Sustainability and wellbeing: All hail the four-day working week

Nature Fridays are a go at House of Hackney and I think everyone should be following suit.

House of Hackney has introduced ‘Mature Fridays’; it’s four-day working week initiative

I’ve worked a four-day week for over five years, and honestly, it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Strictly speaking, my fifth day isn’t a “day off”. I have had one, or both, of my children with me, ever since I started doing it. But it isn’t paid work. And it isn’t staring at my screen. We get outside; I focus on them; I try and do other things I need to do - for me and for us. It’s my attempt at work-life balance. And it works.

It has, however, taken me quite some time to achieve this. As someone who is self-employed / a long-term consultant, I’ve had to create this setup for myself, which initially made it very easy for work to creep in. I would take the odd call, or try and do project work during nap times, and not realise the value that came with actually being unavailable on that day. This felt nothing like work-life balance, and actually more like I was failing at both. But over time, and with some help to do so, I managed to construct boundaries and a mindset for it, that I now really stick to.