I am excited to share that starting in May, Chromatic will begin offering a new experimental benefit for our team: Summer Fridays. Our version of Summer Fridays will be closing “at noon” on Fridays from Memorial Day to Labor Day; essentially June, July, and August. “At noon” is in quotation marks because our team is spread across many time zones, so the intention is that we are closing for half of the day on those Fridays.
[Shorter work weeks] helps make very clear to [team members] that recovery isn’t separate from work. It’s an essential part of work.
— Time Off
I have been heavily influenced by Time Off: A Practical Guide To Building Your Rest Ethic And Finding Success Without The Stress. I can’t recommend this book enough, it had a deep impact on me personally and others on the Chromatic team. The authors are advocating for much more than half days on Fridays, but we felt this was the right place for our team to start.
Reading Time Off, and some similar titles, helped influence our decision to give Summer Fridays a try. Internal discussions with our team during our virtual retreat last year contributed as well. Like any experiment, we know we may need to adjust, see where the bugs are, iterate, and improve! Ultimately, there are numerous arguments in favor of benefits like “Summer Fridays.” Our primary motivation is centered on our core values with a focus on the mental health of our team members. This is a way to honor our people and give everyone some much-needed space to process, recharge, pursue passions and hobbies, and simply get some rest.
We’ll share more toward the end of summer about what we learned!
...knowing the importance of time off is only the first step. Really implementing it, fully trusting in its significance and ignoring the stigma that’s unfortunately associated with it, is a different matter and takes practice.
— Time Off
