12 Extra Long Weekends for Sanctuary
Today is our first Premium Friday, which means it’s the last friday of the month. Premium Fridays are a day off, or, an extra long weekend every month.
Internally, we’ve been talking a lot about building a workplace that strikes a fairer balance between Freelance and Salary roles. We believe there’s a better alternative that’s somewhere in the middle — and as such, one of the topics has been Summer Fridays.
Premium Fridays > Summer Fridays
Summer Fridays are “the afternoon off of every friday during summer”. Some jobs even ask you to do an extra hour each day of the week to make the time up.
I get it! The sun is shining, you still get some work done, but you can knock off early and get to the beach. However, something about that doesn’t sit right with us — working later hours four out of the five days, just to leave early during the fifth, for only one season of the year feels a lil fake to me.
Sanctuary exists to create incredible quality at an affordable cost, and as such, we’re looking to optimizing for productive hours, rather than hours sitting at a desk.
Right now at Sanctuary, Friday afternoons are reserved for Investment hours, kinda like Thoughtbot’s Investment Time (one day I’d like it to be the whole of Friday, too). That’s also not something we want to give up for just one season during the year.
Japan’s “Premium Friday” Campaign
The inspiration for our Premium Fridays came from Japan. In an effort to grow their economy, “the country that coined the word karoshi (death by overwork)” is pushing a campaign that allows workers to leave work early on the last Friday of every month.
To be fair, the campaign in Japan hasn’t been super successful. As a government run initiative, there is little-to-no obvious incentive for employers to follow to the rule, need more buy in from management for the country to truly adopt the new work-style.
Let My People Go Surfing
This quote from Yvon Chouinard (Patagonia’s founder) says it best in his design philosophy book, Let My People Go Surfing.
“Remember, work has to be fun. We value employees who live rich and rounded lives. We run a flexible workplace, and we have ever since we were a blacksmith shop that shut down whenever the waves were six feet, hot and glassy. Our policy has always allowed employees to work flexible hours, as long as the work gets done with no negative impacts on others. A serious surfer doesn’t plan to go surfing next Tuesday at two o’clock. You go surfing when there are waves and the tide and wind are right.”
— Yvon Chouinard, taken from “Let My People Go Surfing”
So, rain hail or shine, we’re going to be kicking back an enjoying the weather, leaving the city, working on side projects, going to the beach, skiing in the Catskills, and enjoying our 12 extra long weekends. ❤
Oh, and you should check out the Digital Volcano we just helped our fam
release for General Electric.
