Easy Fridays

Fridays have always had a different flavor from the rest of the week. It’s the day you start thinking ahead to your weekend, finish up projects, and take time to get organized so you can start next week with confidence.

“Casual Fridays” were a nod to this in-house focus. More relaxed attire reflected a more relaxed attitude. Fridays were not days for big staff meetings, client presentations, or other tasks that infringed on the vibe.

When I worked full time and spent Fridays in the office, I looked forward to the ritual of cleaning up my physical desktop, filing projects and documents, watering plants, even cleaning / dusting my office furniture and washing out coffee mugs. I restocked my private supply of bottled water and snack bars. The office staff took turns cleaning the breakroom kitchen and cleaning out the community refrigerator.

But now, WFH is the norm for many of us, and working from home on Fridays is a perk that workers are reluctant to give up. Working from home means no annoying commute, wearing soft, comfy clothes, enjoying a home-made lunch and having the time to check in on the pasta sauce you’re heating up for dinner. You’re winding down after the restless push of Monday through Thursday.

Let’s face it, WFH Fridays are a soft launch of the four-day workweek. The more you accomplish the first four days of the week, the more you can relax on the fifth. You can send off a quick summary of a project to your boss, create your to-do list for the next week, update your calendar, then monitor emails during the afternoon (with soft jazz playing in the background and a cup of hot tea.) You can finally browse industry articles that you bookmarked but never had time to read during the week.

Old school bosses or type A overachievers may take issue with this approach. But anything that reduces burnout and improves workers’ quality of life at home has merit. I’ve written before about this transitional time. As always, the Germans have a word that describes this important transition: feierabend. (Pronounced fire-AAH-bund.) It’s defined both as quitting time and the period between work and sleep; there’s no equivalent in other languages.

I work from home part-time now and set my own schedule. But I’m still in favor of making Fridays easy and special. In fact, I’ll have to finish this post after my pedicure.

BTW, your boss also wants you to get more rest. Here’s a post on proactive rest and how it can extend – or save – your career. Enjoy.

Published by candacemoody

Candace’s background includes Human Resources, recruiting, training and assessment. She spent several years with a national staffing company, serving employers on both coasts. Her writing on business, career and employment issues has appeared in the Florida Times Union, the Jacksonville Business Journal, the Atlanta Journal Constitution and 904 Magazine, as well as several national publications and websites. Candace is often quoted in the media on local labor market and employment issues.
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