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More Than 40 Percent of Companies Now Offer a 'Summer Friday' Perk (washingtonpost.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Leaving early on a Friday afternoon in June? There's a growing chance your boss has endorsed it. The percentage of companies that offer some kind of "summer Friday" arrangement -- in which companies officially permit workers, almost entirely office ones, to leave early on Friday afternoons in the summer -- is on the rise. According to a new survey of Fortune 1000 companies by CEB, the Arlington, Va.-based research and consulting firm, 42 percent of companies now officially sanction starting the weekend early (press release), a doubling of the percentage who offered the benefit in 2015, when 21 percent of companies said they did so. That big jump, says Brian Kropp, who heads the firm's human resources practice, is because the benefit is such a no-brainer for companies to offer. As flexible work arrangements have grown and the average office worker is just a text or phone call away, many people already duck out early on Friday afternoons, especially before long holiday weekends. Making it official gives the company a way to plug their generosity without spending much at all.
I'm glad my workplace treats me like a professional and lets me come and go as I please as long as I get work done that I need to.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Way back in the day I worked at a place like this. Put in 4 hrs extra during the week and kick off at noon on Friday during the summer. It was amazing. Then the parent company 500 miles away decided that it could possibly run afoul of labor laws or something, and made us stop.
That's a great way to crush morale. A better way? Have nobody in your corporate offices on Friday afternoons in the summer while we're being forced to work.
Getting laid off from there was the best thing ever. A dozen years later, and the company doesn't really exist anymore.
My current place doesn't really keep track of time. (Other than being forced to put 40 hrs into the payroll software, since that's how it works, whether your salaried or hourly.) We tend to put in more than 40 semi-regularly, but there's no pressure to put in 40 when there isn't work to be done, or if you went way over in the last few weeks.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor
...at 4:15 PM on Friday. And it's a beautiful day outside.
I'm glad my workplace allows us to set hours with some degree of flexibility and absolutely DOES NOT consider us "a text or phone call away", except for jobs where such arrangements are specifically part of the job description. When I walk out the door, I don't think about work till I come back. Same for vacation.
Subject heading says it ... I'll say these companies can pat themselves on the back without spending much at all, especially when "being able to leave early on Friday" comes with the proviso that you must have completed a full eight-hour day of work before you leave. As long as those are the terms, shit, why not extend the policy to the rest of the week, too? Then, once everybody is working until their fingers bleed, you can gradually start dialing the policy back again, so you're getting 16 hours worth of work out of every employee, every day. EFFICIENCY! What could go wrong?
Breakfast served all day!
Friday afternoons are usually"garbage time" time anyway. Unless there is something critical that needs attention, nothing of any importance happens.
under trumpcare your 39.5 hour work week has no benefits other then getting out 30 min early each Friday.
Productive people will work, and appreciate a company that gives them some work/life balance. OTOH, you have another segment of the population who does not produce nearly as much. I'm sure you know who they are, because all of us A-type people learn very quickly who slacks and who produces (we have to have connections to get things done ourselves).
Those second type of people are what blow things for the rest of us. Not just through getting caught abusing policies, by killing our moral to the point where we leave and work someplace else.
There is no real universal answer because there are no universal employees.
Not sure how many of you will get the reference in my subject...
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
My company has had this for years except that it's year round. Seems to be rather common with engineering firms in this area and our new parent company was already doing it as well. At this point people are so used to it and many depend on that Friday afternoon to get their appointments in and errands done that if it stopped there would be a lot of resignations as a result.
Shame so many companies out there still don't get it
Twinstiq, game news
If you leave early on Friday afternoon, this surely means that you've worked less than the expected X hours per week? Most office-based firms probably have some sort of clock in/out system, so this shortage of working hours will be recorded. So is anyone expected to make up the shortfall later (and if they don't, do they get docked pay?) - the article didn't make this clear.
One practice I don't particularly like is being allowed to leave at lunchtime on Christmas Eve (which is often the last working day of the year for UK companies that have closed days between Xmas and New Year) with no need to make up the half a day of lost time later on. It's unfair because I (and others) always take Christmas Eve off and don't get that extra 0.5 days holiday that people who come into work on Christmas Eve get. Tough luck for those freeloaders this year though - Dec 24 is on a Sunday :-)
If you're being dinged a full day of holiday when the office is only operating for half of it you should be bringing that to the attention of CFO and legal as they owe you that half day by law.
Or, alternatively, work somewhere better. Everywhere I've worked where the office closes at lunch on Christmas Eve has always declared it as a half day for holiday as well.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
We do a 4-9-4 schedule year round at my company-- 9 hours Monday through Thursday and 4 on Friday. I don't think I could do Friday afternoons again...
For people with long commutes, we let them work from home for the short Fridays as well.
There is an efficiency hit for sure, but it is nice to see the office empty on a Friday afternoon.
That is actually the letter of the law for exempt employees. If you are exempt, it is simply a day off; if you are non-exempt then it is the number of scheduled hours off. When you do something different you run the risk of the department of labor considering your exempt employees to actually be non-exempt.
Wow dude. Let it go. This happens in the US too. Sure, it'd be nice to get the free 4 hours, but come on. I'm jealous enough of your arrangement, and here you are bitching about other people getting to blow off a few free hours ON CHRISTMAS EVE. European attitudes toward work certainly don't help us Americans sell more vacation time and short weeks when work is light to our bosses.
I get so frustrated because I think the European system is insane due to extreme employee time off and flexibility, and the US system is insane due to overwork. Couldn't we have a middle ground? I'd be just as productive with a 35 hour nominal workweek and a few extra weeks of vacation. I don't need the extreme flexibility and all August off like they have in Germany, and it's clearly a productivity killer to work 40 hours every week, minimum, even during lulls, with only 10 holidays and 15 vacation days. Simply put, I would be more productive per hour (maybe even on the whole) with some more time off, but I don't need the right to build up 3 months worth of vacation and take them off with zero notice. There has to be a middle way.
Every employee to to bottom to have to take every single vacation day no if ands or butts.
Not in my life time I bet.
Well, of nothing else, you get a participation trophy.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
"If you leave early on Friday afternoon, this surely means that you've worked less than the expected X hours per week?"
I can tell you how it works in other countries: you don't have a week hour stand (40 hours) but a yearly one (depends on your contract, somewhat around 1750 hours/year). It results that if you were 40 hours/week for roughly 48 weeks/year you end up working too many hours, so companies compensate by a combination of leaving early on Fridays and/or having a 7 hour days on summer.
GP implied he was in UK, where different laws apply for employment. Ones that are of benefit to the employee.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
Uh, why is this news?
I work for the federal government.
Like all (??) APS workers I'm on flexitime.
If I want to leave early or take a day off, I tell my boss and leave early or take the day off.
Why is this news?
(PS, I may not work for the US federal government...)
This is a side effect of low unemployment, as companies are once again having to compete for workers. And, it will disappear with the next serious recession.
Just another day in Paradise