Our book shelf is always bursting at the seams with the latest reads. So, in the spirit of sharing, we decided to create a book club. Read on for our review of ‘The 4 Day Week’ by Andrew Barnes.
“The 4 day week sounds great, but it won’t work here” might be familiar words to you. In this flexible working playbook, Andrew Barnes shares his own experience and learnings from successfully trialling and implementing the 4 day week in his own organisation that put in place the 100-80-100 equation; 100% pay, 80%, 100% productivity.
What is The 4 Day Week all about?
It’s an essential guide to planning, testing and implementing flexible work in your business – particularly around the idea of working 4 days a week. It’s packed with data, research and considerations that support the need to change how we work. At a time where organisations have a chance to re-think how we work, it’s a timely book to read.
Who is it for?
This is a brilliant and practical guide for anyone who is interested in or considering reducing the number of days in their working week. It’s particularly useful for anyone who needs to persuade resistors to give it a go.
Lightbulb moments
1. Think in principles, not policies
When thinking about flexible working, it’s easy to head straight to updating policies and processes. This can be slow and legally complicated to work through. Andrew’s company kept all policies and contractual arrangements the same and allowed employees to ‘opt in’ to the 4 day week. ‘Opting in’ meant employees would embrace the 100:80:100 principle in a way that worked for them.
2. It’s all about trust
“The 4 day week is an employee led process where the magic bullet is trust.”
Teams on the ground will know the intricacies of the business better than anyone else. Give them the tools to work out how they can embrace the 4 day week principles in the best way for them, the business and their customers.
3. Flexibility isn’t just for offices
Flexible working patterns can be introduced by looking at where and when people work. Though corporate or office-based organisations may be the obvious choice for the 4 day week, Andrew argues that giving people the choice of when to work can be applied in retail and hospitality sectors as well.
Would you like to read this book?
Once we’ve finished reading a book, we share the headlines and then pass it on to anyone who wants to read it – just send us a message and we’ll pop it in the post. Once you’re done with it, you can either let it live forever on your shelf or share it with someone new.
As always, if you’d like to read this book, email nikki@wearethecultureclub.co.uk. We’ll pop it in the post to the first person who asks.
