From Our ED: MAC's 4 Day Work Week
February 2024
Dear MAC Community,
At Massachusetts Advocates for Children our greatest asset is our talented team. Every day, each member of the staff at MAC comes to work and goes above and beyond. That’s how we are able to make such an impact for children across the state. Since joining MAC last spring, I have thought constantly about how MAC can be an exceptional place to work where people are supported, where mental health is a priority, where burnout is prevented, and where work-life balance a value. This month, after a lot of time, energy, and planning by our entire staff and Board, we are making a big change at MAC. MAC is launching a pilot of a four day work week!
Four Day Work Week at MAC
Starting this month, MAC will be closed on Fridays. Staff will work eight hours a day Monday through Thursday. This means a four day work week every week, without a change in pay. This is a pilot project where we will see if this approach works for our team. You may have read about the four day work week in the news. It seems to be everywhere overnight. And in Massachusetts there is even a bill incentivizing employers to pilot this concept as we are.
Why now?
The need for our advocacy grows with each day. That will never change. At the same time, study after study has shown that a four day work week is possible without a decrease in productivity. This has turned out to be true in, both at small organizations with which MAC has lots in common, as well as large multinational corporations.
We have thought long and hard about this as a team at MAC and believe that with creativity, thought, and collaboration, we can accomplish in four days as we did in five. I believe this change will make us a stronger and more resilient workplace where we can retain and support talented staff, while achieving the same outcomes.
There are lots of reasons to do this. We bring our full selves to this work. Our team does this work because we care. And that takes its toll. Giving staff time to reset and recharge will allow staff at MAC to maintain our mental health and avoid burnout. Not surprisingly, that makes people more productive and efficient when they are working. And it’s no secret that retention of talented staff is a challenge for all non-profits, especially those in areas with high costs of living like Massachusetts. This is a big deal!
Further, MAC is a racially diverse organization and we employ a racial equity lens to all our work and decision-making. As we continue our ongoing internal racial equity work, we acknowledge the disparate mental health impacts on staff of color. We believe this change will make MAC a more racially equitable organization by centering our values around work life-balance and mental health.
In sum, we are in our advocacy for the long-haul. And I want to build a workplace at MAC where talented staff want to stay. Children in our state deserve a team as amazing as the team at MAC on their side!
How can we do this?
We have been thoughtfully planning for this transition since the fall and already implemented many changes to maximize our time using our own creativity, technology, and other resources. We can all see it working already! With a different mindset and a lot of research and good advice, we have a collective incentive to explore new ways to do work and communicate and get things done.
As others have done, we will be diligently monitoring our pilot using a tools modeled on the Four Day Work Week Global studies. We want to assess our pilot and its impact – positive and negative – on our mission, client services, client demographics, systemic advocacy, workplace, retention, financial health, and employee satisfaction.
We have big plans!
We will never stray from our mission and our advocacy will continue with the same zeal. We have big plans for 2024 and we will continue our work at the same level (just with much more efficiency!), with no negative impact on the children and families community we serve. We have arranged so that helpline callers will still get return calls on Fridays. And this change doesn’t mean our team will miss a presentation, IEP meeting, school suspension hearing, or community event just because it happens on a Friday! Our approach is flexible, just like it always has been. From the outside looking in, MAC won’t seem different.
We have had the privilege of mentorship in this endeavor from fellow legal services pioneers (thank you to our colleagues at Mental Health Advocacy Services for the invaluable guidance!). And I am personally grateful to our Board of Directors and Auxiliary Board for their enthusiastic unqualified support of this concept and the staff for their commitment to our mission and community. Onward!
Sincerely,
Anna Krieger
Executive Director