Why our 4-day work week is so successful
Symbiote’s Managing Director, Owen Windsor, explains how a 4-day work week fits our company values.
We moved to a 4-day work week in 2022
In 2022 we decided to move to a 4-day work week, giving everyone 100% of their pay for 80% of their time at work. We didn't compress hours or build a convoluted 9-day fortnight or TOIL structure – we just lopped a day off every week for everyone.
The change was on the cards for a while
We’d been offering all kinds of flexibility to our staff for quite a while, with some people negotiating reduced hours, doing some compressed 10 hour days or pro-rated pay. COVID brought things to a head for us, along with the challenge to keep our team happy and attract new recruits in a competitive market.
“People I’ve spoken to seem so surprised we’re not making up time the other days or taking a pay cut! It’s awesome getting to explain that it’s just a genuinely good thing the company wanted to do to benefit the employees.”
A person-centric focus isn’t just for software – it’s for life
Marcus and I co-founded Symbiote because we wanted to see change in the software development landscape – we want to see improvement, engagement and freedom. That's why we've always worked with Open Source software. We love the way it allows any of us to contribute to and engage with a community. We want that sense of community and humanity for the rest of our business too – that focus on people and all they need and offer.
“By far my favourite aspect of the 4-day work week is maximising time with family. We can take our daughter to places on a quiet Wednesday, that would normally be bustling with people on the weekend. It’s priceless. ”
We’re living our own values
Our small team has incredible diversity – we’re delighted to have the perspectives that come from our range of ethnicities, identities, cultures, religions, skills and backgrounds. Whenever we recruit we look for people who’ll value the things we do, who’ll be happy to pitch in, stay curious and keep learning, and who want to leave everything they do in better shape than they found it. We value improvement, engagement and freedom and know that all these things require time.
“The way we see it is: we are humans. Our organisation is here to help people be people, not for the people to help the organisation to be an organisation.”
We know that caring is also important work
Our parental leave policy provides our team with 18 weeks leave on full pay for whoever’s the primary carer of a child (we'll top up the Government allowance). That includes full superannuation being paid for that period. The secondary carer gets 6 weeks of leave, with the same caveats.
It makes sense to have weekly work schedules that also accommodate caring tasks.
Flexible work arrangements work for our team, whether they’re in Melbourne or in other parts of Australia
We’re a fully flexible workplace, with people able to work from home all the time if they choose, or, if they’re in Melbourne, to use our office in the Melbourne CBD whenever they want.
We all choose our work hours in our 4-day weeks between 0700 to 1900. We understand the school run, we know how dogs work, and that cats likely need their own keyboard when you're in a client meeting.
What are we doing with our three days off each week?
We haven’t forgotten what we learned during long COVID lockdowns. That’s why we prioritise personal autonomy and freedom to live our lives and engage with the things that excite us.
In work hours we enjoy working with each other on our projects, getting the satisfaction of using our skills and overcoming gnarly challenges. In the rest of our lives we want people to be enjoying days at the zoo with our families, eating dumplings with friends, jumping on a bike or finishing that book they've been meaning to get to ...
Interested in learning more?
Ever dreamed of having greater work-life balance and working alongside talented team-mates while producing work you can be proud of? If you answered yes then I encourage you to learn more about us and check out any current job listings.
