Summer hours all year-long: Architectural design company CTRL Space on why they made reduced working week permanent

Chris Stevens, director of Auckland-based architectural design company CTRL Space.

What started out as summertime hours soon became the norm for one Auckland-based architectural design company. A year later, how is a reduced working week going for this team?

Chris Stevens, director of CTRL Space, is reflecting on people working over summer: “5.30pm feels like a really, really long day, particularly this time of the year”.

Stevens, who introduced the reduced working week at the company in January 2023, said they had trialled a few options and were weighing up between a nine-day fortnight or reduced working week.

“We kind of landed on the fact that it would actually be better if we did a few less hours each day,” he said.

That led to what Stevens calls a “flexi hour type of arrangement” anywhere from between a 30 to 34-hour work week.

“Everyone’s got the sense they can comfortably leave anytime after about 3pm or 3.30pm. There’s nothing set in stone,” he said.

Stevens said he wanted to be able to provide a working environment for his team that allowed people to feel they had flexibility to look after themselves and do the things they need to do.

“I was finding that people were planning their personal admin in the hours after 3pm, and therefore being able to focus more during the working day on the job at hand,” he said.

“I’ve not seen any decline in productivity whatsoever.”

The move to a reduced working week had been well-received and respected by staff, Stevens said.

“We’re definitely seeing a general demeanour and mood uptake in the studio, ‘cause people feel that they do have time for themselves.

“There’s no-one in my team that would take advantage of these offerings.”

On meeting deadlines, Stevens said while they can pose a challenge, the team of nine were self-managing with their time.

“We work around it. It’s nothing that’s insurmountable,” he said.

“If they’ve got a deadline, no-one religiously leaves at 3.05pm, everyone works to what they want to work and I think that sense of flexibility has been really well respected throughout the team.”

He said clients had also been respectful of their working environment when it came to meetings after 3pm.

“When I explain our policy, everyone [clients] has been highly respectful of that,” Stevens said.

“I’ve been very open with our clients that that’s the way that we work.”

CTRL Space designs primarily hospitality and workplace spaces, including bars, restaurants, cafes, nightclubs and offices.

“We practice what we preach. We apply the design project in parallel with our working environment which is based on the wellness of the team, which is the most important asset.”

Four-day work week advocate Andrew Barnes told the Herald recently he was seeing continued interest and uptake in New Zealand of a reduced-working model.

It came after accounting firm Grant Thornton became the latest company to trial a reduced working week last month in the form of a nine-day fortnight for all staff in New Zealand.

Reported benefits include increased productivity, wellbeing, health and workplace satisfaction from those who have introduced some type of reduced working week.

“I absolutely condone it,” Stevens said.

Cameron Smith is an Auckland-based journalist with the Herald business team. He joined the Herald in 2015 and has covered business and sports.