There’s no denying it now, the 4-day work week conversation is picking up steam in Canada. What was once considered an unrealistic fantasy has now become a reality for a growing number of companies and they’re encouraging other employers to join in.
Not long after a Toronto-based recruitment company revealed the success and benefits of their now-permanent 4-day work week experiment, Toronto’s Juno College of Technology (formerly HackerYou) has announced their plans for permanent 3-day weekends starting in 2022.
“I believe that with greater focus and reasonable revenue targets, we can achieve our goals and allow our staff to take Fridays off to spend more time doing… whatever they want,” said CEO Heather Payne in the announcement. Employees at both companies continue to make the same amount.
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Quebec-based video game developer Eidos has also made a permanent shift to 3-day weekends at both their Montreal and Sherbrooke studios. Employees will get Fridays off and will only work 32 hours instead of 40 per week, without cuts to their salaries.
“The idea is not to condense the working hours into 4 days, but rather to review our ways of doing things and our quality time invested, with the aim of working better,” the company writes. They’ll be implementing new strategies to save time, like reducing meeting times from 1 hour to 30 minutes.
Eidos isn’t the only Quebec-based company with shortened work weeks. A startup in Eastern Townships called Expedibox lets employees take Fridays off if they complete their 32 hours of work before then, reports CBC.
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The Ontario township of Zorro and the Nova Scotia community of Guysborough both recently launched similar experiments, and Guysborough has since voted to make their 4-day week permanent.
Shortened work weeks could even be implemented on a provincial level. Ontario’s Liberal party leader Steven Del Duca promises to launch a pilot project that will explore the idea if he’s elected in June 2022.
“We are here on this planet working to live, not living to work,” he said. “And that’s an important distinction that we should never forget.”
