Okay, but how about a summer slowdown?
Back in the depths of winter I wrote about giving ourselves permission to take things easy in hibernation season. What if we did the same, albeit in a different way, in peak summer?
If you’ve ever met me IRL, it’s highly likely that you know my feelings about the summer months. For those who haven’t heard my grumbling: I am not a fan. I don’t do well in hot weather. I never have. I was born on one of the coldest days of the year and I think that set the tone for a life of refusing to wear a proper coat and far preferring the office aircon set to full power. I find the heat makes me both irritable and depressed. I become hyper-aware of my body – the way my thighs rub together, the ickiness of sweat pooling under boobs and on an upper lip – and resent not being able to dress the way I like (layers! tights! boots!) because I’m conscious of what will make me overheat. My energy is sapped and I just want to lie down… then it’s too hot in bed and I throw the duvet off me in a rage, despite being unable to sleep without something on top of me. My summers tend to be spent doing very little, resenting myself for doing very little, and eagerly waiting for the temperature to drop.
When I express my summer hatred, people tend to call me variations of ‘a massive killjoy’, which is fair enough. While the majority of the public would not agree with my pleas to speed up the heat and skip to the good bit (ie. a winter chill in the air!), what I think most people would agree with is that there are certain things the summer is definitely bad for. Things like: skiing, a ‘keep this ice cube solid for the longest time’ competition, and, working. Summer enjoyers and summer haters can be united on this one thing: a hot summer day is not best spent toiling away. The summer lovers might say a sunny day should be spent at the beach, or in a pub garden, or reading a book outside. The haters will declare that it’s too hot for your brain to work at full capacity, and that we instead should be lying down in front of multiple fans on full blast. But we can agree: no summer day should be spent working hard.
And yet! Here we are, with few jobs offering a long summer break or any adjustments for the hot weather. This is despite clear evidence that the summer months tend to be a bit of a write-off. From June to August, it feels like everyone’s on annual leave, leading to cancelled meetings (“no one’s really here… shall we take the time back? Unless anyone opposes?” Of course no one opposes) and holding off on any important decisions until the grownups get back. Those who aren’t off on holiday are hardly working at full capacity… and how can they, when everyone else is away and so much work depends on other people? Workers in the office clock off early to have a chance of getting a seat in the pub’s outdoor area. People working from home nip outside for some sunbathing at lunchtime and pretend not to notice that two hours have passed.
There’s a lot of chat about SAD and general winter lethargy, but for me, it’s the warm weather than sends my energy levels plummeting, along with my productivity. I doubt the summer enjoyers would say they’re at their work peak in the heat, even if they come alive in the summertime. Research shows that hot weather makes us get less done at work and is linked to slower reaction times.
So why do we keep plowing on? Why the pretense that we’re doing our best work when we’d all like to be doing something else (whether that’s eating an ice cream on the pier or sleeping until it gets cold again)? I really think we, as a society, need to get real, to be a bit more honest, and to adjust the way we work in the summer. What that might look like: shortened hours, Fridays off, fewer tasks to get done, introductions of siestas, shifted hours to avoid working at the hottest points of the day, a shift to a more seasonal approach to the working year that would see more being done in spring and less in the summer.
If you’re a long-ish term reader of Working On Purpose, you’re likely thinking: ‘wait a minute. Didn’t she write a whole screed about the need to slow down in winter? Does she seriously just not want to work at all?’ To this I say: yes, I did say a winter slowdown would also be beneficial, but no, I don’t want to quit work entirely. I do think we should probably be working a lot less than we are, however, and that we absolutely should be making adjustments to our working lives to make them better align with our bodies and minds. It’s not that I don’t want to work - I love work, and having meaningful work is important for everyone - but that I would like us to consider working a little differently. I believe we could all do with slowing down, summer and winter, with taking our feet off the gas, with being a little gentler and kinder and more understanding of our human-ness. That might start with summer hours, or you can back winter adjustments instead, but the core message is this: we need to stop pretending the way we’re working is what’s best and start asking what tweaks we could make to make work better.
Please take my work survey for a big project I’m tackling. It’s speedy and you can be anonymous if you’d prefer, so can be as honest as possible. I’m in need of as many different perspectives as possible and so would love if you could share the link with everyone you know:
Work-related reading recs:
An absolute must-read on the working conditions and firings of cleaners
Big fan of Amy Beecham’s piece on the social impact of becoming a boss
Employees are being forced back to the office — but where’s your boss?
My boss Lisa Smosarski has a great guide on how to navigate friendships at work
full pay, zero work