What’s a Breather Week?

The first week of every quarter, Olark takes a “Breather Week.” (We work in quarterly sprints, so we structure our time in quarters.) We work less during Breather Week—or not at all—taking a literal breather to reset, get organized, or dive into a passion project! There are no team-wide meetings and each Olarker gets to choose how to spend it.

We also have a two-week company holiday break from the last week of December through the first week of January.

The Why:

Breather Week is about creating space to intentionally #chill at the start of every quarter, and our holiday break gives us time to recharge and refresh before the New Year!

The Details:

Breather Week

Breather Week falls on the first week of every quarter, and is a time for Olarkers to reset before a new quarter begins. All team-wide meetings are canceled this week, and we work half-day schedules.

Some Olarkers use this week to get organized, work on passion projects, or catch up socially across teams. We encourage you to jam with departments you might not normally talk to, or to tackle something that’s cool but you wouldn’t get to otherwise. Others might use Breather Week to take a vacation and recharge. It’s your choice!

Also, enjoy some meals on Olark! Every Olarker can expense up to $100 for breakfast and lunch during Breather Week. By building in intentional #chill time with Breather Week, we create space for you to relax and refocus before jumping into another busy quarter of work.

We know that play energizes us all and we hope Breather Week is a quarterly reminder of that!

Holiday Break

At the end of every year, Olark also has a two-week holiday break starting the last week of December into the first week of January, to allow our team to rest, recharge, and create meaningful memories with their loved ones during the holiday season. Chat is closed and everyone is offline until the new year. When we return, we celebrate with a company-wide all-hands meeting to kick off the year and share our holiday break adventures.