Daemon Group Blog

How productive are your Fridays?

Posted on 06. Jan, 2012 by Croaghie in Employer Branding, General

Friday in many industries, marketing included (…ahem), are often approached by staff in a casual, laissez-faire manner.

When does weekend wind-down mode start in your office? Thursday night?

In an ad agency I used to work for, the creative department checked out most Fridays at midday. Literally. Most often never to return for the week. And if they did, they were usually….. well… not very tidy.

How do you keep your people motivated on Friday?

Here over at Daemon Within HQ, we often…

• Brainstorm an upcoming client challenge for the following week over a glass of vino or cold beer
• Monthly, we share our respective highlights (or lowlights)
• Partake in one of the famous Daemon Trivia events

On that, to my horror, about 3 weeks into my tenure with Daemon, my lovely colleagues @rockylindner (alias Twitter handle: @youreffindreamin) and @lucie_may (alias Twitter handle: @SexyMcAwesome) decided to host a rock-a-sted-ford style trivia event. And sadly I hadn’t prepared myself (ie, no alcohol involved). So I belted out a few lines of ‘American Pie’, whilst trying to bustamove. And I can’t sing. @Croaghie #FAIL.

So, on our experience, it’s a good time for culture development.

What about informal team meetings: not boring or task oriented, but sharing of information such as:

• How the company’s performing
• Staff changes; general updates
• Great news articles on industry activity and competitors
• Asking for feedback from employees: on the day-to-day, diversity, culture, competitors
• Encouraging your people to get to know one another better: what’s happening on the weekend?

Another previous employer of mine, had the ‘Ad-Agency-Name Hour’ at 4pm on Fridays in the boardroom. Sadly, the culture was such that many people would bugger off at 345, knowing the CEO and other business leaders were actively participating in said ‘Hour’. Hmmm….not good!

Finally, if you’re really lucky, and have a boss like David Brent, you could goad him into dancing for charity…..

Happy Weekend Everyone!

Follow us on Twitter!

@Croaghie
@Lu_cy_Lu
@Daemonwithin

Tags: Culture, friday fun, HR, Productivity, The Office