4DWW Challenge: How IWT spends its long weekend

A haunting statistic

Sometimes that feeling doesn’t end when you graduate. For many, life post-college means the usual 9-to-5 grind, where all many of us look forward to is the weekend. 

And for many, even a weekend is a privilege. In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 27% of single job holders and 58% of multiple job holders worked on the weekends. 

While a lot of that can be attributed to the type of job (food service, retail, etc.), additional reporting from the National Bureau of Economic Research found that Americans tend to work longer weeks and more weekends in general than other developed nations.

Think about that. Many U.S. job holders don’t even take a full weekend. 

This isn’t to tut-tut at anyone who works like this. Taking time off is a privilege. We all have our own financial situations, and sometimes you need to do it in order to get by. Sometimes you just like doing it. 

But at IWT, we wanted to deconstruct the idea of “working for the weekend” and see if we could design a different kind of workweek, one that gives us more focus when we are at work and more rest outside of it.

How IWT spends its day off

At IWT, we’ve been talking about freedom for over 15 years, like starting a business that allows you to set your own schedule, landing a dream job that gives you autonomy and flexibility, and getting your finances in order so that you can live life exactly that way you want.

In many ways, the 4DWW is an extension of these values. 

Throughout the Challenge, the team has been asking ourselves, “What is our Rich Life? What do we want our ideal day or week to look like? And can a 4DWW help us get there?” 

In other words, we’ve been embracing intentionality. That’s what the 4DWW Challenge is about. We want to see how we can be intentional about the way we work—and the way we rest.

That’s why I want to share some of the ways that a few IWT employees have been spending their time on their days off. 

One thing you’ll notice: We are as intentional with our day off as we are with how we work. IWT employees are incredibly driven, after all. We know that when we want to get something done, we need to truly consider the best ways to go about it before we even take the first steps.

Even the ways we spend our weekends.

“The extra time to hang out together has been amazing” 

“If you’re familiar with Chicago traffic, you know what a nightmare it is to go anywhere on a weekend. I use my extra weekend day to run errands while most people are working. It makes getting around the city easier and it usually means the grocery stores, etc., are much less crowded. 

“Coincidentally, my sister is also off on Fridays now and we’ve been doing things together, which has been a lot of fun. Shopping, pedicures, lunch. The extra time to hang out together has been amazing. 

“I am also currently recovering from surgery and was able to schedule my doctor appointments on Fridays. That’s been extremely helpful because I don’t have to worry about juggling my schedule to fit appointments in during work hours (that always stresses me out).”–Jessica Rossetti, Student Success Specialist

“My son and I have become closer than we ever were”

“The 4DWW that we have been testing out this summer has been priceless to me.

“Since being diagnosed with cancer earlier this year, and going through surgery to have it removed, I have an entirely new outlook on life. I realize that every minute counts and I try to spend as many of them as I can with my family.

“I use the extra day off each week to spend with my son, one-on-one, just the two of us. Since it is like a ‘bonus day,’ I never feel guilty as though I’m using up my PTO or losing pay to spend the day on activities that to some seem frivolous. 

“The fact that I can spend an entire day with my son doing everything from swimming, going to the movies, shopping, or having one of our random ‘Left, Right, Center’ days has been something that I wouldn’t trade for the world.  

“My son and I have become closer than we ever were and learned so much more about each other than we ever would have without these days spent together.

“My extra day is spent making memories!”

–Rosanna Armbrust, Senior Student Success Specialist