As we think about what work ought to appear like past this pandemic, we have to discover new methods to attain concord throughout our professions, our passions, and our private lives. The pandemic gave us widespread distant work, which afforded our crew the pliability to handle the calls for of their house lives alongside their workday in ways in which weren’t attainable with a every day commute. However now, Kickstarter goes to strive one thing much more drastic: a four-day workweek. This isn’t 40 hours compressed into 4 days. It’s 32 hours, whole.
This choice stems from my perception that everybody who works for Kickstarter ought to have the power to assist propel the corporate ahead whereas additionally pursuing their very own artistic initiatives, spending time with family members, and fascinating with communities and causes which can be vital to them. I imagine that by discovering concord between work and residential, our crew will make as a lot—if no more—significant progress towards our mission.
A pilot of our four-day workweek will start in 2022, giving us time to construct out clear targets and considerate implementation. At its core, testing a four-day workweek is about discovering artistic ways in which our crew can use our time and power as potently as attainable whereas additionally being extra engaged and fulfilled by the work. However there are nonetheless a lot of unanswered questions: How will we run conferences when now we have much less time within the week? How will we obtain our targets as a crew if people are working at totally different occasions? How will the corporate deal with the fact that some groups work otherwise than others—notably our employees who work immediately with the creators and backers on our platform?
Whereas we don’t know precisely how we’ll design this pilot but, I do know that reconfiguring the best way we work will contain a lot of trial and error. That’s why it’s vital that our crew is happy concerning the change, and that now we have the help of Kickstarter’s union in pursuing this new path. Regardless of the uncertainty, I’m sure that what we be taught from this check might be invaluable—not only for Kickstarter, however for different corporations, too.
We’ve already realized from companies like Buffer and Uncharted that staff are extra engaged and productive at work and happier and healthier outdoors of it after implementing a four-day week. However whereas a four-day week is one means for extra flexibility, it’s not a silver bullet. Versatile work hours and distant work choices should be mixed with different advantages like stipends for childcare, wellness wants, and artistic work and cultural experiences.
Writer Arundhati Roy has in contrast pandemics to portals, as they “have compelled people to interrupt with the previous and picture their world anew.” Kickstarter is seizing this chance to reimagine the best way we work. I hope to satisfy the second, redefine our methods of working, and construct a imaginative and prescient of labor that’s harmonious, engaged, and impactful.
Aziz Hasan is the CEO of Kickstarter.
