How many weekends do you spend in the office instead of out on the river? Working weekends isn’t as painful in the winter, when the great outdoors has gloom and doom written all over it, but as soon as summer rolls around the prospect of fun in the sun starts to sound a lot better than spending your weekend bringing your latest project in under deadline.
How do you curb those weekend heebie-jeebies and keep your mind on the job? And how can you help your employees keep on track, focused and motivated when they’re giving up their weekend on top of the Monday-Friday 9-5? Here’s what today’s business owners, motivational speakers and yes, even your employees have to say about working weekends:
1) Make weekends casual. If your clients aren’t going to be coming into the office, there’s no reason not to let your employees kick back and relax a little.
2) Half days and/or Flex time. Most of your employees won’t mind giving up their time on the weekends if they know they’re going to get to enjoy themselves sooner or later. 4 hour shifts, flex time (the option to sleep in and come in at noon rather than 9) and scheduling flexibility will go a long way toward making them feel less like martyrs and more like essential components of your team.
Working from home can go a long way toward making your employees happy(ish) about working on the weekend!
3) Alternate weekends. Do you regularly operate on weekends? Or are weekend hours going to be a regular “thing” until you get a project back on line? A word to the wise: Asking the same employees to work weekends (and overtime) over and over again is going to dramatically increase your staff turnover. Whenever possible, have your team switch off so everyone gets to enjoy their weekend (sooner or later).
4) Let them work from home. Do you absolutely have to be in the office to get done what you need to get done? If the answer is no, give working from home a try-all of you. Spending a Saturday in your pajamas with your feet propped on your end table and a laptop on your lap is a much more relaxed work environment than rolling into an empty office. That relaxation, and the absence of regular office distractions, can increase efficiency and creativity for maximum results on a project.
5) Reserve weekend hours for absolute, unquestioned emergencies. Want to keep your employees on track and eliminate weekend lethargy? Save working weekends for when an emergency is looming on the horizon. That immediately infuses those Saturday hours with a sense of urgency that’s guaranteed to help keep your mind on the straight and narrow.