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Original poster

To wonder if work deliberately send upsetting emails on Friday

180 replies

Arbesque · 10/10/2022 08:21

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?

OP posts:
mumda · 10/10/2022 08:39

Friday bombing. Deeply offensive technique that people should be strung up for.

Atmywitsend29 · 10/10/2022 08:40

Absolutely is.

In my old job the manager worked Monday to Friday, any moaning or upsetting emails she would send on a Friday at 445pm just before she went home for the weekend.

A team leader did that in my current role recently and left me stewing on it and worrying all weekend.

Thepeopleversuswork · 10/10/2022 08:41

There's no perfect time is there?

But probably better to do it on Friday, people then have the weekend to be sad/stew/sulk/get it out of their system and should have their game face on again by Monday.

thisisthestoryabout · 10/10/2022 08:42

3pm on a Friday was always redundancy time!

Original poster
Arbesque · 10/10/2022 08:43

Thanks for the replies.

I always find it easier to get over bad news at work if I'm with colleagues, can discuss it, put some perspective on it etc

Stewing on my own over the weekend makes it feel worse.

OP posts:
Doingprettywellthanks · 10/10/2022 08:45

Arbesque · 10/10/2022 08:43

Thanks for the replies.

I always find it easier to get over bad news at work if I'm with colleagues, can discuss it, put some perspective on it etc

Stewing on my own over the weekend makes it feel worse.

What you’ve just described can often be very negative. Gossiping, rumours, awkwardness, fanning the flames and drama.

Princessglittery · 10/10/2022 08:51

Definitely done deliberately, people react very differently and a good employer will know this. Announcing who has and hasn’t got a job on a Friday means you can allow people who are upset to leave immediately and they have time to regain their composure for Monday. The successful person can go down the pub to celebrate.

ZiriForEver · 10/10/2022 08:54

Sounds quite unfair, dropping bombs on Friday and expecting people to deal with it in their leasure time. Processing work related news is a work.

EmmaH2022 · 10/10/2022 08:54

Yes. It's intentional because it limits them having to deal with immediate fallout. It's not to help the staff.

Sestriere · 10/10/2022 08:54

Of course they do, I have worked for the same company for three decades. Every single bad news notice came out Friday afternoon, just before home time, for exactly the same reasons your friend said.

Most people have calmed down and accepted the news by Monday.

MonkeyPuddle · 10/10/2022 08:55

Wouldn’t surprise me. We got our email notifying us that we were going under consultation at 4:45 on a Friday, then our line manager and Ops manager went on leave til the following Wednesday. That was fun.

Queuesarasarah · 10/10/2022 08:55

I think it’s meant to be kind so that you don’t have to face everyone in work with no time to process your feelings. But I think it probably just shows a workplace where they don’t know how to handle hard feelings. As a manager I try to be a person who isn’t afraid of someone becoming upset. It’s just part of being human. The idea of what’s professional is changing I think. Loosing it and screaming and shouting is not okay but saying you’re disappointed and sheddding a tear is now considered healthy in my workplace. That’s changed in the last four years.

KILM · 10/10/2022 08:58

At ours, the problem we had was that we had multiple people in the office who would immediately start stirring the pot, spreading misinformation and really upsetting our more sensitive staff members. And they would also ruin promotions for the successful candidate by turning the whole thing into a negative because the person they liked didnt get it. All deeply unprofessional and left way more staff members upset than originally were!

ToooOldForThis · 10/10/2022 08:59

Very common here
And I think the difficulty is that it can be reframed as " we didn't want people having it hanging over them over the weekend" when actually it means "we don't want to deal with the fallout"

WombatChocolate · 10/10/2022 09:00

It’s okay to send news that is something you need a bit of time to get over.

Sending other upsetting news that might lead to someone having loads of questions about or making them feel really unsettled over isn’t okay and should wait for Monday.

So, okay to send out results of job interviews. You can get used to fact you didn’t get job over weekend.

Not okay to announce for first time that firm is making redundancies and more info will follow, or that there has been a complaint about you that will be followed up next week.

Upsetting news takes all forms and some is right to issue at the end of a working week snd some absolutely should be issued when colleagues have access to line managers etc so Qs can be asked and support given.

MaChienEstUnDick · 10/10/2022 09:01

It is deliberate, but as a pp said the more human way to do it is 330 on a Thursday. If it's something like redundancy, quick meeting to outline what's happening, send everyone home, managers then have the chance to call people on sick/holiday/mat leave so they're all getting the news at the same time. In on Friday for individual meetings, people allowed to go home after that if necessary, weekend to process.

Original poster
Arbesque · 10/10/2022 09:02

I also think giving a colleague an upsetting talking to on a Friday evening or just as they're going on holidays is unfair. But I have seen it happen.

OP posts:
notatruespring · 10/10/2022 09:08

I work in internal and employee communications and we absolutely do not do this - my cut-off for sending out important comms to staff is lunchtime Thursday so there is time for managers and leaders to address any fallout before the weekend. Friday is also a popular day to have off, so if you’re sending out then it will likely get lost/missed by a chunk of people and time on Monday is wasted catching up.

The weekend doesn’t give people an opportunity to process, it gives them time to worry, speculate and gossip, and if it’s news the press would be interested in you spend the weekend working to fight fires and respond to journalists. It’s reputationally risky.

MyPurpleHeart · 10/10/2022 09:11

My site-based employees have a habit of sending me bad news WhatsApp's on a Saturday. I got a work phone, blocked their numbers on my personal phone and switch the work phone off Friday night till Monday morning. Otherwise I sit there stewing all weekend over something I can't change as its unreasonable to contact people about work over the weekend.

They definitely do it on purpose.

As an example - I can't do that job Monday because I dont have XYZ.

BitossiBlues · 10/10/2022 09:11

It's a common thing in many spheres. Court proceedings served just before close of business on a Friday. Schools sending out reports the Friday before the holidays or before a very short following week at the end of term. Yes, it's a tactic. It reduces the amount of time the recipient has to deal with the matter and respond, or to try to talk to somebody about it before a deadline (being the court prescribed response time in the former case, or the school closing for a holiday in the latter).

UniversalAunt · 10/10/2022 09:14

What? Announce bad news or sent upsetting comments on Friday afternoon so you are upset on your own time, trashes your weekend & then turn up on Monday morning OK enough to get on with your usual work?

Who ever thought of such a thing?

Standard Comms practice in FTSE HR.

ilovesooty · 10/10/2022 09:14

Arbesque · 10/10/2022 09:02

I also think giving a colleague an upsetting talking to on a Friday evening or just as they're going on holidays is unfair. But I have seen it happen.

Oh yes. My headteacher in my last school did this to me at the end of the day on the Friday before half term.

AlisonDonut · 10/10/2022 09:14

And they put their auto out of office on before they send it so that they don't have to answer anyone's quick response questions.

thelobsterquadrille · 10/10/2022 09:16

TBH I'd rather hear bad news on a Friday afternoon than spend my weekend worrying about what I'd hear on Monday morning.

jetadore · 10/10/2022 09:17

Yes in most cases cowardly bosses will try to do it on a Friday to give people a chance to “cool off” over the weekend, also ruining their weekend. Some however do adopt “Best practice” which is to do it on a Monday and then actually ‘manage’ (you know, what they’re getting paid to do) the issue over the next few days.