With a four-day workweek, a lot is expected from the employees. Before the scheme was introduced, they had the flexibility to decide when to start work or whether to split their day into two sessions and work in the evenings. That flexibility is now gone.
“As we worked more closely together, it became very inefficient if we didn’t know when people would be available. So, if you need to go to the dentist, doctor, or hairdresser, you should do it on Friday. We don’t keep track of it, but people respect that,” says Andreas Bødker and adds:
“We chose Friday because it’s often an inefficient day for many companies. People are in weekend mode, and sometimes they might leave an hour early. So, Friday was a day where we’d lose some hours anyway, and we made those hours up by giving the entire day off.”
During the implementation period, Abtion’s CEO also realized that there are many small distractions when working. So one of the goals was to get people into a concentration zone with minimal interruptions. Now, everyone works for 25 minutes and then takes a five-minute break. A small lamp on the side of the computer screen shows red and green light to indicate whether they are working or on break. All notifications are also turned off because they disrupt concentration.
There’s also been a huge shift in how meetings are conducted. In the past, meetings could last an hour. Now, they are scheduled for just 20 minutes by default. This makes it more likely that the meeting will cover what it’s supposed to in that short time.
“Before, you’d schedule a meeting and then realize that it might actually be unnecessary. Sometimes you can just ask Mads about one thing and Peter about another, and you don’t need the meeting at all,” explains Andreas Bødker.
