Two Eidos studios are shifting to a 4-day work week

Eidos-Montreal and Sherbrooke are the studios known for their work on the Deus Ex series, Tomb Raider, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. But now they might become known for setting a new industry standard: a 4-day work week.

Eidos revealed in an update on its site on October 7, 2021 that both the Montreal and Sherbrooke studios will be shifting to a 4-day work week for all employees. Head of Studio David Anfossi took this opportunity to answer a few questions regarding this major workplace change.

Some may be concerned that the employees will now need to condense five work days down to four, but Anfossi clarifies, “The idea is not to condense the working hours into 4 days, but rather to review our ways of doing things and our quality time invested, with the aim of working better!” This means, the teams won't be crunching 40 hours into four days, but will rather work a 32-hour 4-day week. To further this idea, internal meetings have been hit with a nerf, being reduced to 30 minutes instead of a full hour. All of this is a move to benefit employee productivity and the general well-being.

Anfossi goes on to talk about some of the other employee-focused changes the company has set up recently, “With remote working which has transformed the way we collaborate, we had already started an important cultural transition with the implementation of a rest period, access to a personal financial advisor, access to a telemedicine platform, reimbursement of mental health care and physical activity costs.”

This is an incredible step forward in an industry that is plagued by crunch culture. It will be interesting to see whether other studios, and even industries outside of the video game sphere, begin to shift to a different workweek setup. We’ll be sure to keep you posted on Eidos and what the team are working on next.