Who needs a Duvet Day?
When I was running our audio post-production facility in the UK (of our 20-plus years as a company we operated a 3-studio / Dolby theatre for a dozen years, before down-scaling in line with market trends) our payroll headcount reached the giddy heights of 7 people, and all committed to a common cause of delivering excellence, whilst having fun, learning and growing.
I wasn’t steering an organization the size of Google, but we were a happy ship; and as Managing Director it was my responsibility to carry out 3 important tasks each Friday.
The first was to go and fetch a ‘breakfast bap’ of choice from a nearby catering caravan, that did umpteen variations of fried ingredients on a huge bread roll, for the staff, before the initial session of the day.
The second thing was to announce the winner of the ‘Champ of The Week’ award; an honour that had someone’s name prominently displayed on a white board in our reception for the next 7 days, in recognition of their special contribution either to a project, a client or the company itself.
(The other, paired award was ‘Chump of The Week’, which I would inevitably award to myself, for some silly mistake I’d made… It formed an integral part of our “learning from our mistakes, no-blame but taking responsibility” culture.)
And the last thing was to end the day how I started, with my hand in my pocket; but this time, buying the first round of drinks after work at our favourite watering hole, ‘The Old Mo’. (The delightful Old Moseley Arms.)
However, one of the initiatives I introduced appeared to be a complete and utter failure. Because in the 4 years it ran for, not one member of staff bothered to take part in it.
This was our ‘Duvet Day’ option; a no-questions-asked, paid day off that didn’t eat into your holiday entitlement, and could be taken the same day, if you woke up and didn’t feel like coming in to work.
My reasoning was I didn’t want anyone working in the studios who didn’t want to be there. A colleague being present under sufferance would only be a negative influence on themselves, and those around them; and in our creative environment, I wanted our collective vibrations to be kept high.
Looking back, this ‘failure’ represented a ‘success’ of course… Having a zero uptake for a Duvet Day clearly meant folk were happy in their work. As Managing Director, that was one, big, mission accomplished.
So who needs a Duvet Day?
Well, I think we all do… Or at least the opportunity. But that doesn’t mean we’ll choose to stay at home.
Just like a feature film, the success of a company is dependent on the happiness of the crew: happy people give their best work.
And that’s the whole point.
My short eBook on the benefits of coaching, drawing on my experience of being both an “award-winning” creative and running successful companies, is available as a free download here: www.soundproducer.com.au/coaching
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