You lead a 240-person services firm. Attrition is 26% against an industry 19%, and exit interviews cite burnout most often. A four-day week at full pay has been proposed for the 90-person delivery team as a six-month pilot. Utilisation would need to rise from 68% to 85% to hold revenue flat. Two competitors have announced similar pilots. Recruiting cost is Rs 1.4 lakh per replacement hire. Client contracts specify response times, not working days.
Write a one-page memo to the board recommending for or against the pilot. Open with the recommendation. Anticipate the strongest objection.
100 points, 60% to pass.
The decision turns on whether 68% to 85% utilisation is plausible or wishful. That is a 25% productivity improvement asserted, not evidenced, and a memo that waves at it has not done the work. Against it sits a real number: 26% attrition on 240 people at Rs 1.4 lakh a replacement is roughly Rs 87 lakh a year. The strongest objection is client response times, which the scenario quietly answers — contracts specify response, not days, so coverage can be staggered. A good memo commits, sizes the downside of the pilot specifically (six months, 90 people, measurable), and names the metric that would end it early.