Shake Shack Wants to Entice Workers With Four-Day Workweeks

Shake Shack tests four-day workweeks at Vegas restaurants

Fast-growing burger chain Shake Shack is exploring the idea of offering its employees a four-day workweek, Bloomberg reports. The company’s CEO Randy Garutti told investors on Thursday that several Las Vegas-area Shake Shack locations have been testing the schedule as an option to attract and retain workers in a tight labor market. “If we can figure that out on scale, it could be a big opportunity,” Garutti says. “We’re not promising it yet, but it’s something we’re having fun trying, and seeing how our leaders like it on a recruiting basis and ongoing retention basis.”

Although Garutti suggests that “nobody’s really been able to figure [four-day weeks] out in the restaurant business,” the shortened week is already being done in some parts of the industry as a way to combat fatigue from long workdays. Michelin-starred restaurants including Maaemo in Norway and 21212 in Edinburgh offer three- and four-day work weeks. Aloha Hospitality in Alabama also recently announced a four-day week at its Alabama restaurants.

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