Would you want your company to institute a 4 Day Work Week?
- Yeah, absolutely. I’m all for more time off.
- Nah, I’m fine with 5 days (as I’d probably make more money that way.)
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It’s an interesting question. I think for me the concern is that as long as our customers work 5 day weeks it’s unrealistic to try to sell to them 4 days a week. I think we’d end up working that fifth day without being recognized for the effort and becoming frustrated by the fact that we couldn’t take that last day off.
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Thinking the same thing, @steve.lozinski. Until it’s more of a cultural norm, it’s likely going to lead to frustration and make the job harder in some ways. Time is already an obstacle. 4 working days for sellers feels like more added stress instead of relief.
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@steve.lozinski @Rupert I just saw an article the other day that listed a handful of states that are apparently moving forward with proposals for a 4 Day Workweek. Raises all kinds of questions, and seems like it’ll be filled with challenges and jobs/roles that have exceptions/wouldn’t apply.
In theory, pretty sure almost everyone would find it appealing in some way. Putting it into practice? Making it fair to all? That’s another story.
We’ll see if it picks up steam, I guess.
From my perspective, being in sales we have more control over our calendar/schedule. if we want to take Friday or Monday off, we can. To @Rupert 's point, you will have to push the work out loading up another day.
An additional thought, if customers move to a 4 day work week, would they have the option of working M-Th or Tu-F? Either way, it would put sales in an awkward position.
(1) As a seller, I am always trying to stay in front of the competition and not leave an opening for them to swoop in on an account. So I am always on.
(2) if something comes up during a “day off” am I really not going to address the issue?
This also brings up the debate on “unlimited PTO”. I always found this funny, especially looking back throughout my career. Even when on PTO and I am working a deal, I am still working and not really on PTO. Yes you may work a little less, but your attention is divided between family and customers. So the fact that PTO isn’t tracked, has always been a thing in sales…at least for me.
Working 4 days vs 5…same concept. The risk here is if a company moves to this model and then will be required to have employees clock in for work to control paying overtime for employees who decide to work a 5 day week. I just think it will open up a can of worms that will not work.
Flex time seems to be more reasonable and letting employees take time off when they need it.
My two cents
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yes, I have no problem in working
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Greg, do you find yourself using more PTO now that it’s “unlimited” or are you more conservative? Always fascinating to hear how this notion of limitless time off has different psychological effects on people.
If my customer is reaching out, i’m always on…but if more companies shifted to 4 day week, then it would be nice to see that benefit! no different than my customers that shut down over the holidays
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@Matt.Conley. I don’t think I am using more. From a sales perspective, we don’t really have an off switch.
Where I think “unlimited” may be helpful is with groups (ie Marketing, Prod Dev, Finance, etc) who do not have the luxury of a very flexible schedule like sales has.
I guess the bummer thing from a California perspective is that when you didn’t have unlimited PTO, if you left a company and had PTO days in the bank, employers were required to pay you out on those. That all went away with this move to unlimitied.
“Unlimited PTO” was designed to save companies MILLIONS of $$ in accrued vacation time, which is a liability on the balance sheet, not to show how awesome companies are by allowing unlimited time off.
Much like you, if I’m working on a deal while on vacation I’m not letting it linger. However, I will try engage my leadership team to help take on some of the burden so I’m not stuck to my phone or laptop. But, if it’s early in the quarter and the deals are early stage I am completely shutting down after my family wakes up (I’m an early riser so I’ll check email after my workout while having coffee before they get up). The rest of the day is mine, I’ve earned it.
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