--- title: The new pattern of work in the summer description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-07-14T11:33:15.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-28T07:07:28.172Z article:section: Charter og:title: The new pattern of work in the summer og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. og:url: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f36feee84a79952/698a58a747ca3816bc3bdbc4/charter-summer-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1600 og:image:height: 900 og:image:alt: charter-summer-2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The new pattern of work in the summer twitter:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f36feee84a79952/698a58a747ca3816bc3bdbc4/charter-summer-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [flexible work](/partner-content/charter/tag/flexible-work/) ## flexible work # The new pattern of work in the summer > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. A TIME subscription provides full access to that journalism in print and digital, from $20 a year, and can be cancelled at any time. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 14, 2024 11:33 AM UTC  Illustration by Charter · Photo by iStock CandyRetriever by [TIME Staff](https://time.com/author/time-staff/) Jul 14, 2024 11:33 AM UTC What even is work like in the summer anymore? For many white-collar workers, the days are gone when they had clearly delineated five-day workweeks in the office interrupted by “summer Fridays” and a few weeks of vacation in July or August. That’s been replaced by year-round flexible scheduling, work from home, meeting-free Fridays, mental-health days off throughout the year, blending of work travel and vacations, overlap between vacation travel and work, and so on. “It used to be a ‘summer Friday’ was an exceptional thing,” says [Alexia Cambon](https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexiacambon/), a senior director of research at Microsoft. “Now, flexibility is pretty normalized. It’s not something that you have to ask permission for. It’s not something you have to earn. It’s not something you have to get to a certain level to deserve… As a result, maybe ‘summer Fridays’ aren’t so exceptional.” Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). We set out to understand how these practices have reshaped what work looks like during the summer as opposed to the rest of the year. Here’s what we found: * **Office attendance drops during summer months, but it does also at other points in the year.** We analyzed the past 15 months of New York City office attendance data from Kastle, a security company that tracks card swipes at offices across the country. Attendance was lower during some weeks last summer, particularly the week of July 4 and during a steady slump between the end of July and Labor Day. August 2023 had the lowest average level of attendance out of any month in the data set, at 41.6% of pre-pandemic attendance. But attendance figures for June and July hovered around the annual average of 47.6%, aside from the week of Independence Day. The summer slump was dwarfed by an even more drastic decline in office attendance during the winter months, between Thanksgiving and the first weeks of the new year. Between November 15, 2023 and January 17, 2024, average attendance was 42.7% of pre-pandemic averages. * **US workers are taking more paid time off during the summer months.** Last summer, the number of workers who took vacations during the summer rebounded past pre-pandemic levels, according to the [Current Population Survey](https://www.bls.gov/cps/absences.htm) conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During the summer months of June, July, and August 2023, an average of 5.4 million full-time workers reported that they missed part of their previous work week due to a vacation or personal day, a 6% increase from 5.1 million in 2019 (the full-time labor force increased just over 2% during that same time period.) * **Americans are traveling more during the summer.** US Travel, an industry trade group, predicts that this year’s travel numbers will outpace that of last year’s. [Josh Friedlander](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-friedlander-720768/), US Travel’s vice president of research, points to [multiple record-breaking travel days](https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/releases/2024/06/24/tsa-breaks-record-most-individuals-screened-single-day-readies#:~:text=TSA%20expects%20to%20screen%20more,million%20%282.99%20million%29%20individuals.) so far this summer, as measured by the number of TSA screenings, as well as [surveys](https://longwoods-intl.com/news-press-release/american-travel-sentiment-study-wave-86) showing high levels of intentions to travel. It’s likely that many of these travelers will blend work and leisure during their trips—one-fourth of workers [surveyed](https://www.howdy.com/blog/business-leisure-statistics) by talent-sourcing firm Howdy said they plan to take a “workcation” in 2024, and half of respondents who have a business trip in 2024 said they plan on turning their work travel into a “bleisure” trip, or blending business and leisure. * **“Summer Fridays” have become year-round flexible Fridays.** Nearly one-fifth of workers report that their companies offer “summer Fridays,” where they have a shortened workday, according to a recent [survey](https://www.dayforce.com/blog/research-employees-are-slacking-this-summer-and-feeling-stressed) from Dayforce. But hybrid policies have given workers additional flexibility throughout the year. Since the beginning of 2022, Friday has consistently been the most popular day to work from home among hybrid workers, according to a recent [update](https://wfhresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/WFHResearch%5Fupdates%5FApril2024.pdf) from WFH Research. In 2023, that was especially true between May and September. **Experts we spoke with say summer work practices are still evolving. But it’s clear that flexibility is important beyond summertime.** For [Annie Dean](https://www.charterworks.com/charter-30-annie-dean/), global head of Team Anywhere at Atlassian, trying to pinpoint one time of year when workers most need flexibility may miss the point. She gives the example of supporting working parents: “Speak to any parents in May, in December, in September, these frenetic months when there is performance after performance, or you're signing up everything for the new school year and handing in all the health forms, or you're trying to get through the holidays and support all the magical creatures that exist in our children's lives.”When it comes to crafting vacation policies, hybrid work arrangements, and outcomes-oriented performance evaluations, “it's not about a single policy,” she says, “but a way of operating every single day.” [**Read more**](http://www.charterworks.com/summer-work-guide/) **on what research says are the best practices for flexibility, vacation, and performance policies that affect workers year-round**. --- ## Read more from Charter [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/) [Open article: How Mastering Hybrid Is an AI Advantage](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7334714/how-mastering-hybrid-is-an-ai-advantage/)  ### How Mastering Hybrid Is an AI Advantage [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7334714/how-mastering-hybrid-is-an-ai-advantage/) [Open article: New Findings About Getting Hybrid Right](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7332119/new-findings-about-getting-hybrid-right/)  ### New Findings About Getting Hybrid Right [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7332119/new-findings-about-getting-hybrid-right/) [Open article: The workplace divide that's reshaping American business](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7312868/the-workplace-divide-thats-reshaping-american-business/)  ### The workplace divide that's reshaping American business [READ MORE](https://time.com/partner-content/charter/7312868/the-workplace-divide-thats-reshaping-american-business/) --- ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/"},"headline":"The new pattern of work in the summer","datePublished":"2024-07-14T11:33:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-28T07:07:28.172Z","description":"Our guide to new data on summer work trends.","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f36feee84a79952/698a58a747ca3816bc3bdbc4/charter-summer-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Charter","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f36feee84a79952/698a58a747ca3816bc3bdbc4/charter-summer-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-summer-2","caption":"Collage featuring a man reclining in a sunchair and straw hat in the foreground.","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/6997981/the-new-pattern-of-work-in-the-summer/","name":"The new pattern of work in the summer"}}]}] ```