To wonder if work deliberately send upsetting emails on Friday

[Arbesque]

The results of a promotion competition at work were announced on Friday afternoon. So lots of people going home upset for the weekend. I said to a colleague that it was a bit mean and they could have waited until Monday, but she reckons it's deliberate so that people will calm down over the weekend and not kick up a fuss in work.

Apparently it's common practice in lots of workplaces to announce bad news just before the weekend.

Has anyone else heard this?

Yes they definitely do. I work in education for our local authority and they always send our bad news at the end of term.

Probably.

Yes. Lets people lick their wounds over the weekend in peace.

Not clear what vote means what so haven't voted, but you are quite right that it was deliberate. Obviously it's upsetting and they need workers to be focused on doing their jobs well on monday, not reeling from a shock of bad news.

Yes I agree with you x

It also means that people aren’t spending the weekend worrying/thinking about what the outcome could be. Plus for the person who has had the good news it gives them the opportunity to celebrate.

Very much intended. I had an awful boss who did that too.

Yes but makes sense

gives employees a chance to have the weakened before knee jerk reactions

In politics it’s called “take out the trash day”. You send out bad news on a Friday, people have their reactions over the weekend and are usually calmed by the Monday.

Yes it’s a well known tactic

Ours get send out when ready no matter which working day it is.

I ince got rejection email on 24th December 😂

Smart thing to do. Let people process it in their own space in their own time.

We always aim to give interview decisions by end of the day Friday (not necessarily right then, but by then) so people don’t spend their weekends thinking about whether they got it and getting their hopes up.

I don’t think it’s fair to wait until Monday, you’re just prolonging the disappointment and I doubt people would be able to enjoy their weekend that much anyway

Yes, it happens. I think it's a good way to let people digest the news rather than potentially having a knee jerk response at work and saying something they regret.

Its so:
People arent worrying over the weekend waiting for bad news
People have time to recover from disappointment and process it in peace

I've only met one manager who ignored this rule and it always cause massive disruption when he'd drop bad news on a bloody tuesday a morning. Because people are idiots, so the upset person would have to constantly have colleagues going up to them and asking about it, arguments would start... a mess.

Our huge global parent company did this for years. Someone important leaving? Friday. Redundancies announced? Friday end of day. Pay freeze? Friday? Company losing money…

YOu get it. It was to stop people talking about it together right away apparently.

after a lot of feedback though they have mostly stopped doing that, Tuesday/ Weds are now the favoured bad news days. Mondays are always ‘good’ news days.

Yup. I got my redundancy notice the last day before the Xmas break. That was lovely.

I've been made redundant on Friday afternoon..more than once.

Yes of course they do.

I had no idea this was a thing. Must come in the HR training

Yes. 5 mins before knocking off time too.

Definitely deliberate. I always used to do Thursday so we could pick up with people who were upset/ worried on Friday then they could have the weekend off.

I once got my P45 on my birthday, not the best present I've ever had.

Yeah, redundancy announcements mid morning on a Friday, anyone affected allowed to bugger off after the meeting (usually to the pub) on the understanding that they’re back in and being professional Monday morning. Have seen it happen a few times and had the joy of it happening to DH a fortnight ago! 😩

I'm not 100% convinced it's deliberate - more just a putting off the bad news task as long as possible but it has to be completed that week.
Same impact though....

I think some posters must have had some awful experiences in the workplace to think that employers generally like upsetting people! I have only ever heard the conventional wisdom to only break bad news at the beginning of the week so that people can take any action immediately.

That said, I would not put the announcement of promotions as bad news. It is good news to some people and those not being promoted are not actually worse off. When I have worked places with annual promotion announcements, these have often been on a Friday.