A 4-day week - A Scrum Master Experience
It sounds like a free day, but that is not it. It is actually even better than that.
For most of my life, I’ve pursued the luxury of a 4-day week. In practice, that means I sacrificed my salary to pay for the extra free day. For me, it was totally worth it, because, beyond the fact that I got one more day to enjoy freedom, it also made work more enjoyable.
My extra free day was of course preferably Friday, giving me a long weekend, and I definitely treated it like a weekend day: completely free with no thought of work.
This got a bit more challenging as my daughters came along and my wife stopped working, so eventually I went back to a 5-day week. The contrast was undeniable. The weekends seemed to fly by, leaving me feeling like I barely got a chance to recharge. And it affected my work too. Don’t get me wrong, I love my work, but even so, I noticed that my energy levels were lower and that my brain slowed down significantly. Especially Fridays felt like a survival day, just trying to get through.
Everything changed when I joined my current company. This is a company that has adopted a 4-day week, and I’m talking about the real thing here. No trying to cram 10 hours into the remaining 4 days, or reducing salary proportionally, or anything like that. My company is driven by the genuine belief that people are more effective working 4 days a week.