Signals with substance: Work Cadence

Even before the last two years of rapid transformation, levels of burnout within organizations were at a crisis point. The Center for Effective Philanthropy' (CEP) report, State of Nonprofits 2024, found that 95% of leaders expressed concern about burnout. For new systems to be born, we must be honest about what’s not working and create new solutions.

Changes in our work cadence are one. Sabbaticals and four-day work weeks are two interventions that are ready for the main stage in organizations. In 2009, Stefan Sagmeister brought his idea of taking episodic year-long sabbaticals to the TED stage speaking about The Power of Time Off. A decade later, two research backed organizations, Chip Conley’s Modern Elder Academy and the Sabbatical Project both launched. The idea of taking a “pause” in a career became so commonplace during the pandemic that LinkedIn added a “career break” to users’ profiles.

In the meantime, research on the benefits to both companies and workers who adopt a 4-day work week has been building over the last decade, too. Work Four is the organization in the United States that’s been tracking and is also pushing for this change to happen, calling it a movement.

But moving from big idea to personal and organizational transformation is tricky and messy. In my conversation with Jay Frost of Philanthropy Masterminds (linked to the right), I talk candidly about the trap of productivity culture, the benefits of being honest about our human boundaries, how sticky perfectionism is, and about the power of sabbatical and working towards adopting new mindsets about how we approach our work.