Aussie workers warming to Lazy Fridays

IT'S Sydney's new unspoken rule of etiquette - don't call an office worker after 3pm on a Friday.

If it's urgent, call the nearest watering hole where they're likely to be under a beer garden umbrella, talking with their office comrades.

It's called Lazy Fridays and it's coming to your office.

Sydney's business community has embraced the Lazy Fridays movement, with offices across the city calling it quits mid-arvo.

For S2i Communications founder Wayne Tregaskis, Lazy Fridays have long had prominence within his business. He sees these cherished afternoons - usually with a few bottles of Italian pinot grigio flowing - as the perfect way of rewarding his hard-working staff and fostering corporate intimacy.

"It's not some kind of contrived thing to build staff relations, that's a fringe benefit, but just because it's an enjoyable thing to do in a small-knit team," he said.

"Perhaps not surprisingly our staff longevity, in an industry that is not renowned for it, is very high." Mr Tregaskis has had just two staff turnovers in a decade.

Lazy Friday afternoons is common in the financial community, with Martin Place devoid of any movement around 4pm, bar the odd charity tin-rattler or busker.

Instead fashionable spots such as Ryan's Bar and The Ivy are heaving with the suited late-afternoon crowd.

"The Friday early head- to-the-pub is almost the unwritten rule. I'm not sure too many companies would advertise it, but it happens everywhere," one bank spokeswoman said.

Sydney Chamber of Commerce spokesman Chris Taylor said the trend was working wonders for staff morale.

"With workplace flexibility on the rise, businesses are finding more social options to balance the working life," Mr Taylor said

"There is a growing trend of people leaving a bit earlier on a Friday but they are staying and working later on a Tuesday."

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw-act/workers-warming-to-lazy-fr...