When Alex Soojung-Kim Pang was writing Shorter, his book on companies that cut their working week, I gave him a few comments. One of them made it into chapter three:
Four days a week
Some comments I gave Alex Soojung-Kim Pang for Shorter, his book on companies that moved to a four-day week.
“We hate the narrative that when you are doing a startup, you have to grow fast, work unbelievable hours and just squeeze every drop of your energy out.”
Shorter, chapter 3, “Inspire”. PublicAffairs, 2020.
At the time we ran Devx on four days a week, so it also ended up as one row in the book's appendix, between a Japanese software company and a Korean travel agency.
Appendix: Companies Studied for This BookShorter
| Name | Country | Industry | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Collins SBA | Australia | Accounting | 25-hour week |
| Creative Mask | Korea | Advertising | 4-day week |
| Cybozu | Japan | Software | 4-day week + flex |
| DevX | Czech Republic | Software | 4-day week |
| Doctor Travel | Korea | Travel | 4-day week |
| DVQ Studio* | US | Marketing | 4-day week |
| Elektra Lighting | UK | Design | 4-day week |
… and about a hundred more, from software firms to restaurants.
Would I do it again?
I don't think it's necessarily the right approach in the early days of a business. Devx handled it calmly, but I haven't used it anywhere since.
Shorter by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, PublicAffairs, 2020.