So how do you tell your boss you want to work less hours? Well, it might just be that you want to work less and you don’t really care about the pay. You can just tell them that. If they value you they’ll keep you around. But say you want to work fewer hours and maybe you want the same salary. That’s a whole different beast so we have five steps today that we’re going to cover to help you tell your boss that you want to work less hours.
Come prepared with the stats on what you achieve
First, come prepared with the stats on what you achieve in the company. It’s going to be helpful for your boss to see what it is that you do in your typical work week. This can highlight your work productivity. If you want to work fewer hours, how are they going to know that it is ok for the company? So the more stats that you have on what you’re doing, how you’re spending, your time, and what you think will happen if you work fewer hours, that’s going to help your boss in being your advocate with this decision.
Explain how fewer hours will benefit the company
Second, you want to be able to explain how fewer hours will benefit the company. What’s going to happen when you’re not around? How will the company actually benefit from you not being there? Will there be less costs in regard to staff that support your position? Maybe there’s going to be other costs that are saved if you were to work less. Explain how having fewer hours is going to benefit the company.
Propose a test run to evaluate work productivity and working less
Third, propose a test run. What would this look like if you tried it just for a month or so? Decide how are we going to evaluate whether this experiment works. How are we going to look at whether it makes sense for the company? How will work productivity be measured? How do you and your boss make sure that your boss does not look like an idiot to their boss? You want to make sure that your boss looks like they’re innovative and that they came up with a new way of helping attract top talent. So, propose a test run and say we can always go back to the current model. But let’s just give it a whirl.
Share how other companies are successful while their employees work less
Fourth, share how other companies are doing this. Figure out what you want and find other companies that have done what you’re trying to propose. For example, share how Microsoft Japan saw a forty percent increase in productivity when they went to a four-day workweek stats. That will make your boss think wow this person is innovative. I want to make sure that I align myself with them. That I’m able to go to my boss and say, “this person’s awesome let’s try this more.”
Keep track of what you do, achieve and set KPI’s to track work productivity
Lastly, keep track of what you do during this experiment. What do you achieve? How was your work productivity? Did you actually work less? Set key performance indicators you want to be able to give a solid report back to your boss about how you use the hours and how you achieve the same amount in fewer hours. By showing that boost in creativity and that boost in innovation that’s going to help make the case that this should be a permanent change. Where you’re working fewer hours and making the same amount of money.
So that is how you tell your boss that you want to work less. For more tips on how to optimize your brain to work less and to make more head on over to practiceofthepractice.com where you will see tons of resources on growing your business.
Joseph R. Sanok, MA, LLP, LPC, NCC
Joe Sanok is an ambitious results expert. He is a private practice business consultant and counselor that helps small businesses and counselors in private practice to increase revenue and have more fun! He helps owners with website design, vision, growth, and using their time to create income through being a private practice consultant. Joe was frustrated with his lack of business and marketing skills when he left graduate school. He loved helping people through counseling but felt that often people couldn’t find him. Over the past few years, he has grown his skills, income, and ability to lead others, while still maintaining an active private practice in Traverse City, MI. To link to Joe’s Google+
