Why Wednesday Is The Best Day To Work From Home

Businesses of all sizes have embraced “work from home” (WFH) by instituting flexible policies or giving employees a set number of days to log in remotely. For our business, however, Wednesday has been the key. That’s the day we’ve found is the best day to work remotely. In fact, we think it’s so good that we have our entire company stay home on Wednesdays, and we close our main office.

It started rather serendipitously. Eight years ago, I taught at my kids’ preschool one morning each week—Wednesdays—while simultaneously serving as co-founder of what was then a small startup. Working at home allowed me to fulfill both commitments. Eventually, working from home on Wednesdays evolved into a company policy. And even now, when we have 280 employees, that policy has turned out to be a happily productive accident.

There are two reasons that scheduling our WFH day in the middle of the week has turned out so well. The first is that it breaks up the week nicely: two days in the office, one day working remote, and then two more days back in the office. This leads to a consistent workflow that balances a number of planning meetings early in the week, a productive Wednesday working from home, and two equally productive and collaborative days on the tail end of the week.

Additionally, scheduling WFH days on Wednesdays rather than on Mondays or Fridays prevents employees from thinking of them as faux three-day weekends. WFH Wednesday is still a work day after all, and the fact that employees are required to be back in the office on Thursday reinforces accountability.

WFH Wednesdays have boosted work-life balance for all of our employees. At the same time, they have kept our business productive and on a path of positive growth for nearly a decade.

Shari Buck is the co-founder and chief product officer at Doximity