We Need to Talk About Fridays

Anyone of a certain age remembers when Fridays were the day when coffee breaks were a bit longer and the chatter around the water cooler was more relaxed—a workday when, if you were lucky and planned ahead, you might be able to leave the office early to get a head start on the weekend.

In my case, as a consultant, Fridays earlier in my career were the day you could almost always find me in the office catching up after a week of travel to visit clients. Taking an extended lunch to discuss a project with a colleague was a regular Friday treat—so too the slightly less crowded Atlanta highways.

Flash forward to today, and you’re more likely to catch me working from home on a Friday. With clients expecting their consultants on-site less frequently and so many meetings being held virtually, Fridays have largely become my day working from home to focus and prepare.

And I’m not alone. Nearly two decades of data bears this out. Most companies never reach or exceed 100% utilization of their space, and Friday is the lowest-use day of the week. Anyone working in an office knows this to be true. Still, why are Fridays getting so much attention now?

Perhaps it’s because Fridays are the blemish in an otherwise rebounding utilization rate for many companies. They’re lowering the average that many companies are proud to see on the rise.

Fridays are seen by many knowledge workers as a symbol of the transformation that occurred throughout the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s the one day of the week when most people don’t schedule late afternoon meetings—barring a time-sensitive project. And the one day when you are not surprised if your email is met with an OOO response.

Still, Fridays are more valuable for productivity than you might think, especially in the era of hybrid work.

Numerous studies have scrutinized Friday productivity. LinkedIn recently released data showing a 20–35% drop in task completion on Fridays, along with fewer productive hours compared to the rest of the week.

However, Friday has more subtle value that many studies miss. Consider the qualitative aspects of work, the things that aren’t easily measured.

Consider individual tasks such as professional development. Friday is often one of the easiest times to schedule a conversation with a mentor or leader whose calendar is otherwise too full the rest of the week.

Fridays are also good for reflecting and planning. Organizing tasks, updating your calendar, completing required training or writing a new list of to-dos before the Monday rush can be valuable preparation for the coming week. It’s often challenging for us to see solutions unless we take a step back from the bustle of our workflow and examine the bigger picture.

They’re also good “housekeeping” days—for submitting an expense report, cleaning up your digital file cabinet and so on. Tasks that are arguably not urgent enough to do during the peak of the week can be accomplished on Fridays.

Turns out, Friday is when we make ourselves the person who can do their job better Monday through Thursday.

Without Friday, the constant pressures of office work would start to cause the same dips in productivity to occur throughout the entire week.

Rather than writing off Friday as a lost day of productivity, we should ask employers and employees to redefine what “productive” means on Fridays. I did just that on a recent call with over 30 leaders across CBRE. When asked what they could most likely be found doing on a Friday, more than half said some version of “catching up.”

The steady inflow of emails, tasks, people-management responsibilities, client deliverables and initiatives don’t stop, and Fridays are the day leaders have come to expect they’ll have some quiet time to chip away at those items. Many also said they were planning their week ahead, setting new priorities, taking stock of progress on their goals and having internal meetings and team calls. When asked about their typical mental state on a Friday, nearly 60% said they feel a combination of motivated and engaged.

So despite the inevitable end-of-the-week backlog, leaders know if they can push through their version of a productive Friday, the weekend is within reach.

Fridays have also become an increasingly important buffer zone between work and life.

Consider your personal appointment schedule for you or your family: Would you rather schedule a dentist appointment at 8 a.m. on a Friday or a Tuesday? For the majority of professionals, Friday is the natural time to fit life into the work schedule, away from the email traffic, meetings and interruptions.

Retailers everywhere have noticed. Kroger’s shopper visits on Fridays rival Saturday and Sunday percentages, which are an average of 2–3% higher than daily visits on Monday through Thursday, according to Placer.ai data. Thus, Kroger offers deals such as “Free Friday Download” for coupons to draw in traffic on the new buffer day. At Costco, the big-box warehouse chain, Friday visits now come within 1.24% of Sunday visits.

And finally, consider the use of employees’ paid time off. Many employees plan their PTO to balance maximum personal enjoyment and minimal work impact. Would you rather miss a full workday of meetings, emails and to-dos and have to make it up later, or miss a lighter day with less catchup required? Less, of course.

With more companies offering unlimited PTO as a strategic employee benefit, employees will have more freedom to consider Fridays a day to slow down or take off.

Given all this, it’s no surprise that casual Fridays are a thing of the past.

The original aim of casual Fridays was to boost employee morale, reduce stress and create space for creativity while still getting work done. It often involved other social engagements like team lunches, office happy hours or birthday celebrations.

Throughout the 2000s, casual Fridays began losing distinction, as business-casual attire gradually took hold as an everyday norm for many companies. Then, hybrid work schedules initiated during the pandemic established Friday as an optimal day to work from home. Still, the excitement of gathering with teammates has endured for many office workers.

So when does socializing happen? The middle of the work week. Many companies are opting for events and programming on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays—their highest office attendance days—in the hopes of better engaging employees.

With all this change, you certainly should think about Fridays differently.

For businesses and people, Fridays do not represent a loss of productivity, but a strategic shift in how we work, rest and connect. And that’s a virtual water cooler I’m happy to end the week around.

A version of this article originally appeared in Work Design magazine.