Hear from Teneo's James Townsend and how a 4-day-working week works for him!

Why I chose to move to 4-days-a-week

When I started working in the Strategy Consulting industry, I was well aware of the long hours that can, at times, be involved. While Teneo’s Consulting division’s approach to supporting its employees’ work/life balance is, as far as I’m aware, among the best that equivalent consulting firms have to offer, I found myself in a position where I was keen to push my work/life balance back a little further towards the ‘life’ side of the equation. I wanted not just to use the time for more recreation, but also to use it to work on my own self-development outside of a work context, learning about topics that were of interest to me, but which I hadn’t previously taken the time to read up on, such as climate change and (wait for it) cryptocurrency.

What it means for me

Working 4-days-a-week allows me to do countless things that I previously struggled to do. It allows me to read up on non-work topics that are interesting to me; it allows me to take mini-breaks over weekends in a way that I couldn’t before (last weekend I went motorbiking around Wales with my dad); it means that I now come into work more enthusiastic, more motivated, and better-rested than I did before; and it means that I work more productively during the time that I am at work than I did before. It allows me to continue to do the job that I really enjoy while resetting my work/life balance to a level that works for me – and it feels great to work for an employer that is open to letting me do that while still giving me the same prospects around client exposure, variety, personal development, experience, and progression that I had before.

How it is going

The team’s openness to allowing me to move to flexible working in a way that suits me has been great – I picked the day that I wanted to take off (I chose Monday), I initially started doing it as a trial, then I moved to it permanently, and I now routinely catch up with the operations team to check in on how things are going and to discuss what could be done to make it work better. Both the Teneo team and the clients that I work with have fully respected my new working pattern– I haven’t needed to open my laptop once over a weekend (as you would expect) or on a Monday (as you might not). So far, I’m really enjoying the experience, and am hopeful that more colleagues (both those who want to and those who need to) will opt to work 4-days-a-week in the future.