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 really 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 wrestle with working over the vacations, it feels particularly vital to share how we’re going about this.
So on this submit, 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 off 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 ultimate week. The precise definition of “closed down” varies from firm to firm – some companies will utterly shut down operations whereas others will solely shut explicit sections of their enterprise.
This offers everybody on the firm some further time to relaxation, and it creates an atmosphere the place nobody is apprehensive about lacking out on tasks or updates whereas they’re offline as a result of we’re all offline. We’ve executed this type of factor earlier than, closing down for an additional lengthy weekend in the summertime, and it’s at all times been refreshing for our staff.
After I say that we’re closed, that signifies 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 be reliably sluggish. So not like another industries that 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 appear like in follow?
For many groups at Buffer, closing for the vacations means a full disconnect. Our two largest groups, Engineering and Buyer Advocacy must create programs the place we are able to nonetheless serve our clients and guarantee Buffer is operational whereas additionally making area for extra relaxation. So right here’s how Engineering and Advocacy deal with the week off.
How our Advocacy staff handles every week closed
Our Advocacy staff is a gaggle of absolute professionals who’re taking good care of our clients. This yr, they’ve helped clear up over 60,000 buyer help requests with a median first response time of simply three hours.
Over time that we’ve been closing, they’ve discovered the proper steadiness to make sure we are able to nonetheless assist clients whereas additionally giving our Advocates that further relaxation.
To start out, we take steps to make this era seen to our clients. They submit a transparent message stating that we’re shut down for the vacations in all the principle channels the place we talk with clients. These embrace a banner for people who find themselves in Buffer, an auto-reply to buyer help e-mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and several other different locations.
This yr, the message reads:
The Buffer staff is observing an organization shut down between December 24 and January 1.
We’re nonetheless responding to buyer help emails and messages however will take longer than ordinary to answer. We’ll get again to you as shortly as we are able to. Completely happy Holidays!
For Advocates, we ask that every particular person on the staff works one full day or two half days in that interval. We’ve 21 folks on the Advocacy staff, 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 staff has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when persons are on-line with the right way to prioritize their work and get again to clients, and tips for emergencies. (We’ve these tips in place on a regular basis, but it surely’s at all times good to evaluation forward of the vacations.)
How our Engineering staff handles every week closed
Just 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, which means they’re obtainable if one thing breaks, relatively than absolutely on-line throughout this time. That signifies that the load of being on name could be unfold amongst fewer folks as a result of the chance of them needing to be on-line is decrease.
The best way that the on-call schedule works is that there are a number of specialised or senior members of the staff who’re instantly positioned in all the on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the remainder of the engineering staff to be on-call all through the week.
Along with having of us on name, we additionally do a code freeze earlier than the tip 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 staff.
Just a few 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 obtained a couple of good questions. Right here’s our response:
Do purchasers discover this irritating or ever complain?
We haven’t heard main complaints or frustration about this up to now, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next yr. We make certain to be very clear that we’re taking this day off throughout our communication channels. We nonetheless have our Advocacy staff spending a while on-line and might reply to something pressing.
Did this impression your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a sluggish time for us to be closed. So it’s the proper time to take a break with none main impression. As well as, because the Advocacy staff remains to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering staff is on name, we are able to nonetheless soar on any points that pop up, and our clients nonetheless have help.
I’d like to learn about the advantages your organization has seen and the way it positively impacts workers!
The largest profit we’ve seen from closing down for the vacations is that our staff is extra rested and refreshed. It’s a singular alternative for everybody at Buffer to take a break, relatively than it taking place 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 without delay additionally provides us a larger alternative to calm down as a result of nobody wants to consider tasks which might be transferring ahead with out them or lacking out on staff communication. In spite of everything, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a staff, which interprets into being nice for our product and our clients.
Do you are taking breaks from work or your small business, and if that’s the case, what’s your method? We’d love to listen to from you on Twitter or Discord.
