeping an office open creates more commuting, increases energy consumption at the office and by workers, adds costs to utility bills, and may add to costs relating to office snacks, copy paper, ink, and other office incidentals.
Another reason to offer the four-day workweek is that, if you do it right, it can result in greater productivity, not less. By inviting workers to get their work done in four days instead of five, so that they can have a day off, they have an incentive, and some gentle peer pressure, to do just that. However, the employer must create the right conditions.
For example, instead of asking workers to work longer days Monday through Thursday to “earn” Fridays off, you should simply shift the workweek to 32 hours and stop expecting 40 hours. The supposedly “standard” 40-hour workweek is not necessary or legally required. Sure, reducing the workweek to 32 hours is generous, but that is why it works.
As an employer, you must send a clear message that unnecessary meetings need to end. You can slash the number of meetings workers attend and the length of those meetings. You can inform coalition partners that you’ll only be able to attend the most important meetings. Employees should shift all pet and doctor appointments to Fridays so they can accommodate the truncated workweek. For more tips, like moving to asynchronous work, see The Complete Guide to Implementing a Four-Day Workweek.
How to Implement the 4-Day Workweek
Implementing a four-day workweek can be as simple as telling everyone tomorrow that Friday work is now optional. But I would not do it this way. For many nonprofits, a shift like this must be more thoughtful. We all have stakeholders and commitments to others to consider.
The Climate Advocacy Lab used the these five phases to implement a four-day workweek:
- Assess. In this phase, you can do some research. Luckily there is a lot of data now about productivity and worker satisfaction. Document the business case for considering this shift. Who should propose the move? Workers? Management? Funders?
- Anticipate. Next, you will need to anticipate any resistance or backlash, such as resentment or even jealousy, by stakeholders. This could include donors, foundations, board members, coalition partners, part-time workers, unionized workers, and others. While you should anticipate scenarios of opposition, hopefully, you won’t face them. Should you do a pilot first, or go right for the four-day workweek implementation? The Climate Advocacy Lab created a Slack channel during their pilot period for workers to share their hopes and fears about having a truncated work window but also having Fridays off.
- Announce. Publicly announce the move and tell your stakeholders what to expect of your team once the change happens.
- Adopt. Then, after your decision (and possibly pilot) it’s time to adopt the practice. You’ll need to decide how to characterize this internally. Is it a benefit or just a flexible way of doing work? Does everyone get to participate? Does everyone have to? What happens to workers who are already at 30 hours a week? Does this apply to temporary workers? There are many considerations.
- Amend. A fifth phase to consider is making tweaks after a three or six-month evaluation.
If you want to demonstrate that you value your team, while also sending a message to future prospective hires that you value rest as much as productivity, you should consider the four-day workweek.
The added benefit is that you may save money for everyone, help the planet, and retain your top talent – and it costs zero dollars to implement for most organizations. By being thoughtful about shifting to a four-day workweek, you can achieve multiple goals with one policy, and give yourself a nice well-deserved break! Learn more in The Complete Guide to Implementing a Four-Day Workweek.
Sean Kosofsky has worked in nonprofits for 30+ years and served as an executive director for five organizations in the past 20 years. His consulting firm, The Nonprofit Fixer, focuses on executive director coaching and training as well as fundraising and board development.
