Dear Diary

By Zahra Asghari (and everyone else)


Much to everyone’s (read: our) delight, our office took Fridays off from June 21st to August 30th. We repeated last year’s experiment with a lot of lessons learned in hopes of gathering more data on the feasibility of this model long-term. 

(If you would like to read an in-depth analysis of last year’s summer Fridays, you can read our summary here)

One of the changes we implemented this year, based on the feedback from last summer, included starting the summer Fridays two weeks earlier to compensate for the long weekends in July and August. With two extra Fridays off on the front end, we were able to work through the Fridays on weeks with a statutory holiday Mondays. That way, we maintained a consistent four-day work week, without giving up the number of Fridays we were taking off over the summer. This also avoided extra-crunched three-day weeks altogether. 

We further fine-tuned our tracking tools and used the experience we had gained with them over the past year to keep an accurate and detailed record of each project. As always, we were available by phone on Fridays for any urgent matters that needed our attention.

As we gather and analyze information from this year, we thought it would be a good idea to approach this round of data gathering from a qualitative perspective as well. To do so, I asked my colleagues to reflect on this year’s summer Friday and write a diary entry with their deepest, darkest secrets. Although none of them divulged any information I could use for blackmail, they were all incredibly honest and open. We hope that by sharing these entries, you can get a glimpse into what four-day work weeks are on a personal level, and maybe give it a try yourselves.


Entry 1

Dear Diary,

Summer Fridays this year was just as great as I remembered. I’ve been able to get all my errands done on Fridays and be fully refreshed for work on Mondays. My favourite thing about Summer Fridays is being able to completely decompress and recharge before starting the next week. I’m finding that I feel less stressed and a lot happier because I have the time to let myself relax. The extra day off has also come in handy in extending weekend trips because almost every weekend is a long weekend. This is especially great for someone like me who finds themself constantly running out of vacation days. I’ve added an extra day to a few of my trips this summer that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to. The only thing I would change about Summer Fridays is to make it year-round.

Xoxo

 

Entry 2

A collection of words that say thank you summer fridays:

  • Seeing pod of orca whales crossing from Denman to Hornby Island

  • A family of 5 sleeping in a studio apartment

  • Taking notice of new growth on a dusty leaf

  • Camping in a thunderstorm reminding you the earth is beautiful and powerful

  • 40-hour work weeks being tiresome

  • Thursday being a good day to get things done and check in with others

  • A tidal cycle lasting 25 hrs and consisting of 1-2 high tides and 2 low tides

  • How we act is dependent on how we imagine. More time for cultivating imagination frees us from tying our identities to labour. 

Entry 3

Summer is intense. It is often full of mountaineering objectives, camping, running races, long climbing days, and so on. This summer has been especially busy with studying for the ExACs and oral exams to finally conclude the internship process. The extra day on the weekend has given me space for adventure, studies, and even a little space for rest. It has been a huge benefit to my mental health, and I would love to find a way to do this all year.

Entry 4

I LOVE summer Fridays! I love extra long weekends for getting just a bit further out of the city for camping trips, I love the mid-day bike rides with friends that I haven’t seen in months, I love spending a bit longer getting locally-grown produce to make dinner for my family, and I love the solitude of my quiet house to finally finish a painting. When my summer Fridays are spent restoring my mental health and connecting with my favourite people and places, I want to keep doing them all year.

However. There are some things that make summer Fridays super hard. This year there was a lot of work to be done, and that meant taking work calls and meetings on many Fridays. And it meant starting my holidays late so that I could make up some of the time lost. Overall (and despite all the great LOVE mentioned above), I wound up more stressed after this summer. I felt like I couldn’t be the leader and mentor that I want to be.

Entry 5

I was thrilled when I learned about our studio’s summer Fridays. The idea of working 32 hours a week from July to September, without having to make up hours during the winter months, was appealing. I imagined going on trips every weekend and spending quality time with friends and family. 

It didn’t quite turn out that way.

At the start of summer, I was dealing with some personal grief. The extra day off allowed me to practice self-care, re-prioritize my life, and seek counseling. Coming from a culture where there is a stigma surrounding therapy, it took me a while to realize that I needed it. I’ve been learning a lot about myself, my values, goals, and setting healthy boundaries.

As summer Fridays come to an end, I feel rejuvenated and inspired. It wasn’t a summer filled with trips and adventures, but I don’t mind at all. I focused on my well-being and spent the days exactly as I needed in the moment. I’ve never felt more empowered.

Entry 6

Soon I am going to be transitioning away from a four-day work week, also known as year-round summer Fridays, to full-time work. In contrast to reflecting on how working a shorter week for the summer has affected my productivity, I am finding myself reflecting on how working five days a week will affect my productivity. Will I get less done if I work more? I saw a book title in a shop the other day called Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less. That resonated. The idea of having more time for my work week makes me feel less anxious about the coming months, but I am also stopping to reflect on how having one less work day forces me to work in a different way and allows me to think about a task or problem away from my desk.

Entry 7

When I started my work term early in the summer, there were a few working Fridays before Summer Fridays started. Spending time learning about the office, getting acquainted with the studio culture, understanding the projects, and socializing in the office helped make my transition to work smoother compared to my previous work terms.

During Summer Fridays, I found that having a three-day weekend benefited me in many ways! My workweeks felt like regular five-day weeks, with the only difference being the weekends. I felt more rested after the week, and the extra time allowed me to better prepare for the upcoming week. I had more time to plan for trips, relax, and not feel guilty for sleeping in. The flexibility of a three-day weekend put me in a better mental state, both at work and outside of work.

It felt less stressful and more liberating to plan day trips to the backcountry, where I could spend quality time alone or with friends. This allowed me to escape the busy work week, the city, and other people. I had more freedom to go further during my weekends because wasting one whole day driving didn’t feel detrimental to my time as it did when I had three-day weekends. So, I was able to branch out of the normal park spots in and around Vancouver.

Aside from recreational activities (woohoo), I spent more time back home, without my weekends being filled with transit time - transfers, rush hour shuffles, long lines, etc - I could avoid these times when most people were going back so I had more time to enjoy my time with my parents and help them out without feeling rushed.

It felt like the 9-5 structure wasn’t controlling my life as much as it used to.

Entry 8

What I love about Summer Fridays is that our entire office is being forced to relax and do something extra for themselves. And, because it is not our regular routine throughout the year, it feels special.

The extra day off makes me feel as if I have just been given more time, like being given an extension. Fridays become a day to do something fun or get something done without using up my normal weekend time with my family. It becomes a day to even get some work done and out of the way before Monday, clearing my mental to-do list. The world just seems easier on Fridays. It’s a day that is about entirely what I choose to do. It’s neither a workday nor a weekend.

September is my New Year’s. So, the summer is the end of my mental year, and Summer Fridays also allows me a kind of re-set to be ready to begin the New Year feeling like I’m in a good place mentally.


Entry 9

I’m very passionate about time. I hoard it like some people hoard money or the aux. Free time often does come at the expense of money – should I be maximizing my earning potential? At this point in my life, it seems more critical to maximize my sanity. But luckily when summer Fridays roll around I don’t have to make that (frankly, disturbing) choice. 

I think after burning out during architecture school and first few years postgrad, I’m still dealing with the effects – it feels like I’m hypersensitive, as if to heatstroke. Like the elastic band of my nervous system was snapped and now it can’t stretch nearly as far before it breaks again. I think this is sadly really common, more than people might admit. Either way, I’ve been lucky enough to find myself in a position that’s flexible with time. For me personally, I’ve become so accustomed to it I can’t imagine accepting anything less. The idea of a pedal-to-the-metal full time, occasional all-nighter position is untenable for me at this point. I think balance should be the bare minimum, not the exception. 

Entry 10

I’ve always thought that a 5-day work week and 2-day “rest” seemed unbalanced. But this is the norm pretty much in every office and overall business activities. The weekend always seems short because you’re usually just spending it doing house chores, cleaning, grocery shopping, and other obligations, and it leaves little time to actually enjoy it. So when I heard about implementing Summer Fridays in the studio I was really looking forward to it. It was my first experience with a 4-day work week, and it completely changed my mindset and energy. 

Even though office days became more intense, as you are struggling to get things done before Friday, you are forced in a way to get better at time management, forecasting deadlines and workload. It allows you to make plans and even doctor appointments without disturbing your office time and also plan for long weekends with short trips or activities with friends. It allowed me personally to enjoy talking to my family back home during the day, which is sometimes difficult because of the time difference.

Having an extra day to myself also helped me reconnect with hobbies, such as drawing and reading, and taking the time and space to enjoy the work week. I felt less stressed out and more recharged. 

Although I know that shortening the week depends on a lot of factors, I would like it to be made permanent. Definitely in the summer months, but I think having it all year round would change our perception of what work or a job means to us. It would allow us to have more energy distributed in different areas of our life, and get a better life balance.

Overall, I can say it was awesome to have Summer Fridays and I really look forward to seeing how to implement it more. 

Entry 11

Dear Diary,

Summer Fridays this year have been both incredibly rewarding and a bit challenging. Last year, when we piloted it, I had a clear trajectory of drawing, and the office held an intensity when preparing for it. I even changed up my look to match the tone of work hard play hard by cutting a bleach blonde buzz out of my curly brown mullet. This year, no such change felt necessary. The office felt ready and seasoned for the shift to a higher intensity of work. However, as we started, since the nature of my work was construction admin, my personal workload and the lack of WFH made the increased intensity of summer work a bit stressful for me. 

To be clear, dear diary, this is by no means a disparagement of Summer Fridays and I am in no way advocating for their abolishment. Because of this extra day off each week, I was able to see my family three times this summer, celebrate my mom’s 65th birthday, go to Ontario to visit my grandma, see two of my best friends get married, and travel down to Portland, Oregon. These trips to connect with the people I love and care deeply for were more meaningful than any workload imposed by this summer restructuring. That being said, here are some thoughts  for next summer Fridays, which, to be clear again dear diary, I highly endorse:

  • Summer Fridays make construction admin challenging. This is evident from the feedback last year and now my own experience going through it this year. Projects in construction should be staffed more than usual during Summer Fridays since construction usually has a tight schedule that doesn’t flex with our Fridays off. 

  • Summer Fridays work great for drawing production. Last year when I had many envelope details to draw, it felt very easy getting into a deep work headspace since the tone of the office was focus. In a similar vein this year, some staff worked on bolstering our office’s drawing resources, graphic standards, and material library. I found the fridays off encouraged the hard working ideology which aligned with these smaller compartmentalized tasks.

All in all, great experience. Definitely a work-hard play-hard summer. As we experience more summers, I look forward to dialing in the 4-day work week so we can normalize and optimize leading a healthy work life balance in our typically unbalanced industry.

Entry 12

This is my second time doing summer Fridays and both times it has been great to have that extra day to recharge and just do/think about stuff outside of work. It’s given me more mental space to take on personal projects, to just rest, to learn how to lean into my vulnerable side, to just exist in public space, to hit up some new cafes, and to connect more consistently with people and community organizations I care about or admire. The photo I shared for this journal entry is of the sky and trees. I took it after a particularly good therapy session where afterwards I chose to listen to my body and just lay in the grass until I got hungry, grabbed some fried chicken and a beer, ate that, then lay in the grass for another couple of hours. Before that, I couldn’t remember the last time I had just laid in the grass with no one to see and nothing else to do. 

Architects love to draw and imagine people utilizing the spaces we create. We advocate for sociability, we draw lovely furnished amenity spaces and big amphitheatre-like seating hoping that someone will come along to inhabit it, to bring it to life. But when the architecture industry itself often idealizes working long hours and busyness to the point of burnout, isn’t it a bit sad how much time we collectively spend just dreaming and hoping for more lively, connected, and sociable spaces instead of being out in the world organizing, volunteering, advocating for, and inhabiting those spaces ourselves?

Entry 13

I joined Human Studio at the end of August last year, so this year is the first time I've enjoyed Summer Fridays for an entire season. And it feels so good! Because, for a limited amount of time, it feels like our well-being matters more than numbers, deadlines and deliverables, something I thought I had forever lost when I moved to Vancouver!

Indeed, being raised in Europe, I grew up with the notion that between work and time off, the latter always prevails, as long as the former is properly taken care of. Work is always awarded a silver medal because Time Off gets Gold every time. That’s just the way it works there. And in that sense, when I worked as an Architect in Europe, it felt more like among all of this free time we had (30 days/year basis + overtime built-up), there was a necessity to work, and not the opposite.

Obviously, things are not the same in Canada, and it took me a while to adjust to the North American office environment. And since I moved, I think summer has been the most brutal season for me to get by because I cannot avoid looking at my European friends’ Instagram stories as they are having the time of their lives for 3 to 4 weeks straight in Greece or Italy, while I spend most of my summer behind my screen. It makes me feel terrible, usually gives me major FOMO and it always ends up in arguments with my partner about moving back.

But that was before this summer when I experienced the Summer Fridays at Human Studio.

Of course, it’s never going to replace a three-week staycation in Santorini or Milos, but overall, it has made my summer less sour. I feel like I was more relaxed this year than last year during the same period, and I think it’s also making me care more about my work during those months. The limited amount of time to complete your work triggers your motivation, your desire to be efficient, to enjoy your longer time off even more!

I’ve come to particularly like it because I feel less tired from my week and it gives me a day for myself to spend on my own hobbies (sewing). Friday becomes this very nice hybrid day, sort of the weekend already, but still energized by your (more efficient) work week. I hope we can continue to have them next year, and why not extend the period to September?

Entry 1 4

Summer Fridays really takes the pressure off of me outside of work, giving me time for life admin, freeing up time to spend coveted summer time recharging outdoors and seeing more friends and family. Having an extra day to set me up for the following week and prepare for fun adventures removes stress from both the trip and my time at work, making doing my favorite things a lot easier. This year I was able to camp in Duffey Pass, take a bike trip on Vancouver Island, canoe in Nelson, learn how to identify berries in the forest, and bushwhack up the Skagit River without taking any vacation time. 

August really ramped up at work for me, with lots of active projects to manage, however, by the end of each 4-day work week, I felt like I was in a good rhythm. With so many clients and consultants on holidays, I did not feel that things were slowing without working Fridays. If I felt stressed, I managed my week accordingly and found time flexibly in the evenings where I had no plans to send a couple of extra emails which allowed me to feel more in control of my schedule. 

Overall, it has allowed me opportunities that a normal work week cannot offer, and I’m not looking forward to returning to a 5 day work week.  

 

Entry 15

Dear Diary,

It’s me. How have you been? Sorry I haven’t written in a long time. I had a wonderfully busy summer! Well, maybe busy isn’t the right word. I haven’t been busy as in swamped with work, but busy as in spending time with my friends and family, reading lots of books, plenty of beach times, some study times and even a couple of sailing trips! It’s been really lovely.

Last week was our last Summer Friday of the year at work and I can already tell it’s going to be a tough transition. 4-day work weeks are just more manageable  - they seem much more balanced and allow for a fuller life outside of work, and consequently a better work environment. But I'm probably preaching to the choir here, right?

I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of labour, idleness, and fulfilment lately (working through the ol’ existential crisis with my therapist). What happens in the grey zone between idleness and fulfilment? What differentiates work as labour vs work as a path to fulfilment? Is there a difference? When does labour feel fair? Or unfair? Where’s the burnout line in the sand? 

I don’t really have any answers yet but all I can say is that this summer, I had the brain space, time, and energy to explore these ideas - and that made me feel more like myself again.

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