Golden, Colorado Experiments With Four-Day Work Week

Five-day work weeks may soon enough be a thing of the past as the city of Golden, Colorado launches a new pilot program to experiment with a four-day work week. The program, being called “The Best for Golden,” will reduce the work week for the police force from a five-day week to a four-day week without reducing pay. The pilot program will begin in July and run through the end of the year.

“We are calling this trial program ‘The Best for Golden’ because we believe that the 4-day workweek will raise the bar on our service to the City of Golden by improving employee retention and engagement, increasing employee wellbeing, and elevating efficiency in our operations,” says Scott Vargo, the City Manager for Golden.

“Organizations around the world, including governments, have seen important benefits from adopting a four-day workweek, and we are excited for Golden to be the first city in our region to experiment with this innovative program.”

Why exactly was the police department, of all people, lucky enough to be chosen to pilot this program? According to a press release from the city, the police were chosen because of the unique nature of their scheduling system with its 24-hour coverage needs over three shifts, a wide variety of positions, and multi-generational staff, amongst other factors.

According to 9News, the pilot program was developed in conjunction with New Zealand-based nonprofit 4-Day Week Global whose website says that they work with governments to help implement four-day work weeks, arguing that, approximately 100 years ago, society moved from five- to four-day work weeks, and we are long overdue for an update.

“A four-day week helps in addressing the longstanding structural issues which perpetuate fatigue in the profession, leading to not just an opportunity to rethink the policing workforce, but also improve policing standards for the 21st-century complex society we live in,” says Dale Whelehan, the CEO of 4-Day Week Global.

Time will tell if the program proves to be as beneficial to the Golden Police Department as Whelehan expects it to be.