Safeguard Global’s four-day workweek looked like a win—until burnout and secret Friday work pushed its CEO to ditch the mandate

What works for one may not work for another… …with one notable exception: a company that listens to its employees and uses those insights to inform its workforce strategies.

That works every time.

Case in point: Safeguard Global.

After piloting a four-day workweek in 2023, the Austin-based workforce management company used employee feedback from the program to inform its strategy going forward, Bjorn Reynolds, Safeguard Global’s CEO and founder, told HR Brew.

That pilot has since given way to a culture of “freedom and choice” for Safeguard Global’s roughly 1,000 remote employees based in 78 countries, Reynolds said.

How the four-day workweek evolved.

The goal of the pilot, Bjorn previously told HR Brew , was to help recruitment and retention.

Over time, however, he found that the arrangement wasn’t working for everyone.

Some employees worked longer hours Monday through Thursday in order to take off on Friday, leading to burnout.

Others secretly worked on Friday.

And some of those who did adhere to the four-day workweek felt like they were falling behind.

It was “not the culture we wanted to create,” he said.

Instead of mandating that employees work Monday through Thursday, Safeguard Global started giving employees the option to choose their own working hours and days, Reynolds said.

“Choose the hours that fit best for the work product you need, and if you can do that in four days, great, if you do it in five [days], but you’re taking two half days, whatever works for you,” Reynolds said.