Four-day work week: This rural N.S. municipality could be the first in Canada to make it a reality
A rural Nova Scotian municipality may be the first in Canada to institute a four-day work week, after reorganizing its employee operations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Thursday, the municipality of the District of Guysborough, located in eastern Nova Scotia, began a nine-month long pilot project. The project will test an arrangement under which the municipality’s 60 employees will work nine hours a day, four days a week, with either Monday or Friday off.
“It’s about finding a way to better balance the work life and the home life,” Barry Carroll, chief administrative officer of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, told the Chronicle Herald Tuesday . “We’ve always been a little proactive when it comes to the mental health of our employees and in finding additional ways to better serve the public.”
Carroll said he began mulling the idea after the municipal office was forced to adjust its employees’ work schedules due to the COVID-19 outbreak which began over three months ago. That initial change saw 60 employees work two days in the office and two days at home every week.
“I began to think that some version of this could work in a more permanent fashion,” Carroll told Atlantic CTV News. The idea was received well by employees, he said, with none choosing to remain on the five-day work week, despite having the option to do so.
“Many years ago we started focusing on improving mental health in the workplace … and this seems to be the one thing that people really are excited about,” he told CTV.
The local council unanimously voted for the arrangement on June 3, and Carroll said the project would be evaluated by end of January to decide whether to make the change permanent.