Taking August Off

Every August, 64 Million Artists pause for the summer. ⏸

 

Rest can be a radical act. It goes against everything capitalism stands for. In 2023, we boldly decided to take August off as a team - to reflect and rest after navigating the pandemic and burnout.

 

If you want to know how it all started, one of our team members simply forwarded a thought piece penned by Brené Brown to our founder with a cheeky “…I'm just leaving this here."

If you don't ask, you don't get.

 

As a team, we agreed to repeat August Off every year. If we’re well rested, we can do our best for our communities and be more intentional and present.

 

We also sat around a table and discussed what rest means to each of us. We discovered that it looks wildly different to everyone. There are plenty of different ways to rest, and not one solution fits everyone.

 

For us, in addition to allowing a deep moment of rest from the treadmill of work and life, it’s about the opportunity to be present in other areas, including different parts of our creativity. Team members may also have caring responsibilities, children, are managing chronic illness, or want to spend quality time with family and friends. Weekends are great, but they are often filled with life's invisible or unpaid work, which doesn’t always allow enough time for rest or reset.

 

We understand that it’s a privilege to have the chance to work this way, and we know that it isn’t available to all right now. However, for some organisations, the opportunity awaits.

 

If you think that your organisation might be open to the idea of August Off, or a culture shift in any direction, why not forward this page and a copy of our Manifesto for Transformative Workplace Culture to someone who can help you change how your organisation works (and rests)? You never know; they might be calling out for some space to pause, too.