First he points to the disruption of the balance between work and private life, between week and weekend. It is normally accepted to check your e-mail on Sunday but how many employees go to the movies after lunch on Monday? He pleads for the return of the balance by doing the things you like best on that moment.

Currently a culture shift is taking place in our organization: more and more (new) employees are working from home. We have developers from all over the country, although we only have offices in London, Vlissingen, Sittard and Amsterdam. It's becoming more and more accepted that employees don't work during the default office hours (9AM-5PM), but sleep late and start working at 11AM and finish their tasks in the evening. Communication is becoming more asynchronous today and we are more and more leaving the "office culture", where employees are working together in one room.

Secondly Semler explains that status, career and a nice salary won't make you happy. Semler states that the only job an employee should be working on is one for which he has a passion and a vocation. When I look at our employees I can see the passion and vocation Semler writes about. Guys and women who are passionate about PHP and software engineering. Working hard to deliver the highest quality, not being satisfied easily...

The third part is about "management by omission" where he exposes his ideas about not controlling your employees. A lot of control finds its root in fear. Semler states that employees are able to do their job without being controlled but most managers don't trust that idea fully. My experience is that this differs from person to person: a more experienced person can deliver his jobs without a lot of control and less experienced persons need more control, simply because they don't know all implications of their work.

In part four he uses a fairy tale to explain how the followers in his company are actually the leaders of the business, and in the fifth part, Semler shares his way of thinking about the future: wandering. These parts are a must-read for managers/business owners!

In conclusion, The Seven-Day Weekend is an inspiring book to take a step back and think about your work and your life. Although I didn't agree (fully) on all the topics it was a pleasure to read and use it as a starting point to philosophize about life. I didn't want to tell the full story here but you might be encouraged to pick up this book and see if it would fit your organization.