Why vacation and rest is so important for employees

First of all, Poles don’t know how to vacation. 36% of us can’t stop thinking about work on vacation, and more than 40% – stay connected to it to some degree. It also often involves, nomen omen, work – even if it’s just writing an email or sending a short message on Slack. Yet a well-rested worker is happier, healthier and more productive. So how do you support your employees with adequate rest?

Why should your employees go on vacation?

Aside from the obvious point that everyone deserves a rest, there are a few other reasons. A decent vacation, without being “on call” and stressed by work, allows employees to recuperate. Especially now, when the pandemic is still ongoing and a tough year is behind us.

Why So employees should go on vacation? A longer rest has many
benefits
:

• Lower risk of professional burnout
• Increased productivity, creativity and motivation
• Better concentration
• Improving physical and mental health
• Higher resistance to stress
• Improved team relations and better cooperation
• Reduced employee turnover, absenteeism and presenteeism.

In contrast, its absence is downright dangerous
dangerous
, because it can lead not only to professional burnout, but also depression, anxiety, diabetes, coronary artery disease or addiction.

How can you support your employees?

Understand why they don’t use vacation time

It turns out that we are reluctant to use our vacation days. It’s not just in Poland – Glassdoor research shows the same trend in
United Kingdom
or
United States
. The problem mainly affects young people who are aware of worsening economic realities, including job security or rising housing prices and inflation. Poland’s family-friendly policies – such as support for a parent when returning to work after the birth of a child – also leave plenty to be desired. Many people, therefore, leave themselves vacation days to use “just in case.” – sudden illness, trouble with a child, loss of a job or the onset of a depressive or anxiety episode.

Other reasons include
guilt
that rest induces in many of us, but also related to the increased workload of co-workers. So is pressure from those around you, who may perceive putting up boundaries and relaxing as selfishness or laziness and lack of ambition.

Ask

You can guess at your employees’ reasons and needs, but it’s best – and easiest – to just ask them. All it takes is an anonymous questionnaire sent out to everyone by the HR department. You can take it a step further and organize an open discussion about leave and the related needs and limitations of your subordinates.

Encourage you to take a vacation

Above all, actively encourage them to relax. This will also show your attitude to taking time off as a basic need, not a luxury or fad. A good example is making vacation mandatory and specifying, for example, its minimum number of days. Increasing the number of vacation days is another idea worth considering.

Change the system

The above examples relate to labor policy and require both legal and cultural changes. Closing the company during major holidays – such as between Christmas and New Year’s – is also a great way to let employees breathe without worrying about how many vacation days they have left.

It is worth considering the introduction of a “zero contact” policy for employees on vacation. If they have time off, they are not at work, they cannot be contacted. And vice versa – they are also forbidden to contact each other, so that by chance the vacation does not turn into remote work.

As we mentioned, it’s also a change in work culture, which may require preparing educational materials or organizing open discussions where employees could ask questions.

Reward your vacation

You don’t have to introduce a vacation subsidy program or a guaranteed fund right away – the
scholarship
, in certain senses – which an employee can allocate for leisure during the year. A less costly solution will be annual bonus For the use of vacation days. Some companies, on the other hand, like
United Airlines
, offers its employees not only steep discounts on flights with their airline, but also on other transportation, hotels or attractions.

Leisure vs. pandemic

We’ve all had a tough year – the pandemic has shaken our reality in many ways. Increasingly
more companies
, such as Hubspot, LinkedIn and Hootsuite have decided to
Completely
closure for a week or two to give their employees a rest. Sure, it requires proper planning, especially if you have to prepare customers for a complete shutdown of service for that time. But the benefits outweigh the costs. Not to mention that after 2020 we could all use a breather.