The Four Day Workweek: Another Success Story

A small east coast company tried a four-day week, and guess what, it's paying dividends for them. This is according to a story in Fast Company. Yet, does any of this anecdotal data truly bring us any closer to the four-day workweek?

Fast Company detailed the journey that lead Mike Melillo, CEO of the Wanderlust Group to give his employees Mondays off. And the results were pretty interesting. Melillo tells Fast Company that his employees were quick to adapt to the four-day workweek, which eliminated unnecessary meetings, made meetings that did happen become more effective, and employee morale improved.

Financially, according to Fast Company, "Wanderlust Group had its strongest six months of growth and productivity, with profits up by 121% year over year." Which to me sounds like, for this small company of 45, the change has been a positive one.

And Melillo told Fast Company, he'd encourage other businesses to try it too. At least in small samples.

It's encouraging to see it work for a small company like the Wanderlust Group. Yet, I have questions. Looking at my own job here at the radio stations, could I condense five days of work into four? I'm already very busy, and so are Behka, Tim, and Randy. We work hard. And don't have a lot of downtime.

One of my favorite parts about working in the radio industry is the camaraderie between co-workers. And bluntly, we're so busy at the radio stations, it can be hard to take that hour and go out to lunch with your co-workers. Or spend some time just chatting with a co-worker. I make time for these things because I think they're important for me personally and professionally. Yet, they've also caused me to have some long days. And occasionally I've regretted not keeping my nose to the grindstone.

So I don't know if I'd be a fan of trying to squish five days of office work into four. And for the radio industry, even if our office was closed on Monday, there's still the performance aspect of the job. Just because the office is closed, doesn't mean the news stops, doesn't mean our listeners and fans aren't going to work, and doesn't mean we can just pretend the four-day workweek is here.

It certainly seems like a four-day workweek would be easier to implement if everyone did it. Although, that doesn't address the workload issue at all. And I have to wonder if that's what a lot of business leaders ponder when they think about how a four-day workweek might impact their business.

At least it seems we're talking about four-day workweeks. And the more positive results places that try it have, the more it might become attractive to business. Yet, I still don't think we are anywhere near close to Monday's becoming part of the weekend.