I’ve been lucky that we have closed down for the final week of the 12 months 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 12 months is a chance to pause and recharge. It’s like a reset, besides throughout the entire firm. I like telling individuals about this follow at Buffer as a result of they’ve so many questions on how we proceed to function whereas closing down for per week.
As we work with many small companies and creators who can typically 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 per 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 per week?
On the finish of yearly, we shut down for the 12 months’s remaining 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 frightened about lacking out on tasks or updates whereas they’re offline as a result of we’re all offline. We’ve accomplished 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 crew.
After I say that we’re closed, that signifies that a lot 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 12 months can also be reliably sluggish. So not like another industries which will decide up over the vacations, we will 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 need to create techniques the place we will 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 crew handles per week closed
Our Advocacy crew is a gaggle of absolute professionals who’re caring for our clients. This 12 months, they’ve helped remedy over 60,000 buyer help requests with a median first response time of simply three hours.
Over time that now we have been closing, they’ve discovered the fitting stability to make sure we will 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 help electronic mail, a pinned tweet on our account, and a number of other different locations.
This 12 months, the message reads:
The Buffer crew 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 traditional to answer. We’ll get again to you as shortly as we will. Joyful Holidays!
For Advocates, we ask that every individual on the crew works one full day or two half days in that interval. We’ve 21 individuals on the Advocacy crew, and we’ll have two or extra individuals on-line most days. We don’t at all times have individuals on December twenty fourth or twenty fifth, or January 1st, and we’re okay with that.
The crew has in place a transparent schedule, expectations when persons are on-line with find out how to prioritize their work and get again to clients, and tips for emergencies. (We’ve these tips in place on a regular basis, nevertheless it’s at all times good to assessment forward of the vacations.)
How our Engineering crew handles per 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 completely different as a result of they’re on name, which means they’re out there if one thing breaks, fairly than absolutely on-line throughout this time. That signifies that the load of being on name may be unfold amongst fewer individuals as a result of the chance 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 crew who’re instantly positioned in all the on-call spots. Then we ask for volunteers from the remainder of the engineering crew to be on-call all through the week.
Along with having of us on name, we additionally do a code freeze earlier than the top of the 12 months. This merely means we cease transport new code and making modifications to Buffer. The purpose of that is to extend our confidence that issues will go easily for the engineers on-call and our Advocacy crew.
Just a few questions from our group about closing down for per week
We reached out on social media to see what questions individuals had about closing down for per week, and we obtained a number 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 prior to now, and if ever issues haven’t gone as deliberate, we’ve adjusted our plan for the next 12 months. We make certain to be very clear that we’re taking this day off throughout our communication channels. We nonetheless have our Advocacy crew spending a while on-line and may reply to something pressing.
Did this affect your backside line in any respect?
No, we deliberately select a sluggish time for us to be closed. So it’s the fitting time to take a break with none main affect. As well as, because the Advocacy crew remains to be monitoring for pressing buyer requests and the Engineering crew is on name, we will nonetheless soar on any points that pop up, and our clients nonetheless have help.
I’d like to find out about the advantages your organization has seen and the way it positively impacts workers!
The most important profit we’ve seen from closing down for the vacations is that our crew is extra rested and refreshed. It’s a singular alternative for everybody at Buffer to take a break, fairly than it taking place in spots all year long. It means the vitality ranges within the first few weeks of the 12 months 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 are shifting ahead with out them or lacking out on crew communication. In any case, we’re all offline. That is nice for us as a crew, which interprets into being nice for our product and our clients.
Do you are taking breaks from work or what you are promoting, and in that case, what’s your method? We’d love to listen to from you on Twitter or Discord.
