"A Four-Day Workweek? Work Like Crazy from Monday to Thursday"—The Company That Scrapped It After Employee Backlash

[Financial News] Many office workers want a four-day workweek, but one company that actually implemented it reportedly encountered unexpected side effects.

According to U.S. business magazine Fortune on the 16th, global workforce-management company Safeguard Global piloted a four-day workweek in 2023. The company, which has about 1,000 remote employees across 78 countries, had them concentrate their work from Monday through Thursday and take Fridays off. The aim was to improve employees’ quality of life while also increasing work efficiency.
However, employee reactions were mixed after the policy was introduced. Some employees worked longer hours from Monday through Thursday to ensure they could take Friday off completely, while others complained of burnout as work normally handled over five days was compressed into four, increasing the workload intensity. Those who could not finish their work within four days even secretly turned on their computers and continued working on Friday, their day off.
Anxiety also grew among employees who completed their work on time. They felt pressured that they might fall behind in terms of their work or performance if other colleagues worked while they were taking time off.
Bjorn Reynolds, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said, "This was not the culture the company wanted to create." The company eventually abandoned the four-day workweek. Instead, it changed the system so employees could choose their own working hours and days based on their duties and circumstances.

The company concluded that uniformly reducing the number of working days does not have the same effect on every employee. If the existing workload remains unchanged while the number of working days is reduced, work can become concentrated into the remaining four days, increasing the workload intensity and creating psychological pressure to work even on days off.
Reynolds said the company therefore shifted its policy to prioritize work performance and employee autonomy over the number of working hours itself. Rather than imposing a uniform rule that employees must always take Fridays off, the company determined that it would be more practical to let them decide for themselves when and how to work based on their individual duties and circumstances.
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