Smart Company | The full-time fallacy: Why Laura Prael’s business will always run four days a week

I recently listed two job advertisements on SEEK for roles within my growing digital agency — namely, a digital marketing manager and digital marketing and social media assistant.

They both looked like any other job post for an agency role, listing desired skills, prerequisites and rah-rah about the company culture and perks.

But there was one key difference. They were both advertised as four-day-a-week roles, Monday through to Thursday.

Remuneration was competitive, and this wasn’t a full-time role dressed in sheep’s clothing (an ‘I’ll pay you for four days but you’ll actually work five’ situation).

Between the two roles, I interviewed nine people. When it came to question time, each person asked me why the roles were only four days a week. Was it because there wasn’t enough work to support the fifth day? Would the role grow to full-time?

Before COVID-19, the appetite for working four days a week was not embraced by everyone who applied for positions within my company.

For many years, I felt pressure from some of my employees to develop their roles into five-day-a-week ones for the threat they would leave.

They, like so many others before them, subscribed to the quintessential middle-class dream: the full-time 9-5.

It’s a goal that’s peddled to us from a young age by our parents, our educators and society at large. Get a Monday-to-Friday job, work until you’re 65, and live happily ever after in a five-bedroom suburban home and take your boat out on the weekends, we’re told.

I understand that for many, especially on the surface, the appeal of a full-time job is a financial requirement. But, what if you could make a living wage (and then some) and still have time for living?

Read the full article here. 

Receive insights and industry news straight to your inbox. 

LEP Digital Mel McCrone and Jess Hickey discussing content marketing versus digital marketing

Is content marketing the same as digital marketing?

Erina, June 2023 The terms digital marketing and content marketing are often used interchangeably. However, digital marketing and content marketing are actually different approaches to marketing a business online....
Patrick Cullen | Copywriter at LEP Digital

ChatGPT lists its own flaws: “Limited domain knowledge, biases and lack of originality”

These days, it seems like everyone’s talking about — and talking to — ChatGPT. But does ChatGPT have anything useful to say? Patrick Cullen, Copywriter at LEP Digital asked...
Jess Hickey and Mel McCrone of LEP Digital image

A sign of the times for LEP Digital and the Central Coast

Erina, March 2023 LEP Digital, an award-winning digital content marketing agency based on the Central Coast, was recently successful in a tender for a contract to plan, deliver and...
Mel McCrone of LEP Digital raising money for Cancer Council Central Coast

LEP Digital hosts charity event to raise funds for Cancer Council

Erina, 20 March 2023 This Sunday afternoon, 26 March, LEP Digital is hosting a High Tea in the Grand Ballroom at Crowne Plaza Terrigal Pacific, with the aim of...