Back in 1990, when Geoff started Accent, the world ran on fax machines, dial-up modems, and the rock-solid belief that productivity meant being present five days a week. Since then, we've learned a thing or two – not least that some of our best assumptions deserve questioning.
In September, we quietly embarked on an experiment: a four-day working week. Each team member takes one non-working day while we maintain full five-day coverage for our clients. We didn't announce it at the time – partly because we wanted to see if anyone would notice. You didn't.
Three months later? The trial's been an unqualified success. We're making it permanent.
The Efficiency Paradox
Since our beginnings, we've watched countless technologies arrive promising efficiency. Email would save us from postal delays. Project management tools would streamline processes. Faster machines would speed everything up.
And yet we never got that time back. We just did more work in the same hours. More projects, more clients, more output – but also more admin, more communication, more context-switching. The treadmill got faster. The result? Increased stress, diminished well-being, and the ever-present shadow of burnout.
Something had to give.
The catalyst was AI. We've embraced AI tools over the past year, and they've had a genuinely positive effect on our productivity without compromising quality. AI is used for some of the more mundane aspects of work – freeing our developers and creatives to do what they do best: think, create, and solve problems. For the first time, technology offered us time back. So, we decided to take it.
What We Found
The results speak for themselves. Productivity hasn't dropped – our team's been more focused and efficient. We tracked output carefully throughout the trial: projects stayed on schedule, deadlines were met, and the sky remained firmly in place.
More importantly? Our people are happier. Well-being assessments before and after the trial showed marked improvement. Our team reported feeling more rested, more engaged, and better equipped for the juggling act of modern life.
What This Means for You
In practical terms, very little changes. We continue to offer full coverage Monday to Friday. Response times remain the same. The quality of our work, we hope you'll agree, stays as high as ever. You have a partner whose team is better-rested and enthusiastic about what they do.
Looking Ahead
As we close out another year, we're proud to join a growing number of companies rethinking what work looks like in the twenty-first century. The five-day week was, after all, an invention, popularised by Henry Ford in 1926, when he showed that reduced hours improved productivity. A century on, it feels like the right time for a new normal, and we are glad to be at the forefront of that wave, as we have been with many others since 1990.
We're grateful for your continued trust and partnership. Here's to a productive and prosperous 2026.