Winning with Balance is one of our core values at Martin Waymire. To put that value into practice, this summer we introduced the “Friday afternoons off” policy at Martin Waymire.
We expected everyone to be happy. What we got was even better.
The experiment started the Friday after Memorial Day, and wrapped up the Friday before Labor Day. Sure enough, there was a big grin on everyone’s face as they headed out the door shortly after noon that first Friday. But it was what they left behind that showed the value of the practice.
We have a great team that is willing to work together to make something special like this happen. Just because we want to go to the beach on a Friday afternoon doesn’t mean the work stops. Every Friday, someone was assigned to be on phone duty – away from the office. Our office phones were forwarded to that person, who could address the client’s issue or reach out to the account executive involved to have them step up and get the job done. Everyone rallied to make sure calls were addressed, seamlessly.
We now know we can get a lot done Thursdays when we really put our minds to it. When the reward was to leave Friday at noon, folks were eager to hustle a little harder and focus a little more during the week. We lost a few hours of office time, but we saw no missed assignments or deadlines.
Those four or five hours made a lot of difference. Whether it was getting away to see friends and family just a little earlier, sailing or fishing a little earlier in the day, or just taking time in the back yard to relax, being able to start the weekend at noon on Friday seemed to make it last an extra day.
So what did Martin Waymire and our clients get from summer half-day Fridays?
A renewed commitment to teamwork. Better focus on getting ahead of issues. And recharged batteries ready to provide excellence in service.
All of this is possible because we have a great team of hard-charging professionals, all of them the right person in the right seat, pulling together. It’s a pleasure to work with this team on award-winning projects that are making a difference – making Michigan a better place to live, work and, on summer Friday afternoons, play a little longer.
No, we aren’t going to make this a year-round practice. But because we like to “Win with Balance,” we’ll be doing it next summer, too.
(In case you are wondering, our other core values are Excellence, Teamwork, and Always Learning. We’ll be writing about them and how they make Martin Waymire a little better in future blogs.)
