The Art of Quitting Early on Fridays (and Not Freaking Out the Boss)

Parry Headrick is the founder of a busy public-relations firm with 15 employees. Yet at 12:32 p.m. on a recent Friday, he was poolside.

His staff at Crackle PR was off too, he told me, as New Hampshire birdsong wafted in the background. The reason is “Forever Fridays,” a policy Headrick started to let workers cut out at 1 p.m. all year round.

“We’ve all pulled the facade down and we’re being honest about how we feel about Fridays,” he said. A work emergency has yet to disrupt the now-tradition.

“Until it does, we’ll be enjoying ourselves,” he added. 

Oh, to be among the lucky few workers who get Summer Fridays—an extra day or afternoon off each week between Memorial and Labor days. It’s a longtime perk for some New York-area professionals in industries like advertising and publishing. (Not, sadly, newspapers.) Recent experiments in four-day workweeks and no-meeting days are giving other workers a lighter load at week’s end.

What about the rest of us? Don’t wait for your boss to say you deserve a break. Instead, DIY your way to a chill summer workweek. 

First, make deposits in the bank. Headrick recommends crushing it during your first three months in a job or doubling down for a stretch to earn leeway to “be a little freer in your own movements.” Then, try switching locations, just for an afternoon. Before he had his own company, and his own pool, Headrick sometimes worked from a San Francisco hotel rooftop on Fridays to celebrate good weather. 

“Be an adult and do what you have to do for your own sanity,” Headrick said. 

Abandon guilt

To be outside sipping cocktails by 3 p.m., start with a “most important things” list on Friday morning, advises Jess Wass, a Brooklyn, N.Y.-based career coach and consultant. Put no more than three work tasks on it—the most important ones for your job, right now. 

Once your list is checked off, ditch the guilt. “You’re giving yourself permission, once those things are accomplished, that you can close that computer,” she said. 

Sure, you’ll have to scan your inbox while ordering appetizers. That doesn’t mean a note from your boss has to blow up the afternoon. Fashion a simple reply: “I’m focused on something else at the moment. I can look at this in an hour. Does that work?”

“What people care about is, did you see this? Are you on it?” Wass said.

If a boss dumps last-minute tasks on a Friday afternoon, ask some questions. When do they need this by? If the answer is ASAP, ask if Monday morning would be all right. When will they actually be doing something with the work—sending it over to the client, running it by marketing?

Once settled on a deadline, make sure you get it in writing. If your boss doesn’t send you a note, email to confirm. 

“Have your receipts,” Wass said. That way, if your boss pings on Monday morning about that PowerPoint presentation, you can refer to the email or message confirming that you both agreed on noon. 

Make your pitch 

Momentum’s on your side when it comes to carving out Friday freedom. 

Office use in 10 major U.S. cities was 31.8% on a recent June Friday, compared with 58.6% that Wednesday, according to Kastle Systems, which tracks security swipes into buildings. Respondents opt for Friday meetings less often than any other day, according to a recent analysis by Boomerang, a meeting-scheduling tool. Your client, your co-worker, your boss—chances are, they want to be doing something else on Friday too.

Try pitching “deep-work Fridays” to your boss as a way to spark creativity, said Aleem Mawani, a co-founder of customer-management software company Streak, which gives employees about 10 Fridays off per summer.

Get all your collaborating done Monday through Thursday, he advises. Then tell your team you’re going offline Friday to think big-picture.

Spend two hours in the morning focusing on a thorny problem that’s been plaguing your group. Write up your solution. Don’t send it to your boss until Monday. 

“If you send it on Friday you’re encouraging responses on Friday and now all of a sudden you’re back online,” Mawani said. 

Instead, go enjoy yourself, in a way that might spark work-related ideas. Mawani recommends doing something physical and outdoors, like taking a hike or strolling a farmers market. Let your mind wander, or bounce thoughts off a friend.

If you don’t want to make a point that you’re unavailable at the end of the week, try to make your Fridays look like every other day, Mawani said. Each morning, send the boss a quick list of what you’re planning to accomplish, and a list of what you did accomplish by day’s end. If you’ll be out of pocket for a stretch on Friday, ask a colleague in a similar role to cover for you—and offer to do the same for her.

“So many jobs, it’s actually not necessary to do the job 9 to 5,” Mawani said. 

Take control

Mark Theisen, a product manager in the Detroit area, keeps his Fridays relaxed by moving meetings, or canceling them altogether. Can we push that forward to Thursday?, he’ll ask. Or: Is there anything pressing to discuss this week?

“I have some stuff I have to focus on and would appreciate the time back,” he’ll say. He tackles the toughest work on his plate earlier in the week, reserving Fridays for mindless tasks like email. Extra time is his, to sneak in a walk with his 11-month old daughter or the occasional nap. 

“To me, it’s about taking control over the things you have control over,” he added. “It makes me feel more human.”

After all, who among us hasn’t spent a Friday afternoon mindlessly refreshing their inbox and staring at the clock?

In a previous job, Emily Bissen would hit her weekly targets by Thursday, then spend Fridays chatting with a co-worker and refilling her coffee. Her boss was out playing golf. After a couple of weeks, Bissen began popping out early.  

Now a sales and business development coach in Seattle, she’s continued cutting back her summer hours to spend more time with her daughters. 

“It felt like the balance,” she said, “that I had always been looking for.”

Write to Rachel Feintzeig at [email protected]