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Time-saving tools and products we’re really into rn.

Give your coworkers a little sugar and surprise them with a Sugarwish gift. The best part? They choose what comes in their treat package, so you get the credit for the perfect gift and only put in half the effort.

Linktree, everyone’s favorite tool to bring their content, portfolios, and SoundCloud links together in one place, has added updates for merch integrations and other widgets. After all, it’d be a disservice to your followers if they couldn’t find your mixtape as easily as your copywriting samples.

🪜College students, listen up. Before you ditch school to sign up for a job that seems like a “once in a lifetime” gig, think twice. You may lose out on valuable skills in the long run.

What’s top of mind at the water cooler.

The legend of the Summer Friday: Once upon a time, for three sacred months every year between Memorial Day and Labor Day, employees were allowed to clock out after lunch every Friday and head immediately to the bar.

It’s said that the tradition started in NYC in the ’60s as companies searched for ways to boost employee productivity and morale during the summer months. (There’s even a brand named after it!) If you were lucky enough to work somewhere that offered this perk (usually publishing or advertising), your weekend started with midday happy hours and early bird beach days while friends at less generous corporations smoldered with jealousy.

But with the push toward remote work, Summer Fridays have become a ghost of workplace past as they may have ushered in something even better: the four-day workweek.

As companies scrambled to deal with office closures during the pandemic, most work suddenly became remote. Facing Covid variant after variant and a resistance to returning to the office, some employers like tech companies Bolt and Buffer opted to permanently remove a day from the workweek to better suit employee needs. A jumbo Summer Friday! Perfect, right?

Unfortunately, the exact logistics of the four-day workweek have been tricky. Who can and can’t participate? Does the four-day workweek mean longer working hours? What happens if there’s still work to be done once Friday rolls around?

To get some insight, Sidekick spoke with Alicia Garcia, chief culture officer at MasterControl and Jes Osrow, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) expert and founder of The Rise Journey consultancy, who had these thoughts to share:

• Fixed schedules ≠ productivity. While a five-day, nine-to-five workweek has worked for most US-based companies, that doesn’t mean employees produce their best work during that time.
• Flexibility is king. “The biggest issue with policies like the four-day workweek or Summer Fridays is that they’re still rigid. Whether it’s a four-day or five-day workweek, the exact days and times employees are required to work are fixed…When approached by employees, the most common request is ‘flexibility,’” said Garcia.
• Flexibility isn’t an option for everyone. “We’re not thinking about essential workers, we’re not thinking about folks on the ground, and we’re not thinking about grocery store owners. It’s important to recognize that even though we do talk the big talk about a four-day workweek, it only applies to a small fraction of workers in the US and/or globally,” Osrow explained.

As the highly discussed future of work continues to develop, employees are looking for more flexibility. Whether that means working remotely from far-flung corners of the world or logging off a little early to go pick your children up from daycare—employers should take notes, not dictate them.—MW

Listen: In retrospect, groundbreaking events that change the world can feel like they happened overnight. In reality, though, the path to major change is very slow. In this season of Slate’s Slow Burn podcast, host Susan Matthews takes on Roe v. Wade—the important figures, the people behind the scenes, and everyone in the spotlight who shaped abortion policy in the US.

Read: He’s pumping out hits like “Walk,” “Material Girl,” and “Booty,” so if you don’t know who Saucy Santana is yet, you’ll want to get hip fast. The bold rapper recently graced the digital cover of Teen Vogue, and shared his thoughts on his journey from internet personality to star.

Eat: If you need supervision when practicing your knife skills, you need to watch this video on how to cut a bell pepper—a skill that is the culinary equivalent of folding a fitted sheet.

Wear: Want great-looking, great-fitting clothes that are perfect for everyday outings? Goodlife’s premium essentials are always ethically sourced and manufactured, with most pieces made here in the US. Get 25% off with code SIDEKICK25.*

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All right, so we’ve given you the definitive best of summer lists: the best parties, the best songs, the best activities, and the best movies. You didn’t really think we’d leave you without the best summer reads, did you? You did?! Wow. I thought we knew each other better than that. OK, listen up: This list is not your AP English summer assignment. (BTW, did anybody actually read Ethan Frome?) Our list has forbidden love, searing memoirs, true crime, cookbook inspo, and more. We’ve got a range for you, honey.

Read the entire list here.

Pearls of career wisdom.

What career advice would you give your younger self?

“Prior to opening Sprinkles, a baking mentor offered me some advice. She said, ‘Keep a daily log at the bakery. Every night, write down everything that happened that day.’ I thought to myself, ‘How exciting can life at a bakery actually be?’ I didn’t think much of it until we opened, and every day was like drinking water from a fire hose.”

“So, let me pass this advice on. Write down how you feel every day. Document the highs and the lows because our memory plays tricks on us, and revisionist history is a real thing. For every story carved permanently into my brain, there are 100 more that are forever lost. I wish I had every last one to read. You never know where life will take you. Whether someday you write a memoir, give a TedTalk, or just marvel at how far you’ve come, having a collection of memories and stories to build on is a gift.”—Candace Nelson, founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes and former Food Network judge