Moving Tusko to a 4 day work week

We’re about to take one of our most radical steps yet as a purpose-driven creative agency

Well we let the cat out of the bag in the title!
We’re ready to announce that Tusko is now operating on a 4 day work week (Monday-Thursday).

Not only will our entire team have a whole extra day every week to simply exist, free from the demands of working life….

We’re excited about the positive impact this decision stands to make on the metrics that matter to us. 

One of the main reasons we founded Tusko as an agency was because we saw a better way of doing things.  We connected with a huge number of clients making a positive impact on the world, sharing our digital storytelling services to amplify their important messages. 

When dealing with some of the important topics our clients employ us to help with, which sees us create award-winning content and purpose driven digital campaigns, websites, rebrands, and impactful digital marketing, with project commitments lasting months or even years — burnout has loomed uncomfortably over our work from time to time.

Two or more forces coalesced; the pandemic was an awakening, and our ambition to become a B-Corporation (B-Corp). We’re thrilled with the success of this journey, and where it’s taken us. Our pledge to become a B-Corp involved huge amounts of work and organisational transformation, eventually resulting in our certification at the beginning of 2022. 

We love this work, and we love our impact.

But we’re not in love with burnout culture.

We’re not in love with the pressure to be ‘always on’ in our society, at the expense of our health, our mental wellbeing, and our lives outside of work.

So we took inspiration from the thousands of companies and handful of nations worldwide who are following the evidence, and we decided to make a transition to working a 4 day week. 

In all honesty, it wasn’t an easy decision to make. The more you love your work, the harder it is to take time off. With the pandemic placing our professional lives in the pressure cooker — it became clear that some kind of radical shift is needed.

We want everyone who works with us to get the most of their lives. And we also want to deliver the best work we possibly can, in alignment with our values as a business. 

Plus, the 4 day work week has a compelling evidence base, with pilot schemes and research pointing to a number of benefits that range from the personal to the professional.

In 2022, 70 companies across the UK are currently involved in a pilot scheme to test the results of the 4 day work week. Employees taking part in this scheme will receive 100% of their usual pay for 80% of their working hours, under the understanding that they will still deliver 100% of their usual productivity. It’s the world’s biggest ever trial of the four day work week, with over 3300 employees involved in the scheme.

Let’s just think of the implications of this for a second.

Studies and pilots of the 4 day work week from Iceland, Spain, Sweden and beyond tend to report that the same amount of work will be delivered in four days of paid work, as opposed to the full five.

So what’s being cut out? Less time procrastinating. Less time in pointless meetings.

More time for life outside of work. For spending time on the things that help you to function well as a human being — maintaining your home, exercising, eating well, spending time with friends and family. 

Other than the very normal human desire to work less and play more — we were equally persuaded to consider this move for the potential business benefits, particularly when it comes to productivity and creativity.

4 benefits of the 4 day work week

1.Enhanced creativity

We are after-all a creative agency — and creativity needs rest. Creative thought occurs more frequently while the brain is in a state of relaxation, which is why you tend to get lightning strike ideas while you’re doing the washing up, or going for a walk. With less frantic pressure on our time, and a little bit more time for productive day dreaming, we’re hoping we will create better work. And the more unique ideas we have, the more value we can offer our clients.

2. Avoiding burnout

Burnout has a huge organisational cost, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that the existing working patterns are not compatible with human health. Human beings need time for rest, play, self care and a social life — the 5 day working week makes this important time feel squashed.

3. Less ‘dead time’

It’s frustratingly true that a piece of work that might take you 8 hours will take you 4 if a deadline is looming. Deadlines can be an incredibly helpful way to kick your brain (or your team) into gear, and can cut out a lot of the annoying time spent summoning the energy to move a task forward. We’re also excited to prioritise important meetings only, and minimise unnecessary ones.

4. Creating a business in line with our values

We want to model our values as a disruptive creative agency, and explore new ways of working outside of the norm. With so many forward-thinking organisations and national schemes pointing towards the feasibility and benefits of the 4 day week, giving ourselves and our staff this opportunity feels important.

The evidence for the 4 day work week is compelling, and we’re excited to see how it influences our working patterns, our creative output, and also our general wellbeing. 

At the end of the day — we’re all about impact, and output. We judge our own success on the positive impact made by the campaigns and content we create for our clients, rather than being relentlessly on the clock just for the sake of convention. 

The times we live in call for us to work smart AND hard. So we’re working on achieving our organisational goals, building connections, winning awards, and continuing to deliver work that makes a difference to the world… Monday to Thursday.

Before you go!

We love to work with organisations who also see a better way of doing things, and who need innovative, story-driven marketing to make it all happen.

If you’re looking for a forward-thinking creative agency, we’d love to hear from you. Shoot us an email on our contact page or drop us a line