Like many millennials, 30-year-old Sennah Yee has a few side hustles — she writes books, plays and has started a magazine with friends.
Yee, a content writer at Juno College, transitioned to a four-day workweek last year, which she says has helped both her mental and physical health. Like many white-collar workers, she made the switch to remote working at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, blurring the lines between her workdays and personal time. She says the condensed workweek has been a game-changer for her, giving her back time and energy to dedicate to her creative projects.
“I feel like I’m finally able to balance both my personal projects in life along with my work. Before [the new policy] I had to squeeze my passion projects into my weekends, but now I take Fridays as my time to work on my creative projects. It’s really nice to have a set schedule and knowing that I’ll have the energy to work on them.”
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To ensure employees were well equipped to manage the shorter workweek and able to meet their targets, Juno College took a phased approach to implementing the policy, providing all employees one Friday off in January 2022, followed by two in February and three in March. By last summer, the company officially moved to a four-day work schedule.
The college’s head of people operations created an internal guide for employees to help them through the transition, says Yee, noting her department blocked off time in team members’ calendars so they could do focused work, held shorter meetings and increased one-on-one communications.
“If I was . . . unsure about what to focus on that week, during check-ins with my manager I’d get a better sense of what to prioritize. It helped me . . . know what . . . will move the needle. What is the most important thing I can be working on? That became a question every day, which helped me stay focused and on track. I definitely appreciated the transition because it helped us ease into this new way of working.”
For Yee, the biggest reward she’s reaped since moving to a condensed workweek is the ability to spend more time with her husband, whose company, coincidentally, also implemented a four-day workweek. “We both have this unicorn schedule, which has been a game-changer for our relationship. We’re both creatives so we spend Fridays . . . together. Just having that extra energy to spend with each other on our projects has made a huge difference.”
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