THE SHOW
A dynamic and growing group of companies and organizations are moving to a 4 day work week. Andrew Barnes is the pioneer behind this movement. It all started with an experiment to see what would happen if his team worked 4 days instead of 5. The results were so breathtaking that he never looked back. Now there’s an entire organization – including research, a book, and tools – dedicated to making the work world more efficient.
Through his company – New Zealand’s largest corporate trustee company, Perpetual Guardian – Andrew announced a 4 day week trial, with staff receiving an extra day off work, on full pay, each week. The trial was an undeniable success, sparking widespread international interest and winning a number of global awards.
Today, Barnes is considered the pioneer and architect of the global 4 day week movement. As co-founder of 4 Day Week Global with his partner, Charlotte Lockhart, they are conducting the largest ever trials, currently taking place across the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. More than 250 companies around the world with over 100,000 staff are taking part in the trials to change their workplaces combined with a global research programme involving academics from leading universities.
Continuing our season long thread on creating work/life integration, this conversation is an excellent primer for both employers and employees on creating a 4 Day Work Week.
Andrew is the literal pioneer of this movement so I invited him to BTB to discuss how it was born, the concerns many leaders have, why the movement has picked up steam, and how you – whether you’re a leader or a team member – can use these ideas to create a more sustainable and effective approach to work.
We spent a lot of time at the top of this conversation exploring Andrew’s background because I think that context is important once he starts discussing the 4 Day Work Week. That said, if you want to skip to the topical portion, it begins around minute 25.
Behind His Brilliance: Finding opportunity anywhere
Say hi to Andrew on X/Twitter @andrewhbarnes
THE GUEST
ANDREW BARNES | AUTHOR + SERIAL ENTREPRENEUR
Entrepreneur Andrew Barnes has made a career of market-changing innovation and industry digitisation leading and transforming companies in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. In 2018, he made international headlines across the world with an idea that he believed would raise productivity in the workplace, while also contributing to the personal wellbeing of his staff – a 4 day work week. Through his company – New Zealand’s largest corporate trustee company, Perpetual Guardian – Andrew announced a 4 day week trial, with staff receiving an extra day off work, on full pay, each week. The trial was an undeniable success, sparking widespread international interest and winning a number of global awards.
Today, Barnes is considered the pioneer and architect of the global 4 day week movement. As co-founder of 4 Day Week Global with his partner, Charlotte Lockhart, they are conducting the largest ever trials, currently taking place across the UK, US, Canada, South Africa, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. More than 250 companies around the world with over 100,000 staff are taking part in the trials to change their workplaces combined with a global research programme involving academics from leading universities including Boston College, Cambridge, Oxford and many more.
Additionally, in the last 4 years Andrew has worked with companies such as Unilever and has been part of the advisory process for close to a dozen country and regional governments who are all effecting change to the way their populations will work now and in the future. Recently he was recognised Introducing The Forbes Future Of Work 50 as a leader in workplace innovation.
Andrew and Charlotte’s vision is to provide a community environment for companies, researchers/academics and interested parties to be able to connect and advance this idea as part of the future of work. Through this work he is on the advisory boards of both the US and Ireland 4 day week campaigns and the board of the newly created Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University and is a founding member of the World Wellbeing Movement.
In 2019 he wrote The 4 Day Week book, as a how to guide for companies trying to reduce work hours and increase productivity.
TOPICS COVERED
-how Andrew built a career as an international entrepreneur
-Andrew’s reflections on betting on himself (and why you should too)
-the keys to navigating organizational change
-how and why the 4 Day Work Week became a thing
-the art and science of designing down time
-the counterintuitive ways less work powers more efficiency
-how to save your company from meeting culture
-how to trial a 4 day week in your organization
-addressing employee concerns about the 4 day week
-the 4 day week’s impact on wage expectations (spoiler: workers value their time!)
-the legislative activity around a 4 day work week
And much more!
STUFF MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
Fever Pitch by Nick Hornsby (Andrew’s book pick)
The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard (Andrew’s book pick)
