Why we’re closed on Fridays
Our offices are open Monday through Thursday, 9 to 4. If you’ve ever called on a Friday and gotten the after-hours line, you’ve had a reaction to that. Some owners have had a strong one. So here’s the whole story.
Thursday became the most productive day of the week. Nobody predicted that, including me.
Where it came from
It started with an article. Companies were moving to four-day weeks and seeing productivity go up, not down, and the study everyone cited was Microsoft’s trial in Japan. They gave about 2,300 employees every Friday in August 2019 off, same pay, and measured productivity up 40%. Shorter meetings, less time off, less printing, happier people.
It also matched something I’d already noticed in my own office. Friday was a wasted day. Everyone was exhausted, half the day was screwing around, and not much got done. We were already effectively working four days. We were just paying for five.
What actually made the decision
The realization that my team is the most valuable asset this company has. That’s true for owners and tenants too, whether they think about it or not. How good my team is, is the entire difference between us and every other property management company in town.
So I asked myself what I wanted. A team that loves working here, does great work, and doesn’t work Fridays? Or a burned-out team with lackluster performance that’s technically available five days? Put that way it’s not a hard question.
Once I decided to put the team first, the rest was easy. What’s the worst that could happen? We tried it for a month.
What happened
Exactly what the studies said. Productivity went up. Thursday turned into a sprint, because everyone wanted things wrapped up before a three-day weekend, and it became the most productive day of the week by a wide margin. Satisfaction went up. Everybody got a three-day weekend, every week.
And something I didn’t expect. Some of us, me and a few of the key people, still work on Friday. From home. In our pajamas if we want. No phones, no interruptions, no front desk. That’s when the big projects get done (including writing and editing this blog post). Those kind of projects used to get pushed forever because there was always a fire on Tuesday. Friday is when the company actually gets better.
Why it’s good for you
Not because you lost the ability to call on a Friday. As long as the maintenance line is covered, there’s no such thing as an emergency in property management that the office needs to be open for. Someone told me that years ago and it’s held up: cover maintenance, and everything else can wait until the next workday.
There isn’t an owner question that comes up on a Friday that can’t wait until Monday. There isn’t a tenant issue that isn’t either an emergency, which the maintenance line handles, or something that can wait. What you get instead is a rested team on Monday and a company that has a day every week to fix the things that make your property run better.
I’d make the same decision again. If it’s ever cost you something real, I’d like to hear about it: 719.581.RENT.
Microsoft Japan “Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer 2019” results as reported by CNBC and The Japan Times, November 2019. Eclipse Property Management & Real Estate.
A note on AI. The thoughts, experience, and opinions here are mine. This is not AI content. It’s not written by AI. I didn’t just give it a prompt and out popped this blogpost. This is real. However, I do use AI as a writing and editing tool to help shape and polish the final text, and to check facts and figures before publishing. If it feels too polished to be really written by Chuck, or a detector flags this post, that’s why. AI is a tool, and I used it to help with the words, spelling, and grammar, not the thinking.