Should More Guys Work a 4-Day Week?
By: Xavier Russo
Tags: Culture, Future Of Work, Parenting, Leadership, Flexible Work

Until fairly recently, it’s been unusual for a man who cared about his career to reduce his working hours for family reasons. Historically, it has tended to be women who end up juggling part-time work with family responsibilities, with real & perceived barriers (even stigma) discouraging men from considering it.

So it’s fair to say my decision way back in 2007 to start working part-time surprised some people. But it’s one of the best decisions I ever made. And in the decade plus since then, I’ve been fortunate to continue my 4 day working week in a variety of different roles: freelance strategy consultant; co-founder at a startup; strategy & marketing manager at Envato; and now at SEEK in the strategy team and as general manager of the verification startup Certsy.

In this article, I’d like to share my personal experience to help encourage more men (and their employers!) to consider flexible work options. I firmly believe that everyone stands to benefit — men, women, kids, business & society — if we can break down traditional barriers and get more men working part-time.

What’s been the response at work?

By and large, I’ve found that most people at work have responded to my 4 day working week with a combination of surprise, good-natured envy, and support. That said, there was early skepticism when I first applied for part-time roles.

Early skepticism

Getting started part-time is arguably the hard bit. I first moved to 4 days a week when I was self-employed, so there was no boss to convince. Discipline was required to make the habit stick, but I could make the decision and do it.

However, in 2012 I faced the challenge of convincing employers of the merits of part-time work when I sold my business and looked for a 4 day a week professional job. Despite a solid resume and qualifications, the response was lukewarm. Eventually, one recruiter confided off the record I was “higher risk” to recommend to clients given part-time work and recent self-employment.

After much frustration, I stopped mentioning my desire to work part-time in my applications so that gatekeepers couldn’t screen me out. Although I’d rather be upfront, I decided to wait until a firm decided they wanted me and then negotiate (accepting some risk I may have to go back to 5 days a week).

Soon after I narrowly missed out on a role at Envato and the CEO suggested I consider a different position in a smaller part of their business. However, this other role had a lower salary budget. After meeting the general manager and learning more, I was keen on the opportunity but rather than just accepting less money, I plucked up the courage to ask if I could do 4 days instead.

I can still vividly recall the phone call. First, there was a moment of silence, while various thoughts and fears ran through my head. Then he laughed! This was totally unexpected, as were his next words: “We thought you might say that”. It turned out that 4 days was the perfect creative solution — they got access to my skills within a smaller budget and I kept working part-time.

Surprise

These days I find that many colleagues outside my immediate team don’t even realize I’m not working full-time until I actually tell them. Personally, I quite like this response because it supports my arguments about the effectiveness and creativity benefits of part-time work.

That said, I‘m increasingly coming to the view (hence this article) that it’s important to make it more widely known that I work 4 days in order to help normalize and enable flexible work options for others.

Good-natured envy

This is a common reaction from other guys. It turns out many of them would like to work 4 days too, but are concerned about the impact on their career, identity or finances … or weren’t even aware it was a real option for them.

One guy I worked with did the math and concluded it was a great deal: “So you get paid 20% less but get 50% more weekend! Where do I sign up?” However, despite that initial enthusiasm, he still hasn’t made the change…

These discussions showed me that there are still strong social norms and other barriers for men that make it hard in practice to forego income for unpaid time with kids, even though it’s an appealing idea in theory for many.

Support

In recent years I’ve had a very supportive response from my employers and colleagues at SEEK and Envato, but I suspect my experience is not (yet) the norm in all situations. Both companies are progressive, the roles are hard to fill, and I have a good track record of delivering results while part-time. That said, times are changing and more companies are embracing flexible work.

When exploring my current role at SEEK, I put on the front of my resume that I work 4 days/week and raised the topic in my first interview with my future boss. My logic now is that if a potential employer is put off by a guy working part-time, then quite simply it isn’t a place where I would want to work.

The good news is that working part-time made no difference whatsoever to securing my initial role or to being promoted at SEEK — in fact, I now lead a fast growing in-house startup of over 15 people while still working 4 days a week. And naturally I’m very supportive of part-timers in my team.