When Luke Butcher, co-founder of Butcher Bayley Architects (BBA), first set up his practice he decided it would operate on a four-day working week.
So that is what he and his co-founder, Carrie Bayley, did. The team at the East Anglia-based practice have worked a 32-hour week ever since.
The antidote to a toxic culture
Bad memories of working unacceptably long hours in previous practices were the main factor behind the decision.
“You were just expected to be there for the love of it, and to have no life outside of architecture,” Butcher remembers. “Having worked in some rather exploitative environments, I did not want that for our practice.”
They built the practice around the way they wanted to work, he explains. The work simply had to adapt to suit the four-day model.
Staff at BBA work their 32 hours over four days. Core hours are 10.00am-4.00pm and start and finish times are flexible. Time is generally split between working from home and the office,. They do their utmost to avoid overtime or working late, but if it ever is necessary then overtime is paid.
BBA are by no means outliers here. Barefoot Architects, who have offices in Bristol and Devon, chose to convert to a four-day week in 2020. For Founding Director Sam Goss, it was also a “toxic culture around work habits” that he experienced in his early 20s that led him to think about alternatives.
He carried out a lot of research, and cites Rutger Bregman’s book Utopia for Realists as one key inspiration. All of which provided him with plenty of evidence that the four-day week can make a company more productive and effective, not less so.
Taking the Friday off
Fridays are generally quiet, so that is the day most BBA staff elect to take off. However, there will usually be someone in the office. They act as a kind of duty officer, on call to pick up the phone if there is an urgent query. But Butcher finds that clients simply get used to their hours and have learned not to always expect an answer to their emails that same day.
Managing expectations is key, Butcher points out. It has never been an issue with their clients.
“Clients understand that an email might not be answered the same day,” he states. “And they know we have other clients. We also like to keep replies to standard office hours. It’s not healthy to be replying immediately to clients way outside of hours.”
Friday is also the day of choice for Barefoot Architects. Director Sam Goss finds that Fridays are much quieter in terms of emails and calls.
“I think the rest of the working world is probably spending Fridays with their heads down, catching up on all the work they didn’t get done in the other four days,” Goss suggests.
Exceptions to the rule
Goss admits that, unlike the rest of the team, he and his Co-Director Rob Hankey do not always take one day off. But he does a different, more reflective kind of work.
“I will often use that day that day to spend time working on the business side of the practice,” Goss reveals.
“I specifically try not to do fee-earning work, and concentrate on the bigger picture: finance and marketing. That has really yielded results.”
Luke Butcher reveals that, on rare occasions, if the practice is having a particularly busy month, the team might be sounded out about working a one-off, five-day week. This is paid overtime and the process is employee-led, not project-led.
“If it’s vital and necessary, we will plan it in advance,” Butcher reveals. “We’ll ask who might be available to work on Friday and it is up to the team to volunteer if they can. If nobody’s available we might have to change the programme around to suit.”
Salaries and holidays
BBA pays a salary based on the RIBA salary guide and by region. Staff are not paid less for their four-day week. Butcher concedes that it is in many ways easier for them, as that has been their setup from the start.
More information on best practice for salaries and four-day weeks can be found at 4 Day Week, the UK's national campaign for a four-day, 32-hour working week with no loss of pay for workers.
Butcher does single out holiday allocation as one aspect of the four-day week that is potentially problematic. Employees at BBA do receive slightly less paid holiday, because holiday weeks shrink pro-rata. But then again, a team member only has to use one day’s holiday to get a four-day long weekend. And they all receive the same national and bank holidays that you would expect.
What do clients and contractors think?
Not only does the system seem to work, but BBA’s four-day week has been a source of good publicity for the practice. It got them useful local press coverage and has led to enquiries from other companies asking how they manage it.
Barefoot Architects has also found that the reaction to their four-day regime has been overwhelmingly positive. They work on housing at small and large scales and with community clients. Goss reports that every client so far has been massively supportive.
“Even the biggest commercial contractors we’ve worked with have applauded it,’ says Goss. “They admit it’s something they would love to do. “Everybody gets it. I think it has become a sort of brand identity for us.”
Thanks to Luke Butcher, Director, Butcher Bayley Architects; Sam Goss, Director, Barefoot Architects.
Text by Neal Morris. This is a Professional Feature edited by the RIBA Practice team. Send us your feedback and ideas
RIBA Core Curriculum topic: Business, clients and services.
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