The four-day work week is not just a fantasy. It’s a reality for employees at Second Mile Marketing, a Knoxville-based company.
After the COVID-19 pandemic, work cultures changed with remote work and alternative schedules popularity among employees. The organization 4 Day Week Global has been testing a pilot program with UK businesses to implement four-day working weeks. So far, it seems to have been successful.
Second Mile Marketing fully embraced a four-day work week and is not going back. why would i do that Income and productivity have increased.
“Honestly, it was kind of an evolution,” founder Hannah Collins Lee told Knox News. “We originally started with half days on Fridays in the summer and did that for the summer season, and we really enjoyed that experience. And then the next year, we did full days off on Fridays for in the summer season. That experiment with Fridays off, we realized that everyone was still doing the same amount of work. The productivity was the same if not more.”
It started in 2016, Marketing of the second mile works with companies in website design, search engine optimization and advertising. It takes a revenue operations approach streamlining the marketing, sales and customer service aspects of a business to help it grow.
The company was founded by Lee and Jess Vossler. Initially, it worked with a schedule of five days and 40 hours a week. But in January, Second Mile Marketing formally implemented a four-day, 32-hour-a-week program.
The company began experimenting with the calendar in May 2021, collecting data and getting employee feedback on the changes. This allowed Second Mile Marketing to switch to a four-day schedule more easily, and it wants to extend this model to other companies.
Company launches website fourdayweeks.cowhich will allow individuals and organizations to fill out a form and work directly with Second Mile Marketing to determine the best steps for each individual organization to implement this model.
“We love rethinking how people can work better together, and that starts with ourselves,” said Lee. “We’re piloting a program where we’re helping companies go through the same experience that we went through.”
Working through the longest weekend
During the process of adopting the new work schedule, Lee said it “definitely took some adjusting and getting used to,” as the company was eliminating eight hours of work.
Part of this change in mindset was determining what was wasting time during the work week. The company began to prioritize asynchronous communication and eliminate meetings. Instead of lasting an hour, meetings are now regulated to 30 minutes with an agenda. The firm also tries to limit unnecessary breaks throughout the day.
Lee said that by reducing the 40-hour week to 32 hours, it prevents employees from stretching work just to have something to do at the end of the week. Instead, it encourages employees to work more during the 32-hour period.
However, there is unlimited paid time off, for when employees feel they “need a little extra time for creativity or a recharge or reset,” along with the option to work from home. But Lee said most employees end up going into the office “Zen Den” anyway.
“He uses the analogy a lot of times that if you know you have two weeks to pack, you’re probably going to take that long to pack for a trip,” Lee said. “If you find out you have to pack in two days, you’re going to be very focused and you’re going to say, ‘I need to do this and I can’t get distracted from what I’m doing.’ And that’s really what we’ve found to be effective with the four-day-a-week model is that we have to commit to prioritization.”
Since its adoption in January, this approach to work in a shorter period of time has proven to be effective. Lee shared in an email to Knox News that Second Mile Marketing has seen a 28% increase in revenue and an 11.8% increase in productivity during that time.
The new schedule has also been a factor in their hiring process, making Second Mile more competitive for potential employees.
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“We’ve definitely grown and been able to grow and scale, and I think part of that has been because of the four-day work week,” Lee said. “We’re able to attract and retain the best talent. So we’re able to get more productive team members with better experience, which is amazing.”
Another Second Mile reset with this new work week was customer communication. Lee said the company is getting more and better customers as they understand how Second Mile works.
“We’ve found that obviously for some customers it’s been a really difficult methodology to wrap their minds around,” Lee said. “But once they see things like how much more efficient and effective we are, and our more streamlined communication, they’re on board and really excited.”
“Encourages you to work your tail off”
Daniel Hullett, one of seven full-time employees, has been with the company for five years. He’s experienced the schedule change firsthand, and he and co-worker Kelly Vetter have something to say about it.
“Kelly and I were talking at our summit last week, and we said, ‘We can’t even think about when we worked on Fridays.’ Like that seems like such a strange thing, just because what we have now is such a wonderful pace in terms of four-day work weeks,” Hullett said.
An avid fly fisherman, Hullett now has more time to relax on the weekend. He said that with Fridays off, he either does chores or hobbies he might not otherwise do while relaxing to properly enjoy Saturday and Sunday.
“Productivity for me has increased because it encourages you to work your tail off, but not in a way that’s exhausting or anything like that,” Hullett said. “You have to work to get what you want. If you want four-day work weeks, then you have to work hard for those first four days, so you can have the weekend to be really proud of your work and also enjoy the weekend . . .
He stayed at Second Mile for five years because of the work culture, but has been “grateful for the time we get back for our family and our hobbies” since the new schedule was implemented.
Hullett has been spreading the word to friends and other businesses about the four-day work week.
“I would say baby steps are key. Everyone’s business works differently, especially industry-wise,” Hullett said. “You have to find that balance where it works for your company, your sales, and your employees how much they appreciate what’s going on.”
Lee added his own words of wisdom for companies considering adopting this model, saying companies need to “be creative” about how to make it work based on how they each operate.
“With the right planning, people and products … it’s 100 percent possible. And I think it can contribute to the flourishing of the people in your organization and the organization as a whole,” Lee said.
That’s why Second Mile Marketing is launching workfourdays.co to act as a guiding force for businesses to experiment with the four-day work week. She and the rest of her team hope the four-day model will become a widely accepted business practice, especially locally.
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