Great question @Anna-Crabb! I stopped to reflect on this further.
We have a very open workplace when it comes to talking about mental health, physical health and well-being so overwork and burnout is something we are all aware of and we look out for each other. If I email my team on Fridays (my day off), they will kindly remind me to go and enjoy the day! We also talk a lot about our hobbies and what we’re getting up to outside of work – which reminds us all of our whole selves. Speaking personally I’ll go for a bushwalk, or swim or out with friends during the day, so I fit in work around it which avoids burnout because there are only so many hours left. One question I like to think about too is, “what sort of state do I want to achieve today?”. The answer is never an over-worked stressed one and when I find that happening for days in a row I re-assess.
There are two other key aspects which help at Quiip:
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A lot of our hours are set by the client and we don’t go over them. For our own/internal company work, we operate leanly have very project orientated, time-bound tasks. We often estimate how much time (money) we should spend on a project and do what is possible in that timeframe. Because work expands to fill time. You can create a strategy in 50 hours or 500.
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We are influenced by It Doesn’t Have to Be Crazy At Work*. This book talks about developing a “non asap” culture and being a calm company. I highly recommend this read!
Here is a pic from the book which captures the concept:
Our People & Culture honcho @LaurenPiro might have other insights!