Entire Countries are experimenting with it, GenZ wants it, Studies show the positive effects! Worked less hours than the long-learned 40hrs/week model became more and more attractive. In this talk I want to share the journey of Giant Swarm (Tech Company, remote, 90 employees) going towards a 32 hrs week. Starting with some theory, I will share the implementation concept and process, the good and the bad stuff, the iterations and our methods to measure success on both business performance and employee happiness.

1. 32 is the new 40!
Anna Löw - @anna__loew
How to Kill the Mental Model of the 40hrs Week
– a Case Study

2. Please note: p32 was the project name. I will mention that a lot ;)

3. 2014/80/26, fully Remote
fully managed open source k8s platform
Transparency & Trust
Self Set Salaries, No boss, Self-​
Organization,
Self-​
Responsibilty
People > Product >Profit
Filter Bubble
www.giantswarm.io

4. Why did I pitch P32?
retain/attract
talent
attractive
workspace
employee
happiness
It's my job ;)

5. This does not mean that there are no initatives to improve in the other areas
We are a fully remote company ​
5/5
We offer Growth/Devt. Opp 3/5
We pay top salaries (bubble) ​ ​
2/5
We are family friendly ​ ​ ​ ​ ​
5/5
We provide meaningful Jobs ​ ​
4/5
We foster asynchronous work 3/5
We offer a 4 day work week ​ ​2/5

6. How did I pitch it
In all honesty, GS's status quo regarding
working hours was undefined and more
'common sense' than being a real concept

7. '4DWW' will become commodity in our
space and beyond, being explicit about it
now, is a competitive advantage'
How did I pitch it
Clarification:
Move to P32 with no pay cuts
Define it as Mindsetshift

8. application
increase
by 20%
Maybe yes
motivator
for more
async
yes
we will
reduce
burnout risk
of inidivduals
Maybe
remote 32
equals
onsite 40
yes
People are resilient
and adapt their
working style for the
benefit; #askparents
yes
many people
already work
32 at GS
Maybe
churn
rate -15%
Maybe
Implementation
is doable
yes
Our assumptions before we kicked P32 off. Labels show current analysis

9. Concepts are easy, execution sucks ;)

10. Open Space
Sept. 2021
Research
Pitch
June
Communcation
June
TestTeam1
Aug
TestTeam2
Aug
Roll Out
Sept/Oct
Company wide
survey
Nov 22
Iterations
Documentation
& GroundRules
Definition of
Success Factors
done &
commodity?

11. Employee Happiness
(higher)
Company Performance
(same or higher)
innovation,
revenue,
stakeholder
happiness
less churn, mental
health issues,
unplanned afks;
better candidates
A clear move
towards asnyc
work
(higher)
As P32 has individual+ organizational aspects, we need to divide the sf's.
Happy
to
share
in
in
depth
doc

12. Teambased / Devils advocate
Reflecting survey upfront
Kick of with ideal scenario of
individuals
Ground rules developed by
teams
Permanent Retro during 4 weeks
Stakeholder Survey

13. P32+
Oncall
rules
P32 +
New
Joiners
P32 + Meeting
heavy
positions - the
greater good
P32 +
Admin
What is it
- what is
is not
What we already changed

14. Implementation worked, but glorification of being busy still exists

15. Well, the question if people consider their job to be meeting heavy,
was somehow a fail ;)
434 internal meetings in
average each month (1:1
excluded)*
54 external meetings
275 hours of internal
meetings each month
30.5 hours in external
meetings
Product teams
spend around 13
hours / month in
routine meetings.
196h of 1:1s each
month (in total)
around 2.5h of 1:1s
each month (in avg.
per Swarmie) (Tech
1 hr average /
month)

16. The longer you work with GS and the more talkative your role is, the more
you consider you job to be meeting heavy

17. The vast majority of employees connects P32 with positive effects

18. Mainly 'employee happiness, was mentioned when we asked for the
positive aspects; but also productivity.

19. We saw way less mentions of negative than positive effects. (cluster)

20. My teams output quality with P32 is

21. My teams output quantity with P32 is

22. Almost 70% mentioned that they work more async since they are on P32
while 26% mentioned they work on the same level.

23. Working more with github and less meetings are the major suggestions for
more asnyc work. Improvement ongoing

24. Most challenges people mentioned are organizational challenges in general

25. I am happy that I did it
People do not want to judge performance/delivery on any
levels, but we need to learn this
Individuals found adaption easier than I thought
P32 should not become excuse for everything
Mental Model is a 'thing'
Iteration the only way to go, but we somehow arrived
Next survey Dec 2023
Anna's Learnings

26. Thank you <3