Glide Design Begins 6 Month Pilot of 4-Day Workweek

Paola CardenasCompany
May 2022

Glide is excited to announce that we’ve officially launched the pilot of our 4-day workweek!

The 4-Day Workweek movement isn’t just a passing trend. It has rapidly shaped into a global movement, spearheaded by the 4 Day Week Global non-profit organization, a coalition of like-minded business leaders, advocates, and influencers.

Built on the goal of more sustainable work rhythms and happier employees, this innovative movement is reshaping the future of work.

Why We Joined the Pilot Program

Adjusting to a 4-day week model is something Glide believes is best done as a team. As a largely remote workforce, Glide’s designers, project managers, and other creative collaborators have to stay deeply connected to handle large workloads and complex projects. Collaboration and a clear system is a key to our success.

Glide has been highlighted By Forbes as one of 35 for-profit businesses in North America to experiment with an abbreviated workweek. Companies from small startups to global corporations (e.g. Kickstarter) have adopted this pilot program, and are paying employees their full-time salaries for a 4-day week.

The 4-day workweek pilot program involves four crucial areas of growth:

Training
Mentoring
Networking
Research

By tackling these areas together over the next six months using the guidance and resources of the pilot program, we aim to set ourselves up for a productive and successful transition.

Why a 4 Day Week?

If you’re familiar with Glide’s modus operandi, you know that our work culture is human-centric. Thriving businesses are made up of thriving people; without reasonable rest and the ability to feel caught up on life outside of work, many employees lose morale, drive, and joy. That’s what the 4-day workweek movement was created to change.

Happy, well-rested employees are generally more productive, and by giving employees more space for rest, Glide hopes to nurture a better work/life balance for our team. The 4-Day Workweek whitepaper and ethos articulate many business benefits as well, from increased employee engagement to greater recruitment success.

How We Got Here

This journey of exploring a 4-day workweek for our team didn’t start in 2022. There was a long road on our way to joining and starting this pilot. I can only describe the path that got us here as one born from the power of intention.

Late last year, while on a Zoom meeting with our leadership to discuss, “How in the world are we going to make a full switch to a 4-day week work?”, I Googled, “4 day workweek” and arrived at https://www.4dayweek.com. That’s how we found out there was an organization, a book, and a pilot program starting in 2022. To add to that, we also learned there was only one week left to register for the upcoming pilot- the last that would be would offered at no cost. We requested more information during that meeting, later registered, and were then accepted to the US Pilot Program. Hallelujah!

To give a better perspective on how it played out:

November 2019 – I announced the vision and hope for the future of Glide’s workweek

June 2020 – We piloted our first month with half-day Fridays

March 2021 – We officially made the last Friday of every month a half-day

August 2021 – We officially made every Friday half-days with limited client meetings

September 2021 – We planned out the “rock” to beta-test a 4-day week

October 2021 – Our leadership team made a goal (and weekly KPI) to reduce ALL meetings on Fridays. We tracked meetings on Friday as a weekly scorecard item to prepare for a full launch in 2022.

November 2021 – We joined the 4-Day Week Pilot Study with 31 other companies. April 2022 – We embarked on the 4-Day Week US Pilot for the next 6 months.

Where We Are Now

Founder and author, Andrew Barnes calls this pilot, “a productivity-focused framework for flexibility and work/life balance.” I call it a grand experiment and a privilege that we earn collectively through intentionality, collaboration, and mutual trust. And yeah, we get Friday’s off.

We still have stuff to work out, challenges to solve, and questions and doubts to overcome. We just need to remember we are blazing a path not just for us, but for everyone that comes after us. We are literally a part of history in the making. And we don’t need to look at this as pressure to succeed at all costs. Just taking this journey in itself is success.

We look forward to what the pilot program has in store, and for the greater balance this will bring to the lives of our team!

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