BY SARAH LYNCH for INC
In 2022, Jake Kurtz was burned out. But as the CEO and founder of his own social media management agency, Brick Media in Tampa, he realized that he had the power to make a change in the way he and his company worked. That led him to test run a four-day workweek.
He’d come across studies supporting the success of four-day workweek pilot programs: In one U.K. study, 92 percent of companies that tested a four-day workweek planned to continue with the schedule. Once an employee fantasy, the shortened workweek has gained serious traction, with small businesses leading adoption.
Kurtz thought: Why not give it a try?
Last year, Brick Media doubled its revenue and team (now with 15 employees, eight full time and seven part time) and was recognized by Tampa Magazine as the best social media marketing agency in its region. It could seem counterintuitive to shorten the number of hours worked each week during a period of rapid growth, but Kurtz believed that the change could improve retention, efficiency, and employee well-being.
He gauged interest from the team by sending a Slack message to employees–enthusiastic emojis and exclamation points rolled in, which led Brick to launch a pilot program in early 2023, testing out a four-day workweek from January 1 to March 31.
To get started, Kurtz held a Zoom meeting with his five account managers to determine which repetitive Friday tasks could be cut or rescheduled and when exceptions might be made. For instance, they decided that if a content shoot involving multiple parties could only take place on a Friday, the team would be flexible. Since January, such an instance has only occurred once or twice, Kurtz says.
Next, Kurtz emailed each of Brick’s 50 clients individually to inform them about the agency’s shift to a four-day workweek and invited them to share any concerns. The responses ranged from neutral to deeply curious, with some clients wanting to learn more about the program and policy for their own businesses, Kurtz says.
Account managers moved standing meetings with clients to earlier in the week–which Kurtz says many of the clients actually preferred–and clients quickly grew accustomed to the company’s new availability.
For employees, the shift took some getting used to: In those first weeks, some team members sent Slack messages on Fridays, and Kurtz reminded them to shift into the weekend mindset: “It’s like: Would you be reaching out to us at 10 a.m. on a Saturday? Probably not.” Kurtz says he’s noticed most employees work slightly longer hours during the four working days to make up for the Friday day off, but he adds that, as a leader, he isn’t paying attention to the number of hours worked but rather the “output of the work.” Overall, the response from the team has been overwhelmingly positive, he says.
To keep tabs on the pilot’s success, Kurtz asked his account managers for feedback regularly in their weekly one-on-one check-ins. Once or twice, a manager shared that they felt burned out, but no more than before the four-day workweek’s implementation, Kurtz says. Fluctuating workloads can be typical in the industry, and it’s up to the leader to manage the team’s balance, no matter the number of days they work, he explains.
By mid-March, Kurtz deemed the four-day workweek trial a success. Since January of this year, he says the company’s revenue has grown between 20 to 30 percent, and they are on track to hit $1 million in revenue this year. The four-day workweek schedule did not result in any lost clients. Since the implementation of its abbreviated workweek, Brick Media has also received “hundreds of job applications every month” compared with about 10 per month previously, Kurtz says: “That was a big eye opener … we’re not even staying stagnant. We’re growing.”
Two of Brick Media’s account managers appeared on their local television station’s health and lifestyle show to discuss their four-day workweek experience: “Honestly, our quality of work has only gone up, if anything,” account manager Andrea Echeverry said in the interview.
Now, on Friday mornings, Kurtz doesn’t set an alarm. He gets up, walks his golden retriever, heads to physical therapy, and goes for a run before enjoying the early start to his weekend. “I feel mentally and physically really healthy and just balanced right now. It’s great. And I know the team feels the same way. Everybody’s expressed that,” he says. “I couldn’t imagine going back.”
