We want you to know that you do not owe your work any more than 8.5 hours every week day. A healthy amount of sleep, and a rich and rewarding life outside of work should not be wasted for a few more hours at work. In fact, it takes away from work more than it gives. Keeping a check on our hours at work forces us to prioritise the work that really matters.
At the same time, it seems dismissive of the creative process in general to box thinking time into specific time blocks. In the business of ideas, the idea of an ‘eight hour work day’ can feel outdated and reductive of what creative effort actually takes. You can block eight hours to crack just that one brief, and find yourself at the end of the eight hour staring at an empty document. Or at best, a few loose strands of thought that are not enough. Creativity takes stamina. It takes resilience. And sometimes it eats into our personal time. Being a Creative is a balancing act between feeling depleted and energized.
So we’d urge you to understand both your mind and your body’s signs and slowly learn to pre-empt them. Know when you need to switch off, so that you don’t feel bogged down by work - that’s the last thing we want. And just like your body, develop mental stamina and immunity. You can rest assured that we’ll always trust your judgement.
There’s a motto for ourselves that we use internally, ‘Do great work. Get great sleep.’ Of course all this is easier said than done. Often times, work may consume us. We’re heavily invested in seeing something through or there may be way too many things on our plate than we can handle at any given point of time. Know that we’re committed to improving these situations should they arise. And it always starts with a conversation.
There are occasions when teams or individuals need to work off-hours for client calls, pitches, or quick turnarounds. However, this additional time should not exceed the normal hours you put in at work. The Talent Experience & HR teams, along with team leads, will follow up with you to arrange compensatory time off to make up for the additional hours worked during the week. Before taking this time off, we expect you to obtain the necessary approvals from your manager to ensure a seamless process for the rest of your team.