Half Day Fridays
- By: Jessica Faust | Date: Jun 05 2015
For as long as I’ve been in publishing its been the tradition to give your staff half days on Fridays. I suppose this started back when those in publishing had large trust funds and estates in the Hamptons or Newport. I was never one of those kids.
As an editorial assistant and later, assistant editor (more of the same despite the switched titles), half days usually meant I got to dress in shorts and a tshirt and spent the day sitting on the floor catching up on tasks like filing and helping my boss clean her office. The afternoons were usually spent at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. So, all in all, not a bad way to enjoy the summer.
The Friday before Memorial Day BookEnds kicked off our summer of half day Fridays by enjoying a lunch outdoors with Quinoa, Black Bean and Mango Salad for my team. I added a little avocado and, if I do say so myself, it was pretty dang good.
And then we all went back to work. I think we’ll need to work on that.
For the rest of the summer, BookEnds will be enjoying half day Fridays. It’s not that we won’t be working, because there is always work to be done, but we’ll likely be doing it in our own way. I’ll sit quietly in comfortable clothes in the office, or outside with all the reading I need to do on my Kindle.
I know for writers it can often feel like its impossible to take a break, that if you’re not working you’re failing. Not true at all. Take some half days yourself. Go to the lake, the zoo or a walk in the park. You might be surprised by how much work you actually get done by, just simply, not working.
–jhf
Unfortunately the only time I have to write is when I'm not working. Writing is so not a task for me. It is my half-day Friday, no matter the day of the week it happens to be, and my walk in the park.
I love that you give your staff a break. That's wonderful.
Ahhh… you know, I need to be reminded of that, but I always seem to be working behind on a deadline. But I swear, after this deadline I will try to take half day Fridays! I'd love to just read for hours uninterrupted.
People do tend to forget the importance of "down time", especially when they're self-employed. Maybe the best way to get some is to schedule it like any other commitment. And then don't cancel out on yourself!
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