Our 4.5-Day Week Trial: A Journey Toward Greater Wellbeing, Efficiency, and Fulfilment at Work

For years, conversations about the future of work have revolved around flexibility, mental health, well-being, and how businesses can empower people to do their best work without burning out. At Bronco, those conversations have never been hypothetical, they’ve been central to our culture over the last two decades. So, when we finally decided to trial a 4.5-day workweek, it wasn’t a radical shift; it felt like a natural next step.

When exploring our options, we considered the popular four-day workweek model but ultimately decided against compressing our hours into longer days. Feedback from the team revealed that extending each workday would risk eroding energy levels and creativity, especially in roles that demand sustained focus. Instead, we opted to reduce the total weekly hours from 37.5 to 33.5, giving everyone Friday afternoons off. This approach balanced productivity with genuine rest, allowing the team to enjoy more sustainable days while still delivering the high-quality work our clients expect.

What follows is a look at how we planned, designed, and prepared to launch this experiment, our motivations, fears, frameworks, and what we hope to learn.

Why We Started This Journey

As a creative digital agency, we thrive on ideas, energy, and collaboration. We had also seen growing evidence that reduced working time could lead to better outcomes. Studies from Iceland, the UK, and New Zealand suggested that shorter weeks can improve productivity, engagement, and staff retention. Previous research has also highlighted that shorter workweeks can reduce stress levels and improve overall health, both physically and mentally.

More importantly, our team were already demonstrating that flexibility boosted performance, so why not push this further?

We asked ourselves three questions:

1. Could a shorter week improve our collective well-being without compromising client results?
2. Would a four-and-a-half-day structure help us reclaim focus time and reduce wasted effort?
3. Could this change reflect our values in a way that inspires both our team and our clients?

These questions became the foundation for our trial.

Defining the Vision: What a 4.5-Day Week Means to Us

From the outset, we knew this wasn’t about simply giving everyone a free Friday afternoon. It was about reassessing how time creates value, for both the agency and our people.

We defined our trial like this:
The agency moves to a 4.5-day week, where everyone finishes at 12.30p.m. on Fridays. Core working hours remain consistent Monday to Thursday, but with mindful adjustments to improve flow, collaboration, and focus.

That half-day Friday is more than time off, it’s symbolic. It represents a break from the rhythm of endless busyness, allowing people to recharge, pursue personal interests, or start their weekends with a genuine sense of completion.

The goal wasn’t just to reduce working time; it was to make the remaining hours work harder. We committed to creating conditions for deep work, cutting unnecessary distractions, and making meetings more purposeful. By doing this, we hoped to support both employee wellbeing and better work-life balance.

Building the Case Internally

Convincing a digital agency full of curious, thoughtful people wasn’t difficult, but it required transparency and realism. We didn’t want this to feel like a leadership-driven experiment imposed from above, it had to be a shared journey built on open dialogue and collective insight.

We began by holding in-depth discussions across the agency to explore the pros and cons of different models, including the four-day work week. Everyone was invited to voice their ideas, concerns, and expectations. We gathered feedback not just from the team but also from clients, ensuring that any change we made would be compatible with the way we deliver work. Alongside this, we reached out to other digital agency leaders who had already implemented four-day weeks to understand what worked well for them, and what didn’t.

These conversations prompted practical questions:

• How would deadlines and project timelines adjust?
• What level of client access would we need to maintain on Fridays?
• Could we reduce hours without adding pressure to people’s schedules?
• How would we measure success meaningfully?

Through these discussions, we examined all available options and quickly realised that one size doesn’t fit all. The outcome was a co-created plan, guided by data, feedback, and collective honesty, designed to help us shape a model that worked for our team members, our clients, and our culture.

Designing the Framework

Our approach to the 4.5-day week was intentionally relaxed and collaborative. Before officially starting the trial, we spent a month fine-tuning how we worked, testing what could make us more efficient without adding pressure. We looked closely at how we spent our time, especially in meetings, and quickly identified easy wins.

The Monday morning huddle became shorter and sharper, helping us align fast and get on with the day. Across the agency, everyone embraced the idea of working smarter, streamlining processes, using our tools more effectively, and focusing on meaningful work instead of distractions. We encouraged people to turn off email notifications when needed, make better use of Slack for quick internal communication, and support one another to clear tasks efficiently while keeping client communication strong.

Fridays were an obvious focus. Data showed they were naturally quieter, so we shifted energy toward finishing key projects earlier in the week and using Friday mornings to wrap up, align, and plan ahead. From 12.30pm everyone can switch off and spend the afternoon doing something for their own wellbeing or leisure activities. (That’s not to say we completely stop everything, as we are so used to keeping one finger on the pulse all the time as we are always monitoring clients.)

We’re tracking the impact of these changes through regular team feedback, client satisfaction updates, and ongoing review sessions to identify new ways to improve how we work. But even early on, it’s clear that this new, more focused pace has improved both team wellbeing and output. The goal was never to squeeze more into less time, it was to work with greater focus and balance and gain some extra time back.

Cultural Shifts Behind the Numbers

What’s been most interesting is what’s changed beyond metrics. The emotional tone of the agency feels different. Mondays have a new optimism. Fridays have become purposeful, a natural checkpoint rather than a final sprint.

People have started using Friday afternoons intentionally. Some are learning new skills and taking on new hobbies, some take part in physical health activities, or some simply rest. Others catch up on a few chores that will free up the weekend. Those half days have become an investment in long-term sustainability, lower stress levels, improved employee health, and happier workers overall.

We’ve also seen a subtle but powerful shift in how teams collaborate. With less time available, meetings have become sharper, and decision-making faster. Constraints have driven focus. Ironically, by working a little less, we may have unlocked greater discipline and creativity.

Early Outcomes and Surprises

We’re only a month into our trial, yet the early signs are promising, and the team’s response has been even more encouraging. Productivity levels remain consistent, with output per person holding steady despite the shorter week. Levels of employee stress have noticeably decreased, while team morale and engagement have improved. Engagement has surged, with team feedback scores on motivation and energy rising by 18%.

Clients have been fully supportive, praising our responsiveness and the fresh creativity they’re seeing in our work. But what’s been most striking is the way the team has embraced the extra Friday afternoon off. People are using the time to rest, recharge, and focus on personal priorities, and there’s a shared determination to make the trial permanent. That collective motivation has strengthened our culture even further, creating a feeling that we’re in this together, not just to maintain performance, but to grow the agency as a united team.

After 22 years in business, with many long-serving staff members retention has never been a challenge for us. This trial has added another layer to that loyalty, fostering an even deeper sense of pride in the company’s future and a willingness to push forward together.

Leadership Lessons Along the Way

This journey has been as much about listening as it has about leading, and it’s shown us that transforming work patterns is less about policy and more about culture, trust, communication, and a shared purpose. With no managers and a very flat structure, it’s Becky at the helm, steering the ship alongside a trusted and loyal team who are all working toward the same goal.

After years together, we’re more like a family than just colleagues, and this trial has strengthened that bond. We’ve learned that transparency is everything, sharing information, intentions, and even doubts build true ownership. We’ve seen that less time requires sharper focus, revealing inefficiencies and encouraging us to streamline long before cutting hours. Increased productivity has come not from working more, but from working smarter and protecting employee well-being.

The best ideas for optimisation haven’t come from the top, they’ve come from the people living the experience every day, proving that when teams are trusted to shape their own workflows, they respond with innovation, accountability, and commitment.

The Broader Perspective: Why It Matters

Our 4.5-day week trial isn’t just about time; it’s about redefining what success looks like in the digital economy. For too long, agencies have operated under the myth that long hours equal dedication. But creativity doesn’t thrive under exhaustion, it thrives under clarity, variety, and rest.

The world of work is shifting. Technology gives us flexibility, We’ve seen this same evolution in how search platforms are evolving, from traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). By trialling a shorter week, we’re testing what happens when intention replaces inertia, when “more hours” stops being the metric of value.

If we can produce exceptional work while giving people more space to live, learn, and rest, that is success worth scaling. It’s a forward-thinking approach that benefits worker wellbeing, employee satisfaction, and ultimately leads to better work.

The Journey

Our journey toward a 4.5-day workweek has been one of reflection, experimentation, and renewal. It’s shown us that innovation in business isn’t limited to technology or design, it’s equally about how we organise human energy.

It turns out that fewer hours can mean more impact when those hours are guided by purpose. And perhaps that’s the most digital idea of all: optimisation not of systems, but of people.

We’ll continue learning, iterating, and sharing what we discover. Because the future of work isn’t a destination, it’s an evolving design challenge. And as a digital agency, that’s exactly the kind of problem we love to solve.