I LOVE HAVING A FOUR-DAY WORKWEEK. SO WILL YOU.

Working hard is a virtue, but so is knowing when to rest. That’s why I know a four-day workweek is the future.

For years, I worked in journalism, slogging through long overtime hours and 20-minute breaking news deadlines. You can get used to the pace, but the tolls of this type of long-term stress will always catch up to you — even if they’re initially invisible.

Close to the end of my journalism career, I needed a change. I found my way to a San Diego-based communications agency called Mixte. The pace and stress levels of agency life are not so different from journalism, but Mixte did something I never could have predicted. Just months after I joined, it announced that it was planning on piloting a fourday workweek.

We’re now nine months into the pilot, and we recently decided to keep the four-day workweek permanent. Here’s how we got there.

I joined during a period when Mixte was considering how to improve work culture and the well-being of its employees. Being a communications agency, people were stressed out and exhausted. I saw echoes of my past life in journalism.

However, I happened to work at a company that wanted to fix these issues at the root, and not just mitigate them with office snacks and free meditation app subscriptions. And the root cause of burnout is time.

The 40-hour workweek that the U.S. has had for nearly a century prevents people from getting involved in their communities, caring for their families or enjoying life. When we can’t fulfill these fundamental needs, we burn out.

My company’s decision to try a four-day workweek was supported by a growing body of research showing it can reduce burnout with no negative impact on productivity.

Burnout has been shown to result in higher turnover, poor performance and workplace disengagement, but that’s not all. It harms our health. It increases the risk of cardiac disease, anxiety, immune system suppression and more.

Mixte’s decision to try a four-day workweek was supported by a growing body of research showing it can reduce burnout with no negative impact on productivity. In fact, even after Mixte’s own pilot period was well underway, the world’s largest trial of a four-day workweek showed reduced stress, higher happiness, and a drop in sick days and turnover.

At the beginning of 2023, Mixte followed in the footsteps of other companies in our industry, and implemented an alternating shift pattern. Some staff members work Monday through Thursday, while others work Tuesday through Friday.

Throughout the process, Mixte tracked employee sentiment with monthly surveys. It then iterated upon the results to strike the right balance to the four-day workweek.

For example, the first survey showed that 34 percent of staff felt more stressed, with confusion around how coverage was meant to work under the new alternate shift pattern and meetingpacked days.

Through trial and error, however, Mixte was able to reach a milestone: We all agreed to keep the four-day workweek permanent.

In my own experience, having an extra day each week has allowed me to do the things that nourish my wellbeing. When I return to the (virtual) office each Tuesday, I’m refreshed and ready to put my best work forward. My stress is lowered, my health has improved and I can truly say that my life has changed for the better.

And, yes, I feel even more productive. It’s incredible how easily I can tackle an entire week’s worth of work in just 32 hours with an extra day of rest each week.

Mixte’s experience here proves that a four-day workweek can help us thrive as both employees and human beings.

If you’re an owner, I encourage you to consider what the four-day workweek could mean for your company — and have frank conversations with your employees to see how they feel about it.

If you’re an employee, you can join efforts to pass long-overdue federal labor legislation. The 32-hour Workweek Act is sponsored by Rep. Mark Takano, D-Riverside. It’s also critical that you set boundaries to let your time off truly be off.

We all have a role to play in making life more balanced for everyone. Companies that demonstrate the courage and leadership to break the status quo will not only retain talent and stay productive — they can change the world of work as we know it.