Food manufacturer moves to four-day work week

LACONIA — Genuine Local, a Laconia-based specialty food manufacturing business that supports small food businesses and local farms, recently made the switch to a four-day work week.

A typical shift used to be 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. The opportunity for burn out and stress was real, and one or both were a common occurrence for many team members. The new schedule has reduced the number of days worked to Tuesday through Friday, and the number of hours worked per week from 40 to 36.

Gavin Macdonald, a co-founder of Genuine Local, said, “The success is really due to the buy-in from our team. Everyone comes to work refreshed, rested and prepared for the week ahead.”

“Our team is great and they have always tried to live up to the mantra for the whole operations team, but it is even more evident since we shifted to a four day week. The mantra they came up with is ‘achieving unity with integrity and pride,’” said Chief Operations Officer Clarissa Macdonald.

Macdonald said the benefits include improved employee well-being, increased overall happiness, reduced employee burn-out, increased employee retention, reduced carbon footprint, fewer sick days and improved productivity, plus those 52 3-day weekends.

“In all seriousness, moving to a four-day work week is the most significant thing we can do to help improve our employees’ work-life balance. We have noticed a definite buy in from our team, better focus on the job at hand and a much stronger bond among our team members,” he said.

For more information, visit genuinelocal.org.