Leave Loudly this holiday!

#career #selfcare #culture

Hey folks!

With the holiday season coming around for many DEV-ers, let's all remember to Leave Loudly!

What does this mean?

Leaving loudly was originally developed by the CEO of Pepsi as a way to spread a culture of acceptance to working good hours. He encouraged executive to tell everyone when they were leaving the office - and the reason they were leaving. This helped normalize a culture of taking care of yourself and your family.

It means when you leave the office, be sure you are actually leaving - and make sure other people know too. It also means reducing the amount of work you are doing outside of work. Pepsi encourages sending only required emails out of work hours and on weekends.

What this means for us developers?

There are a lot of times we as developers have a tendency to work long hours or to work on "vacations" - often under the guise of "I just need to fix this one bug" or "If I don't fix this, everyone will be upset with me." Often times one more bug leads to another and there is someone else available to fix the things that need fixed.

It means the more senior developers should spend time promoting a culture of going home, of spending time with family and friends, and of taking care of themselves. This will trickle to more junior developers and others.

This holiday

There are lots of vacation days coming up soon for many of us! I encourage you to "sign off" everyday at the office - make a quick slack post about where you are going, when you will be back in office (this helps people plan around your time), and what you are going to do during the break! Then, shut down your computer, actually leave, and don't sign on during your vacation (unless absolutely required).

I'll be leaving loudly tomorrow and taking an extra day on Wednesday to take care of myself and some other obligations. Then I'll be out until next Monday, ready for a new week (and probably a few mashed potatoes heavier)!

Cheers, friends! Have a good one!