Big news. If you work at Inkhouse, you get every other Friday off. Flexible Fridays begin on January 1, 2022. If it’s your Friday, you just need to be available by text for questions and emergencies. No tether to email or Slack.
Will this go perfectly? Hell no, but one of our values is that we don’t confuse progress with process, so we’re piloting this in Q1 and we’ll adjust as we go. But while we’re at it, we’re going to go ahead and close during the week of July 4th (who’s actually working then anyway?). It’s been working for us for the week between Christmas and New Year’s for years now.
It’s risky, sure. But I love this stuff because if it works we are a part of defining and shaping how our industry moves forward. Plus, it’s been our thing to reinvent the PR agency culture. When I founded Inkhouse 15 years ago, I had a simple mission: create an agency that didn’t suck. And now the whole world wants workplaces that don’t suck. They don’t have to! I’ve been out to prove that we can create a wildly successful workplace that clients rely on for strategy and results, while also providing a workplace that helps people live fulfilling lives (because, by the way, that makes us better at our jobs).
What’s good for people really is good for business. Our mission has been to provide our people with the stuff that matters:
When we banned email between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m., people on the outside were skeptical. What will clients think? The same thing happened when we began offering unlimited vacation. They wondered what we’d do if people took advantage of it. These are the wrong questions (and I think two people have complained — over the course of seven years). If there’s a problem, it means there’s a performance issue, or unreasonable expectations. Because one of our values is “We use good judgment” and another is “We’re accountable” (most people do and are).
A good workplace begins with mutual trust, so here we go into the unknown future. We’re feeling good about our chances.