The production intentionally aims for 10-hour days, a departure from the grueling 15-16 hour industry standard. This not only avoids ballooning overtime costs but also creates a more sustainable work environment, particularly benefiting female-dominated departments like hair, makeup, and wardrobe that bear the brunt of long hours.
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The team begins pitching stories in the morning, has a full script draft by 2 PM, records at 5 PM, finalizes the audio edit by 8 PM, and works on video until midnight for the next day's release. This relentless daily cycle repeats while also producing other weekly episodes.
To convince leadership to adopt low-production content, go beyond performance metrics. Frame the argument around business efficiency: highlight the drastically lower budget and the ability to be more timely by reducing production time from months to days. This combination is more compelling than engagement data alone.
Sustainable, high-quality video content isn't about random inspiration. ClickUp implements a rigorous weekly schedule: Monday for analysis, Tuesday for pitching, Wednesday for scripting, Thursday for shooting, and Friday for planning. This operationalizes creativity and ensures consistent output.
To convince skeptical leadership, frame the four-day week as a limited experiment, not a permanent policy. An instructor successfully argued for the change at a community college by presenting data on low Friday attendance and millions in potential air conditioning savings, making an undeniable business case.
When you have the freedom to take a lunch break, ask for help, or log off on time, you have a responsibility to do it. By resting, you normalize these behaviors for other women and team members who may not feel they have the same permission. Failing to rest perpetuates a culture of overwork, whereas modeling it creates a subtle but powerful cultural shift.
Instead of just cutting a day, position the four-day week as a powerful incentive for employees to embrace process overhauls and new technologies they might otherwise resist. The shared reward of more time off motivates them to achieve the necessary productivity gains.
Instead of tracking hours or rewarding a "996" work culture, the V0 team's performance compass is business impact, measured in dollars. New hires are explicitly expected to deliver millions in impact within their first year by fixing issues that cause customer churn or frustration.
Mid-sized companies struggling to compete with industry giants on salary can gain a significant recruiting advantage by offering a four-day workweek. This unique perk allows them to attract "A players" who value time and well-being, changing the terms of the talent competition.
The team shot all six episodes in just 36 days by treating the season like one large movie ("block shooting"). This was possible because all scripts were completed before production began, a practice that defies the traditional, more expensive US model of writing episodes throughout the shooting schedule.
Jason Calacanis predicts the four-day workweek will become a reality in the United States. However, it won't be about working less, but rather consolidating work into four intense, 10-hour days. This model may better suit some workers' rhythms than the traditional five eight-hour days.
