Allied Media Projects pilots a 4-day workweek this summer
Disrupt and push back against a system that views you as a machine. You are not a machine. You are a divine human being. WE WILL REST!
Tricia Hersey, The Nap Bishop
When Allied Media Project’s staff came together to reshape our mission and vision a couple of years ago, we thought deeply about the kind of world we needed. Centering care continued to re-emerge in our conversations – understanding care for ourselves, each other, and the planet was key to creating our world anew.
As we deepen our practice of care through building a more liberatory future, we’re excited to pilot Summer Fridays, a 4-day workweek beginning May 27th, 2022 through September 5th, 2022.
What does Summer Fridays look like for AMP
Summer Fridays is AMP’s pilot of a 4-day workweek of 32 hours where we collectively include Fridays as part of our weekend. Summer Fridays will give our organization the opportunity to prepare for our more permanent transition to a 4-day workweek in January of 2023.
How did we get here?
After completing a staff satisfaction survey at the beginning of 2020, AMP staff and leadership began digging deep into our work culture to explore how we practice facilitative leadership, transparency in decision making, and organizational structure. We asked ourselves: how can AMP cultivate greater work/life harmony for our organization?
Our transition to a 4-day workweek emerged as an important solution to combat burnout, create a culture of wellness, and cultivate a sustainable org culture which includes resourced leaders to carry this work into the future.
Through a committee of staff, we researched and interviewed organizations that embarked on 4-day workweeks to learn about its impact on people and their work. We learned that with more time, rest, and spaciousness, people were inspired and better resourced to show up more fully in their roles at work.
What does this mean for our network?
Summer Fridays allows AMP to pilot what a 4-day workweek means for our staff and our network before making the more permanent move in 2023. Throughout the summer we’ll pay attention to what brings more ease and joy for our staff while evaluating what tensions arise as we continue to support a vast network of people making media for liberation.
Here’s what we anticipate our network experiencing as a result of our move to a 4-day workweek:
- A slowed-down pace in our response time to emails
- More resourced AMP staff to be able to support each other and our network in the long haul
- During years where we host Allied Media Conference, our office will close the following week for staff to recover and rest. This year, we will be closed the week following July 4th.
Working toward the world we need
These times call for us to counteract white supremacist notions of perfectionsism, urgency, and overwork by giving people their time back. As an organization rooted in media for liberation, we want our employees to be able to more fully participate in all aspects of their lives.
Here are our goals for implementing Summer Fridays:
- Lessen burnout across the organization by pushing back against white supremacy notions of urgency in our work
- Give people time to do things they want and need to do for their lives (ex. connect with family, friends, and comrades, explore creative practices and outside interests, and center the care they need)
- For people to feel more resourced and inspired to do their work
We’re excited to usher in this liberatory chapter in how we work at Allied Media Projects. As with any big shift, we welcome the lessons we’ll learn and the ease we hope this will create for our organization.