THE POWER OF ANNUAL LEAVE
Who doesn’t love time off? Whether it’s to cruise around the Caribbean or just attend your sister’s birthday party – getting away from the office for a bit is always a treat… or is it?
We live in an extremely money-motivated and workaholic world. Despite recent efforts to raise awareness of work-life balance and mental health, many people still abandon their personal lives to focus on work.
As an ambitious person myself, who loves my job, I see nothing wrong with people working hard – but I don’t believe this is the full story.
You probably know that all workers are legally entitled to 28 days paid annual leave (Gov.uk). But you probably don’t know that:
69% of employees don’t take all their annual leave (Just Eat For Business)
60% of employees feel their boss explicitly discourages annual leave (Onrec)
In layman’s terms, employees don’t take all their annual leave because bosses make them feel bad about it.
Whether it’s due to workload, staff shortages, or a workaholic culture, employees are being mentally forced – and sometimes physically restricted – to work more and rest less.
This not only creates a toxic hustle culture which makes new employees succumb to the approach of their colleagues – but it also just makes people miserable. And if you didn’t know already, miserable people don’t produce good work. Instead, you need to intentionally create an engaging workplace.
THE RISE OF HUSTLE CULTURE
In the same breath that mental health awareness became a thing, hustle culture was getting more traction.
There is something truly inspiring and motivating about the American dream. The idea that every opportunity is at your fingertips and if you’re willing to work hard and sacrifice, you will achieve something big.
Influential leaders like Elon Musk add fuel to the fire by making statements like “nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week”.
But instead of this appealing to a small minority of people who have the same extraordinary goals to be the richest person in the world, these mindsets have trickled down to everyday people, in every day jobs.
According to the BBC, 28% of American employees didn’t take annual leave purely to demonstrate dedication to their job and not be seen as a ‘slacker’. Not to mention, a recent article in Forbes states that “42% (of employees) have left their jobs because they felt burned out. This is the result of mental and emotional stress due to working long hours and trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations set by the toxic excesses of hustle culture.”
It seems like the goal of hustle culture, to improve productivity and achieve outstanding results, is doing the complete opposite for many individuals. Not just because it makes people feel dissatisfied in work, but dissatisfied in life. An article in The New York Times states that
“It creates the assumption that the only value we have as human beings is our productivity capability – our ability to work, rather than our humanity”.
To climb the career ladder, get the job of your dreams, and have financial freedom is truly something to celebrate – but is that all?
It’s not just people not taking annual leave that’s the problem, it’s the reason behind it.
SWITCHING OFF IS THE KEY TO SWITCHING ON
Hustle culture is a lifestyle. It’s the idea that your every waking moment should be focused on success. It can mean sacrificing time with family, time doing recreational activities, and time to just relax.
For some people, this works – but it should never be the standard.
There’s been study after study to show that human beings need rest. Primarily for the reason of living a fulfilled life and doing things that benefit their human experience rather than their professional one. But also when do you do relate it to one’s professional success – it definitely plays a positive role.
A particular study found that employees who take their annual leave are 40% more productive and less:
Irritable
Depressed
Forgetful
Fatigued
Compared to employees who don’t take annual leave (HR Locker).
What employer wants their staff to be unproductive, irritable, depressed, forgetful or fatigued?
And whilst we’re on that note, it’s vital that employers understand the importance of rest on a scale much bigger than days off. If employees are desperate to take the week off because they’ve been working crazy hours, never taking a lunch break, or spending their evenings and weekends catching up on projects – that’s also incredibly unhealthy.
And what about when they do take the holiday? They may be unable to switch off, either because of worry or because they have bosses calling them up for help. It could also give them time to think about how dissatisfied they are, leading to disengagement and eventually resignation.
As we know now, there’s a lot of fear and insecurity surrounding resting, and as an employer – it’s your job to ensure that fear is eradicated. Their rest and mental wellbeing is the foundation of their ability to produce good work and enjoy their jobs.
There’s power in resting, there’s power in holidays, and there’s power in feeling empowered by that rather than feeling ashamed.
- Written by Tim Macmillan
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