dxw time

dxw time is what we call the time that our billable staff (Delivery+ and GovPress) spend not working on client work doing things for the company, along with other colleagues. What’s set out here is a general position and individual business units might have slightly different approaches.

What’s set out here is a general position, and individual business units might have slightly different approaches.

The amount of dxw time you can take #

At a high level, our business model is designed so that most people in client-facing roles need to spend 90% of their time on client work. This leaves 10% of your time for dxw time. This is usually a half-day a week or one day every fortnight, but will be different for people working compressed hours, and less if you’re part-time.

It may not always be a 90/10 split. It will depend on your role, your current project and how busy it is, and so on. People in roles with responsibilities for scheduling and managing across disciplines, like Heads of, will spend a lot more than 10% of their time on internal things.

It’s time that’s factored into our business planning. As is additional time for the natural gaps that sometimes fall between projects.

How it works in practice #

In the past, dxw time has taken various forms. When we were smaller and based in one office, the team would come together in person every Friday often having worked at client offices for the rest of the week. The day was spent doing operational work and things to help the company run better.

Now we’re bigger, remote-first, with people nationwide and with a range of working patterns, dxw time means people can do non-client work at different times, in a way that works alongside their client projects. Some people might put aside a short block of time every day, half a day a week, or a couple of days a month to work on something. For others, it will fall in an irregular pattern.

Some people will spend more time doing non-client work, and others will spend more time doing project work. We expect that and it’s fine. Heads are responsible for managing how dxw time is spent overall for their teams, so that our targets for client work are met and people have the time they need for non-client work.

Logging dxw time #

If you are billable then it’s important that all of your time is logged either against client projects or dxw time. There is a project on Productive called ‘Internal - dxw time’ for logging dxw time.

How we expect people to use dxw time #

dxw time covers lots of things, some of these are structured activities we all need to do to keep the company running, others are specific to your discipline, or to your personal development.

Ordered roughly from more structured and company-wide to more personal, these include (but are not limited to):

• Recruitment (for new roles, promotions, and dxw friends)
• Working with the marketing team on blog posts, case studies, events etc.
• Supporting our sales team with bids
• Whole company calls (Director Q&As etc.)
• Participating in the Staff Council
• Participating in our IDE, Earth or Wellbeing groups
• Whole discipline meetings
• Communities of practice
• Projects that improve dxw and how we work; improving the playbook, dxw website, how we use Productive, how we communicate across teams etc.
• The maintenance of our existing internal projects (e.g. https://github.com/dxw/mail-notify)
• Random coffees and other get-togethers with colleagues
• Learning about how other parts of dxw work

What you spend your time on will depend on your role, your personal development goals, what’s happening in the company at the moment, what needs doing etc. There will be things you’re directed, or advised, to do by your line manager or Head Of discipline, and there’ll be some things you’ll choose to do yourself.

You have 4 ring-fenced days a year for personal learning and development separate from dxw time, but often people spend dxw time doing L&D on top of this. That’s fine provided that the learning is applicable and helpful to dxw (you can’t use it to learn how to play the bassoon).

What isn’t dxw time? #

Making a cup of tea, reading week notes with your morning coffee, catching up on slack, or taking a short screen break are all standard, recurring events which are part and parcel of working life. These kinds of activities are not dxw time.

Client work incorporates more than time spent writing code, doing research, or facilitating co-design sessions. There are overhead activities, like those listed above, which enable us to work effectively and with focus so that we can deliver for our clients. We are not robots. All of these activities come under billable client work. We do not work in minute to minute increments.

The question of what is, and what isn’t, billable time is an important one but beyond what’s already been stated is outside the scope of this post. More to follow on that in due course.

If you are ever unsure, speak to your line manager or Head Of discipline.

Is line management dxw time? #

If you are meeting with your line manager, this is not dxw time. Receiving peer support, catching up on any challenges you’re facing, and working through development opportunities are all topics that are beneficial to our clients and project work. This comes under the umbrella of client work. Our day rate covers much more than an individual’s time – it covers the expertise and support structure of the whole agency.

If you are a line manager meeting with the people who report to you, this is dxw time unless you are both working on the same project. In that instance, it would count as client work.

Use your best judgement when recording it in Productive, and don’t agonise over it.

When does dxw time happen? #

dxw time is self-determined, and it’s mostly up to you as an individual to responsibly decide when to use your dxw time.

Some people will choose to use dxw time in one go by taking one full day of every sprint (this won’t work if you’re doing compressed hours). Others may choose to take half a day each week (historically this was done on Fridays, but it’s not a requirement). You may wish to take a small chunk out of every day.

You should coordinate with your project team. You may decide as a team that you want to synchronise your dxw time. You may also want to coordinate your dxw time with other people in the company who you work closely with or want to get to know better.

You may not have to take dxw time if you really don’t want to, but it is encouraged. Some projects have spare budget and can benefit from more of your time, and within some teams there are agreements to pool and swap dxw time so that people who want more get more and people who want less get less.

Wellbeing #

If, for you, dxw time is solely about getting away from client work, we need to make sure we address that directly. Please talk to your line manager, Head Of discipline, or any other avenue of support open to you if you’re struggling with the demands of client work. We should tackle that, rather than hope dxw time is enough of a break. 

Of course, people in our non-billable teams also get involved in company-wide work and personal learning and development activity outside of their day jobs. This should be agreed with their line manager as part of their objectives in a similar way.

Last updated: 26 September 2024 (history)