Vacations: Why and how to completely unplug from work
Not taking enough breaks from work can lead to stress and staff burnout, increased sickness rates and lower employee retention.
Are your staff taking enough time off work? Not such a silly question when you consider that over half of American employees who get paid vacation don’t take the full amount. Heavy workloads and negative workplace cultures are often the reason why people are reluctant to take time off.
What’s more, even if they do use their days, many workers fail to completely unplug from their job. According to a recent LinkedIn poll, 55% of those taking a vacation were planning to fully disconnect from their job, with 26% saying they would check in at least once a day.
Related: Few employees ‘unplugging’ on vacation
Ironically, this is all bad news for business. Spending more time at work doesn’t necessarily equate to better performance or greater productivity in the team. In fact, the opposite is often the case. Not taking enough breaks from work can lead to stress and staff burnout, increased sickness rates and lower employee retention.
On the other hand, having regular vacations that allow you to mentally switch off from the workplace provide the opportunity to recharge the batteries, prioritize mental health and wellbeing, reduce stress and increase overall happiness. The result? After a relaxing holiday, your staff will return with fresh energy and focus to contribute to the business. Everyone’s a winner!
How can you encourage your team to take real vacations?
Company culture is the first area to address. Do your employees feel comfortable about taking holidays? Are they encouraged to take a break or is there a negative perception around the topic? Is there a more general problem with presenteeism that should be worked through? Does the leadership team lead from the front, or is the boss always in the office, never ill and never on vacation? Culture is something that can be changed, but it takes a committed strategy, time and consistent, positive communication to engage the team.
When it comes to practical guidance to help your team get the most out of their vacation, there are many known stress-busting techniques that can really help take the pressure off. Here are some useful suggestions you could consider:
Switch into holiday mode
Detaching from the workplace while on annual leave is the first step towards being able to relax fully. Encourage your staff to set up an Out-Of-Office reply for emails, turn off any notifications and work phones and log out of work-related programs, systems and apps on their devices. Ideally, anyone on leave should shut down their computer completely and put it away, so quality downtime can be spent away from the screen.
Reducing tech-time can really help to refocus on real-life social interactions without distractions. Having a ‘digital detox’ while on vacation has many mental health benefits and allows people to let go of the stress that comes with constant connectivity.
Embrace creativity
Creative expressions and activities such as painting, crafting and journaling are all great strategies to deal with stress while on vacation. Why not encourage your staff to get involved in creative pursuits while on leave? From cooking holidays to watercolor painting retreats, learning how to capture the Northern Lights on camera or building a raft and traveling upriver, there’s a wide range of downtime options that are irrefutably good for mind, body and soul.
These types of activities create a channel for unpleasant feelings to be expressed outside of ourselves, freeing the body of stress. Relaxation will come as a natural result of the fight-or-flight response being shut down.
Encourage your team to share holiday recommendations, anything from city breaks to long-haul trips, days out or cultural events. Perhaps the company could negotiate discounts on travel and accommodation, events or places of interest to support the development of a healthier workplace attitude towards annual leave.
Reconnect with nature
There are many science-based insights that reveal the mental health benefits of getting up close with nature. “Over 100 studies have shown that being in nature, living near nature, or even viewing nature in paintings and videos can have positive impacts on our brains, bodies, feelings, thought processes, and social interactions. In particular, viewing nature seems to be inherently rewarding, producing a cascade of positive emotions and calming our nervous systems,” says Greater Good Magazine.
Sitting on a beach, watching a waterfall, swimming with dolphins, hiking to Half Dome… the natural environment offers a soothing rhythm for our mind to release, and may even provide spiritual comfort.
Rediscover social connections
We all instinctively know that simply spending time with people who make us happy is both comforting and energizing. Social connections can be family and friends but it could also be a sports club or church group, an activity holiday going kitesurfing in the Caribbean or volunteer teaching with the monks in Laos. Vacations that revolve around communal activities allow people to get away from measuring their worth by how much they earn, their job title or their level of exhaustion.
Unplugged time off work is the perfect opportunity for your employees to do something that gets them out of their own head and stops them going round in circles in their own world, and instead thinking about and caring for others.
Many companies have discovered the benefits of corporate volunteering, even going so far as to offer their team a few days of paid leave per year to volunteer with a charity of their choice, or organize volunteering team days.
Communication is key
Communicating the importance of annual leave to all levels of management will help combat any perception among your staff that leave requests may be frowned upon or criticized. How comfortable team members feel in taking their annual leave will largely depend on how managers respond to requests for holiday, how aware they are of workloads, and whether they themselves are able to lead from the front in utilizing their allowance.
By reframing the way we look at annual leave and recognise it as a benefit to the business, not simply as an employee perk, we can create more productive workplaces, minimize stress and illness-related absenteeism, help retain talent and appeal to new hires.
Dakota Murphey has a wealth of experience in business management, with over 10 years of experience she’s worked on a number of successful campaigns. She now enjoys sharing her knowledge through her writing and connecting with like-minded professionals.
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