Studio heads rave over four-day work weeks
Brendan Sinclair
Managing Editor
Thursday 24th March 2022
Developers that have tried out four-day work weeks continue to give the idea a thumbs up, as the heads of five different studios that have made the switch spoke positively about it during GDC talks this week.
As reported by Protocol, creative directors and CEOs from Kitfox Games, KO_OP, Armor Games, and ManaVoid Entertainment all discussed their experiences with four-day weeks in a panel earlier this week.
Kitfox co-founder and creative director Tanya X. Short said that the studio implemented four-day work weeks on a trial basis last summer to keep people from burning out as the pandemic dragged on.
"It was almost impossible to go back to five days. We briefly discussed it, but nobody wanted to even try," Short said. "We're four days at the very least until the pandemic is actually over, but probably forever."
Short said Kitfox expected productivity to drop as much as 10% as a result of the switch, but the studio ran into problems when it came to objectively measuring the impact. The more obvious change was the improvement to team morale.
KO_OP studio director Saleem Dabbous said his team also raved about the change.
"We conducted a bunch of interviews, anonymous feedback, one-on-ones," Dabbous said. "This sounds obvious, but it was really positive across the board."
Despite the popularity of the measure, the panelists said the switch to four-day work weeks wasn't without some challenges. For example, there were issues about statutory holidays and whether it would be better on those occasions to work a normal four-day week or shorten it to three days.
ManaVoid Entertainment CEO Chris Chancey also said there were times when employees wanted to work more, so the studio had to
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