Richmond restaurant switches to 3.5 day work week

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - Working less than five days a week and getting full-time pay is a dream for most people, but for the employees of this Richmond restaurant, that dream is now a reality.

As the height of the pandemic settles down, employers are noticing workers are valuing something more than just coming to work.

”I know that the major pain points for people in this industry is quality of life, “ said Brett Diehl, co-owner of The Cocky Rooster on Main Street.

After figuring this out, The owners of The Cocky Rooster took action and worked on a plan to provide their employees with a better work-life balance.

”His wife actually sent us an article about a 3.5-day work week that Chick-fil-A was doing in Florida, and we’re fans of Chick-fil-A,” said co-owner Luke Phillips.

“They know what they’re doing. They do really well, so that inspired us to dig into it.”

After working on the right formula for their business, The Cock Rooster employees are now putting in their full-time hours in just three and a half days.

Recently, businesses are finding it harder to hire or retain employees, and some are trying new measures to combat the worker shortage crisis in our country.

In Virginia, there are only 46 available workers, meaning only 46 people want to get a job in every 100 openings. This puts us in an extreme shortage, especially if we compare it to a state like Maryland, which has 80 available workers to 100 job openings.

As for Brett and Luke, they say since the change, they’ve seen an increase in applicants, and their productivity is even better than before. But what mattered to them the most was how their employees felt about the change.

When asked if he would ever go back to a five-day work week, store manager Wendell Parker says he’s never going back.

“Uh, why would I do that?” Parker said.

The Cocky Rooster says this work model is a permanent fixture in their business, and so far, it’s garnered nothing but success.

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