Jun 23, 2021 - Economy & Business

Kickstarter CEO: Let's try a 4-day work week

Vlad Lapich, with tech startup company Fast, works on his computer on the first day back in the office on March 24, 2021 in San Francisco, California.

Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Kickstarter announced Tuesday that it plans to experiment with a four-day work week in an effort to offer workers more flexibility and additional time to spend on creative pursuits.

The big picture: Lots of tech companies are planning to offer flexibility around where employees work post-pandemic. Now some companies are also rethinking when people work.

Driving the news: Kickstarter plans next year to test a four-day work week with some or all of its employees, though details of that remain to be figured out, including whether all workers will have the same schedule.

What they're saying: Kickstarter CEO Aziz Hasan told Axios that he had toyed with the notion of a four-day week in the past, but was motivated by the pandemic to actually give it a try.

  • "What we’ve been all living through the last 18 months, you feel this compression on your professional life, your personal life," Hasan said.
  • The idea of a four-day work week wasn't spurred by the company's ongoing collective bargaining negotiations, Hasan said. He added that the company's newly formed union has been supportive of the idea.
  • Hasan said he is encouraged to see other companies experimenting as well. "The more people experimenting, the more shared learning," he said.
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