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we’re encouraging employees to set the following out-of-office email notification of Fridays: “I’m out of the office today because we’re working consciously her

we’re encouraging employees to set the following out-of-office email notification of Fridays: “I’m out of the office today because we’re working consciously here at Bolt and are currently testing out a four-day workweek. I’ll be back in touch with you on [Monday].” Ugh. Just say "I'm out of the office today and will respond on Monday" no need to tout your experimental company philosophy.

abletonlive 5y ago
How do ideas spread if you don't tout them?
- isoskeles 5y ago
  Why would you want to spread the idea of the “experiment” before gathering results? What if you conclude the experiment was a failure?
  - yboris 5y ago
    Pre-registration of studies is a virtue ;)
  - abletonlive 5y ago
    So people can learn about what other people are experimenting w/? Seems pretty straightforward to me.
- edoceo 5y ago
  They made a blog post, we're currently commenting on it.
  - sophacles 5y ago
    The blog post touts the idea. If they didn't tout the idea, we wouldn't be here commenting.
  - paxys 5y ago
    Audience for a blog post and HN link is minuscule compared to the total set of people Bolt employees interact with over email.
toomuchtodo 5y ago
Ugh. Four day work week trials have proven very successful in Japan, Iceland, Spain, and now the US. It absolutely makes sense to tout this proven benefit to others. The only folks complaining are the ones who don’t believe data driven evidence or have an unhealthy relationship with work. No need to denigrate positive, no cost efforts to drag forward work life balance and quality of life.
chickenpotpie 5y ago
Disagree, if I have to interact with someone only on Fridays and I’m getting back an out of office notification literally every time I email them, I want to know what’s going on.
- InvertedRhodium 5y ago
  "I'm not available on Fridays" wouldn't suffice?
  - kupopuffs 5y ago
    Think this begs the question, Why? Saying it's company-wide is fair. But honestly I think people have their own cases and can make the judgment on too much/too little info
    - maccard 5y ago
      Definitely not. Childcare, company policy, focus time on development, playing darts - it doesn't matter. All that matters is they're not reachable on Fridays and that they've chosen not share the why.
    - onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
      Exactly - or you might try emailing someone else, and get some other strangely worded auto-response.
- conductr 5y ago
  > if I have to interact with someone only on Fridays > I want to know what’s going on Why are you restricted to interact ONLY on Fridays? What's going on with you?
wy35 5y ago
Disagree. While the "we're working consciously" bit can be left out, you have to let the people you communicate with know that it's not just this Friday, it's EVERY Friday. Just saying "I'm out of the office today and will respond on Monday" implies it's a one-time thing.
- pm215 5y ago
  You only have to do that if you're in a situation where your correspondent expects same-day responses. Mostly you should try to avoid creating that expectation -- or where you do want to provide that level of service, eg for customer interactions, that sort of email should be going via some kind of role address or internal ticketing system so that it gets reliable rapid responses that don't depend on individual employees not happening to fall ill and so you can ensure cover during holidays or whatever. (I work a four day week personally, and I never set an out-of-office response.)
  - kbenson 5y ago
    Not necessarily just for that. It's also useful for people knowing whether they send you something Thursday towards the end of the day that's somewhat time sensitive whether to expect/hope you'll get to it, or if that's something they shouldn't expect any more than sending it towards the end of the day Friday. It's useful in the same way as knowing when holidays are and not estimating when someone might get something done while including a Monday they will not be working. Not required, but useful.
    - bmhin 5y ago
      I feel like many or most places already have the "be cool late Friday" mindset. Emergencies or critical things can still happen, but if possible maybe don't schedule a long meeting end of day Friday. Don't ask for something that needs turn around after the morning as people already are going to likely be in a wrap-up mode. It always feels like a very implicit "can this wait till Monday?" attitude permeates the day. And it's not just being nice, splitting a task over a weekend can lead to things being forgotten or missed or just the context being lost. Hell, I've seen places operate more in a "be cool all of Friday, it's the pseudo-weekend". All that is a long way of saying that that group feeling now exists a whole day before and it's important to communicate that.
janandonly 5y ago
Here in Holland many e-mail footers will read like: - Name - Company - Department - Mon-Wed-Thur Or something like that, to signal when a person is working...
spicybright 5y ago
Just broadcasting this will ruin "testing". I genuinely don't understand how HR/higher handle these things. Are they just extremely out of touch or something?

abletonlive 5y ago

How do ideas spread if you don't tout them?

isoskeles 5y ago
Why would you want to spread the idea of the “experiment” before gathering results? What if you conclude the experiment was a failure?
- yboris 5y ago
  Pre-registration of studies is a virtue ;)
- abletonlive 5y ago
  So people can learn about what other people are experimenting w/? Seems pretty straightforward to me.
edoceo 5y ago
They made a blog post, we're currently commenting on it.
- sophacles 5y ago
  The blog post touts the idea. If they didn't tout the idea, we wouldn't be here commenting.
- paxys 5y ago
  Audience for a blog post and HN link is minuscule compared to the total set of people Bolt employees interact with over email.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Ugh. Four day work week trials have proven very successful in Japan, Iceland, Spain, and now the US. It absolutely makes sense to tout this proven benefit to others. The only folks complaining are the ones who don’t believe data driven evidence or have an unhealthy relationship with work. No need to denigrate positive, no cost efforts to drag forward work life balance and quality of life.

chickenpotpie 5y ago

Disagree, if I have to interact with someone only on Fridays and I’m getting back an out of office notification literally every time I email them, I want to know what’s going on.

InvertedRhodium 5y ago
"I'm not available on Fridays" wouldn't suffice?
- kupopuffs 5y ago
  Think this begs the question, Why? Saying it's company-wide is fair. But honestly I think people have their own cases and can make the judgment on too much/too little info
  - maccard 5y ago
    Definitely not. Childcare, company policy, focus time on development, playing darts - it doesn't matter. All that matters is they're not reachable on Fridays and that they've chosen not share the why.
  - onlyrealcuzzo 5y ago
    Exactly - or you might try emailing someone else, and get some other strangely worded auto-response.
conductr 5y ago
> if I have to interact with someone only on Fridays > I want to know what’s going on Why are you restricted to interact ONLY on Fridays? What's going on with you?

wy35 5y ago

Disagree. While the "we're working consciously" bit can be left out, you have to let the people you communicate with know that it's not just this Friday, it's EVERY Friday. Just saying "I'm out of the office today and will respond on Monday" implies it's a one-time thing.

pm215 5y ago
You only have to do that if you're in a situation where your correspondent expects same-day responses. Mostly you should try to avoid creating that expectation -- or where you do want to provide that level of service, eg for customer interactions, that sort of email should be going via some kind of role address or internal ticketing system so that it gets reliable rapid responses that don't depend on individual employees not happening to fall ill and so you can ensure cover during holidays or whatever. (I work a four day week personally, and I never set an out-of-office response.)
- kbenson 5y ago
  Not necessarily just for that. It's also useful for people knowing whether they send you something Thursday towards the end of the day that's somewhat time sensitive whether to expect/hope you'll get to it, or if that's something they shouldn't expect any more than sending it towards the end of the day Friday. It's useful in the same way as knowing when holidays are and not estimating when someone might get something done while including a Monday they will not be working. Not required, but useful.
  - bmhin 5y ago
    I feel like many or most places already have the "be cool late Friday" mindset. Emergencies or critical things can still happen, but if possible maybe don't schedule a long meeting end of day Friday. Don't ask for something that needs turn around after the morning as people already are going to likely be in a wrap-up mode. It always feels like a very implicit "can this wait till Monday?" attitude permeates the day. And it's not just being nice, splitting a task over a weekend can lead to things being forgotten or missed or just the context being lost. Hell, I've seen places operate more in a "be cool all of Friday, it's the pseudo-weekend". All that is a long way of saying that that group feeling now exists a whole day before and it's important to communicate that.

janandonly 5y ago

Here in Holland many e-mail footers will read like: - Name - Company - Department - Mon-Wed-Thur Or something like that, to signal when a person is working...

spicybright 5y ago

Just broadcasting this will ruin "testing". I genuinely don't understand how HR/higher handle these things. Are they just extremely out of touch or something?