'Am I dreaming?': Toronto company to pilot four-day work week without 10-hour days
A Toronto company is testing out a four-day work week pilot for six months starting in October, and employees are not expected to work 10-hour days to make up for the lost time.
PRAXIS, a marketing communications agency, announced it will be joining the 4 Day Week Global trial, along with 59 other North American companies.
“I've always felt quite passionately about the need for work-life balance and felt that technology has really provided us with a lot of opportunities to work more effectively and efficiently,” Matt Juniper, associate partner with PRAXIS, told CTV News Toronto.
After discovering 4 Day Week Global, Juniper said a lot of his initial concerns were “alleviated.”
“They’ve got a lot of good research and data that shows that the four-day week not only does the things you might think it does, in terms of benefits for your staff, but that the improved productivity and the staff well-being components can combine to actually improve business results.”
During the pilot, PRAXIS employees will work eight-hour days either from Monday to Thursday, or Tuesday to Friday, so each team can still provide regular service to their clients throughout the week.
The trial will follow the 100-80-100 model, which means employees will get paid their full salary while working 80 per cent of the time. The expectation is there will be 100 per cent devotion to their work during the time they’re on the clock.
But not everyone has to participate in the program if they don’t want to.
“If staff are more comfortable working at a sort of more gradual pace, they're comfortable with the five-day week, they will not be required to transition to the four-day week. It’s fully optional,” Juniper said
"Am I dreaming?"
Meredith Nebel, an account director at PRAXIS, told CTV News Toronto she initially thought she was dreaming when she heard the company will be trying out the four-day work week.
“Like, is this really a reality? I had to pinch myself,” Nebel said. “After I got over the initial, ‘Yes, I’m excited’, it was like, ‘But wait, how are we going to do this effectively and efficiently?’”
Juniper said there were a lot of discussions with staff and clients on how the four-day week would work at the company. Splitting up the days off, and providing the option of continuing to work a five-day week, were some of the solutions.
Nebel opted-in to the four-day work week model – “I mean, it would be foolish for me and my personal situation to not try it” – and notes the company has been preparing everyone for what the pilot will be like in the weeks leading into it.
“It’s from things as simple as making sure that we have somebody covering off our responsibilities while we have our rest day to setting up what our out-of-offices look like,” she said.
“We’ve started to already put these into place so that by the time we get to that first week of October, we hit the ground running and it'll be a smooth transition.”
Once the pilot starts, Nebel says she is most looking forward to spending more time with her family and her two young sons. She’s also going to use the extra time to get around to things that she has been putting on the back burner, like potentially taking a yoga teacher training course.
“It really just opens up that opportunity to check those boxes that might be on my bucket list."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Average hourly wage in Canada now $34.95: StatCan
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
This iconic Canadian song is turning 50
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Oprah Winfrey: I set an unrealistic standard for dieting
Oprah Winfrey said on Thursday evening that she has long played a role in promoting unhealthy and unrealistic diets.
Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay
A southwestern Ontario woman has received an $8,400 bill from a hospital in Windsor, Ont., after she refused to put her mother in a nursing home she hated -- and she says she has no intention of paying it.
Toronto police called to Drake's Bridle Path mansion for another alleged intruder on Thursday
Toronto police say a man who allegedly attempted to access Drake’s Bridle Path property was taken to hospital on Thursday after an altercation with security guards.
Flat tire on a highway? Here's why you shouldn't try to fix it
If you're cruising down a highway and realize you have a flat tire, you may want to think twice before stopping to fix it on the side of the road.
Storm-battered U.S. South is again under threat. A boy swept into a drain fights for his life
Dangerous storms crashed over parts of the U.S. South on Thursday even as the region cleaned up from earlier severe weather that spawned tornadoes, killed at least three people, and gravely injured a boy who was swept into a storm drain as he played in a flooded street.
Broadcaster and commentator Rex Murphy dead at 77: National Post
The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.