The adoption of remote working throughout the pandemic demonstrated that employees were able to maintain the same productivity levels of office work while hybrid working. With flexible and remote working having proven to be effective, the team at Civo wanted to see if we could extend the efficiency of our workforce and ways of working with the four-day workweek.
Mark Boost, CEO at Civo outlined his initial thoughts surrounding workplace culture by saying, “There’s nothing glamorous about working extensive hours when it’s damaging your life outside of work and making someone miserable. By building a culture that protects against this, staff are going to be happier and will likely stay at the company longer.”
This shift has allowed employees to reduce their hours to 34 hours a week split across four days. Throughout this blog, we will look at how Civo has adopted this new way of working and the ongoing benefits that it has shown.
Trialing a new way of working
With a growing awareness of increased employee fatigue, seen as a result from the pandemic, alongside the catalyzing role lockdown working has played in advancing tech, it looks like the growing adoption of the four-day workweek is set to continue.
Kai Hoffman, Developer at Civo spoke of his experience with the shift to a four-day work week by saying, “For me, the four-day week has felt incredibly natural. I know that I can schedule personal appointments, make sure I'm around for deliveries, and generally know I can have a weekday to sort stuff out. One unexpected positive side effect was the fact that I can get housework and things like laundry done on a Friday, meaning I can fully enjoy my weekends without that hanging over me. I never knew how much of a difference that could make!”
This way of working was covered in an article by ITeuropa whereby they spoke about how Civo adopted the four-day week after a successful trial period. Within this article, Ian Banks, Site Reliability Engineer at Civo said, “Having an extra day off really helps to alleviate pressures from inside and outside work. I can spend more time with my kids, get on with chores that could previously take up a whole Saturday, or go for a walk and decompress. I would not be surprised to see a reduced work week become the norm in the not-so-distant future.”
Improving the well-being of staff
Over the past two years, the pandemic has served to exacerbate the impacts of burnout culture. The lines that previously separated work from home life have become increasingly blurred and when your home also functions as your office, it can be difficult to switch off and put a stop to the work day. Harsh Thakur, Go Developer at Civo said, “A lot of my stress that builds up during the week is resolved with a 3-day weekend. So, when I start my week, I feel more refreshed and calm which I believe sets me up for making better decisions.”
A recent article by Business Cloud explored how mental health is a contributing driver for the four-day workweek and included words from CEO Mark Boost on how this change helps to support employees' mental health. Balaji Naidu, SRE Intern, said “A four-day workweek is one of the best things about working at Civo. Having a three-day weekend helps me complete my coursework, focus on my academics, or even go on a long trek to explore some beautiful mountains.”
Others within the company had similar experiences with how the shift to a four-day week impacted their work. Bradley Forsdick, Customer Support Manager, spoke of his experience by saying, “The shift to a four-day week has made a massive difference to my work-life balance. I now have more time to spend with my child, whereas before I felt bad as we rarely had father-son time. This has allowed us to bond in a way that just wasn't possible before.”
Find out more
Want to find out how you can work with Civo? If you're passionate about the cloud native community, open source, and improving the developer experience, we want to hear from you. Check out our careers page for more information!
Alternatively, you can read more about our workplace culture in our newsroom articles:
