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I’ve been lucky that we have closed down for the final week of the yr for the final seven years that I’ve been at Buffer. We kicked off this on the finish of 2016 and have stored up yearly since then.
Closing down for the final week of the yr is a chance to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, besides throughout the entire firm. I like telling folks about this follow at Buffer as a result of they’ve so many questions on how we proceed to function whereas closing down for every week.
As we work with many small companies and creators who can generally battle with working over the vacations, it feels particularly vital to share how we’re going about this.
So on this publish, I’ll cowl what it means to shut down for every week as a enterprise whose clients are at all times utilizing it, why we do it, and particularly how our largest groups handle this day without work whereas nonetheless caring for our product and our clients.
Let’s dive in!
What does it imply to shut down for every week?
On the finish of yearly, we shut down for the yr’s closing week. The precise definition of “closed down” varies from firm to firm – some companies will fully shut down operations whereas others will solely shut specific sections of their enterprise.
This offers everybody on the firm some further time to relaxation, and it creates an surroundings the place nobody is frightened about lacking out on initiatives or updates whereas they’re offline as a result of we’re all offline. We’ve executed this form of factor earlier than, closing down for an additional lengthy weekend in the summertime, and it’s at all times been refreshing for our workforce.
Once I say that we’re closed, that implies that many of the firm is off (I’ll elaborate within the subsequent part), we aren’t releasing new options or altering our product in any respect, we aren’t publishing new weblog posts, and it’s deliberately a time of relaxation.
In our enterprise, creating instruments for small companies and creators constructing a model on-line, this time of yr can also be reliably gradual. So in contrast to another industries which will choose up over the vacations, we are able to lean into relaxation by closing the corporate throughout a naturally slower interval.
What does this seem like in follow?
For many groups at Buffer, closing for the vacations means a full disconnect. Our two largest groups, Engineering and Buyer Advocacy should create programs the place we are able to nonetheless serve our clients and guarantee Buffer is operational whereas additionally making house for extra relaxation. So right here’s how Engineering and Advocacy deal with the week off.
How our Advocacy workforce handles every week closed
Our Advocacy workforce is a bunch of absolute professionals who’re caring for our clients. This yr, they’ve helped clear up over 60,000 buyer assist requests with a mean first response time of simply three hours.
Through the years that we’ve been closing, they’ve discovered the best steadiness to make sure we are able to nonetheless assist clients whereas additionally giving our Advocates that further relaxation.
To begin, we take steps to make this era seen to our clients. They publish a transparent message stating that we’re shut down for the vacations in all the primary channels the place we talk with clients. These embody a banner for people who find themselves in Buffer, an auto-reply to buyer assist e-mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and a number of other different locations.
This yr, the message reads:
The Buffer workforce is observing an organization shut down between December 24 and January 1.
We’re nonetheless responding to buyer assist emails and messages however will take longer than normal to answer. We’ll get again to you as rapidly as we are able to. Joyful Holidays!
For Advocates, we ask that every particular person on the workforce works one full day or two half days in that interval. We have now 21 folks on the Advocacy workforce, and we’ll have two or extra folks on-line most days. We don’t at all times have folks on December twenty fourth or twenty fifth, or January 1st, and we’re okay with that.
The workforce has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when persons are on-line with the best way to prioritize their work and get again to clients, and pointers for emergencies. (We have now these pointers in place on a regular basis, but it surely’s at all times good to evaluation forward of the vacations.)
How our Engineering workforce handles every week closed
Much like Advocacy, for our engineers, we have to have some protection of engineers who’re on name in case one thing occurs.
For Engineering, their break seems totally different as a result of they’re on name, that means they’re accessible if one thing breaks, relatively than absolutely on-line throughout this time. That implies that the load of being on name may be unfold amongst fewer folks as a result of the probability of them needing to be on-line is decrease.
The way in which that the on-call schedule works is that there are a number of specialised or senior members of the workforce who’re instantly positioned in the entire on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the remainder of the engineering workforce to be on-call all through the week.
Along with having people on name, we additionally do a code freeze earlier than the top of the yr. This merely means we cease transport new code and making adjustments to Buffer. The aim of that is to extend our confidence that issues will go easily for the engineers on-call and our Advocacy workforce.
A number of questions from our neighborhood about closing down for every week
We reached out on social media to see what questions folks had about closing down for every week, and we bought just a few good questions. Right here’s our response:
Do shoppers discover this irritating or ever complain?
We haven’t heard main complaints or frustration about this previously, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next yr. We ensure to be very clear that we’re taking this day without work throughout our communication channels. We nonetheless have our Advocacy workforce spending a while on-line and might reply to something pressing.
Did this affect your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a gradual time for us to be closed. So it’s the best time to take a break with none main affect. As well as, because the Advocacy workforce continues to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering workforce is on name, we are able to nonetheless bounce on any points that pop up, and our clients nonetheless have assist.
I’d like to find out about the advantages your organization has seen and the way it positively impacts staff!
The most important profit we’ve seen from closing down for the vacations is that our workforce is extra rested and refreshed. It’s a singular alternative for everybody at Buffer to take a break, relatively than it occurring in spots all year long. It means the vitality ranges within the first few weeks of the yr are at all times actually excessive for us. Taking this week off for all of us directly additionally provides us a higher alternative to chill out as a result of nobody wants to consider initiatives which can be shifting ahead with out them or lacking out on workforce communication. In any case, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a workforce, which interprets into being nice for our product and our clients.
Do you’re taking breaks from work or your corporation, and if that’s the case, what’s your strategy? We’d love to listen to from you on Twitter or Discord.
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