A Florida Chick-fil-A has been following a 3-day work week with so much success it received more than 420 applications for a single job opening

Chick-fil-A restaurant in Houston, Texas. Brandon Bell/Getty Images

• A Chick-fil-A in Miami follows a three-day work week of 13- to 14-hour shifts.
• Store operator Justin Lindsey told QSR Magazine that since making the switch, there's been 100% management retention, "elite" performance, and more than 420 applications for a job opening.
• Lindsey said employees had been working 70-hour weeks and skipping vacations before the store adopted a three-day week in February.

While four-day work weeks are growing in popularity, one Chick-fil-A store in Miami is experimenting with an even shorter three-day week. 

Store operator Justin Lindsey recently told QSR Magazine his team of 18 store leaders and roughly 20 frontline employees has successfully been following a three-day work week since February. Prior to that, employees were working 70-hour weeks and skipping vacations to meet goals, he told the magazine. 

"I realized, I'm asking a ton of these folks," Lindsey said, per QSR. "Honestly, I can do better."

Staff are split into two "pods" of workers who alternate on three-day blocks of shifts lasting 13 to 14 hours, QSR Magazine reported. (Chick-fil-A is famously closed on Sundays.) According to Lindsey, there were some hurdles at the start, and not all employees have opted in to the shorter work week with longer shifts. 

"We were very clear with them from the beginning," Lindsey told the magazine. "We said, 'Look, this is uncharted territory.' I don't know that this has ever been done but if you're going to do this, you're going to come on a journey with us."

Since adopting the abbreviated schedule, the store has seen 100% retention among management, Lindsey told QSR, and one job opening that led with the three-day work week received more than 420 applications.

"I think people want to work in this industry," he told QSR Magazine. "People enjoy the work. But they want some things to change, and I think that's what this has shown — is that there are things that if we change it for the better, we're going to make a lasting impact."