In addition to the temp check that was posted on Season three, we wanted to check on having gap weeks at the end of seasons, that would encourage down time for contributors.
While the DAO technically has ‘unlimited PTO’ what often ends up happening, is that people don’t take time off, and end up working all the time. This results in burnout, which degrades involvement and contribution over all.
Additionally, we discussed whether or not we should honor holidays, and thought that people should continue to honor their personal holidays, and we should create BanklessDAO Holidays, ie gap weeks at the end of seasons.
The aim of a gap week is that it would add a little breathing room between seasons and address burnout & FOMO, through a week of intentional non-working rest time.
This would be time that everyone could align around and look forward to because no-one else is working - No votes, no CC, ideally no meetings at all.
This is meant to enable the DAO and contributors to kick off each season refreshed and energized, and tackling the challenges with better perspective that comes from stepping away for a bit.
This of course would be a recommendation, but it would be one that is encouraged DAO wide, pending approval from the DAO.
Important financial implications of this, are that it would create implicit buy in that, during that time, projects would continue to fund whatever positions are held by contributors without the expectation of work being done during the gap week.
Acknowledging that it is a direct cost to projects and the DAO, although I think it will have a major benefit in terms of contributor happiness, contribution, etc.
projects would continue to fund whatever positions are held by contributors without the expectation of work being done during the gap week.
This could be a problem for any projects with already tight budgets. As this is a DAO wide proposal, would it make sense for the treasury to fund week 13 of each season? How would that even work logistically?
I agree with a week at the end of each season with no meetings, no cc and no expectations. People need time to decompress, connect with nature, and step away from the daily stressors of work.
I this message!
Thanks for translating the Twitter discussion into action with this post.
This is your and this is your brain on DAOs
Unlike a 9-5 gig this one needs more thoughtful and synchronous decompression to address the 100% asynchronous working style. TradCorp Synchronous work; Asynchronous breaks – DAOS always like to be opposite so let’s be opposite.
Appreciate the call to the details @NFThinker RE: budgets. Feels like this can be addressed in Seasonal funding proposals. #WorthTheBANK imo
I’m curious what the math is on this one but it’s almost impossible to study accurately. My intuition says it checks out though…(i.e. my bet is that the productivity gains of the ‘always on; having fun; go at your own pace’ nature of DAOs far outweighs the costs of the take a week off at end of season TradCorp model)
I would also love to see some bDAO holidays! Founders day in May as our “July 4th”? Or any other big moment of bDAO history. bDAO-specific holidays would be a fun way to build culture and community, especially since we all celebrate different holidays around the world. Could be fun to build and unite on some of our own traditions.
To take it one step further…I’d love to see each guild celebrating their own founders day! How fun would that be?!?
Try it out. It may be hard for some people to stop based on where they are at in a project or how restless a person they are. But it could evolve the experience to find a better way.
This is also an excellent opportunity to engage an internal audit crew to sweep through the books for all guilds to to a “health and wellness” check. Common sense internal controls are the mark of a maturing organization… may even lead to development of a persistent BDAO independent audit guild… thoughts?
@Gabion18 This is an interesting perspective. If we do start to have a much higher focus onto revenue generation and correct bank allocation, finding a way to perform an audit could be useful. I am not sure though that we need to do it within that week which I believe is meant as resting time. But still, having an audit process to review: how bank are spent, how far projects are going, DM random contributors to check if all is going well etc (will need a framework) this would be very beneficial. I would suggest to create a separate discussion for the audit team(guild???)
@nicoconi the reason I suggest that week is inspired by common rules for banks which require certain employees/positions to take 10 days of continuous, out-of-office vacation per year. This, theoretically, will facilitate discovery of possible fraud or malfeasance by employees covering their positions.
In an organization like ours - hugely cross-pollinated with payments going in all directions - it may be beneficial to leverage a moment when everyone is at an “all-stop” to check the interconnected elements. Think of it as auditing a shell game by lifting all the shells at once to ensure the pea is at least under one of them. To do otherwise it akin to lifting one shell during each turn of the game… less effective.
Hmm I voted yes but now reading the comments about the 13th week being paid I have some concerns. This would benefit role holders but many people in the dao are not role holders and would therefore not be compensated and in fact would be penalized or discouraged from working by the role holders. I understand where you’re coming from and I think this is important to figure out but If I can find a way to change my vote I would say this needs more thought. It would be a different story if we were on a ubi model dao wide but currently compensation is very different from guild to guild and project to project.
I am in favour of this initiative with one caveat: paying role holders creates a division between role holders and non-role holders.
It’s already very desirable to have a role: it’s the fastest way to accumulate BANK with less continual oversight than other forms of compensation (I.e bounties). At the same time, there is a general hesitancy to create new roles in some guilds I frequent.
This proposal will enrich role holders while reducing earning potential for piece work and bounties.
In general I’m not against paying people to take some time off, but I think we need to be careful of the “enrich roles” and “cap # of roles” thinking. I’d like to see some real thought put into the responsibilities of roles versus the authority/benefits they have (like paid time off). In general I think we need to increase role responsibility to offset for increased authority.
TBH I wonder if it would be better to give all active contributors the paid time off rather than just roles.
this message!
and this is your brain on DAOs 
so let’s be opposite.