Should you take Fridays off Pros and cons of summer hours

Should you take Fridays off Pros and cons of summer hoursShould you take Fridays off Pros and cons of summer hoursA couple of years back I made a major professional decision to stop working on Fridays. It followed a lot of soul-searching and some extremely tough years during which Id worked so much I missed some important moments. Actually, at that point, I was working so many hours each day that I missed on pretty much anything that wasnt work-related. I was incredibly successful but also completely drained and emotionally depleted.Over the years my dedication to freeing my Fridays has ebbed and flowed. Depending on client work and personal issues, my Fridays might include a few hours of professional catch up - or none at all. I no longer work full Fridays, and for me at least thats a start to reclaiming my work-life balance and the slightest bit of my sanity. Its also inspired some close friends and colleagues to follow my lead.An industry thing? Some industries have an unofficia l summer Friday policy in which they just arent around at all on Fridays from Memorial Day through Labor Day. I remember being surprised when I first started noticing that many of my colleagues in the publishing industry stopped answering emails on Friday then I adapted.Before you start your own personal Friday-free policy, consider this firstDo you keep regular hours the rest of the time?How flexible is your job to begin with? If youre known as the person who always opens and closes the proverbial shop, you might not want to shake things up. For some people, its the complete opposite - their hours are so flexible or unusual, to begin with, that adding a day off makes sense.As a crisis communications manager and media trainer for executives, I always have to be on and ready for anything, said Crisis Manager Renu Bakshi. Because I dont keep bankers hours working early, late and weekends if required I generally take Fridays off, she continued. Since Bakshi is already working extra hours, none of her clients will think shes slacking off if shes not around on some Fridays.Can it wait until Monday?When strict deadlines are involved, it can be tough to pick up momentum from the previous Thursday. We live in a lightning-fast news cycle and with many industries that can take a major hit from a thoughtless tweet. Before disappearing for an extended weekend consider the pros and cons of leaving things up in the air for an extra day while your detractors or competitors might be working overtime.Can you handle the stress?If you plan on taking Fridays off, you should realize that youll have an extra load to finish up on Thursday evening and some heavy lifting on Monday morning. For some people, the pleasure of a shorter week makes up for it, but others cant handle the stress.We used to offer Summer Fridays but stopped offering them for psychological reasons, said Elizabeth Edwards, Founder President of Volume PR. They stopped though since the extra day seemed to stre ss people out and on some level, led to burnout. Edwards explained that needing to work longer hours other days was cutting down the room for brain breaks and therefore increasing overall/net stress.How reliable are you to begin with?If youre already reliable and always there when needed, taking a day for yourself wont add stress to your clients workflow. Bakshi said, I respond to my clients quickly on a regular basis, so a slower response on Fridays doesnt bother them.Tell them about it or notOnly you can know if you want your co-workers, team members or clients to know about your new policy. If everything is running smoothly and well organized, you might be able to take Fridays off without anyone even noticing. Bakshi has an autoresponder set up that tells clients I will be slow to respond if it isnt a crisis. I dont blatantly state that I am taking the day off because, in my business, theres no such thing.Decide what to do with your FridaysSome people use their bonus day for pas sion projects. Others take care of personal maintenance or even doctors appointments. Bakshi said, I have found taking Fridays off helps me get ahead for the following week, be it running errands or buying groceries ahead of the weekend rush.