TGIF: Washington Businesses Offering Extra Time Off for Summer Fridays

It’s lovely outside, but you’re stuck at your desk—or worse, in your cubicle with no window. You’d love to leave early and get a jump on the weekend, but you can’t do it every Friday. Or can you?

Over the next few weeks, we’ll take a look at what some local companies offer employees to help them enjoy a more relaxing, blissful summer. This week: companies that close early on Fridays—and that pay employees for the time.

At the DC nonprofit Share Our Strength, the office closes at 1 on the second and fourth Fridays of June, July, and August. “This is paid time off, and employees are not required to make up this time in any way,” says Serena Williams, senior director of human resources. “It’s our way of saying thanks for all of the hard work that goes into making No Kid Hungry a reality.”

While some employers offer compressed work weeks year-round or in the summer—employees, for example, may log extra hours over nine work days to take every tenth off—a surprising number of workplaces simply grant their staff the paid time. Food & Friends is another example: At this nonprofit, every Friday—not just in the summer—employees are allowed to leave three hours early and still get a full day’s pay. 

While a number of nonprofits offer summer hours—perhaps to make up for the lesser perks of a for-profit employer—it’s not just nonprofits that extend shorter summer work days. At ViOn, an IT solutions firm in Herndon and a perennial winner in our Great Places to Work contest, employees are allowed to leave at 2 every Friday, as long as any pressing business is done.

At Monument Wealth Management in Alexandria, the office adjourns at 4 every summer Friday. While that’s not significantly early, the financial services firm sweetens the deal by giving every employee their choice of one paid Friday off per month in summer.

Does your company offer generous summer hours or policies? Let us know by dropping an e-mail to sdalphonse@washingtonian.com.