The key to this approach is understanding that a holiday is not about how much time we take off, but the quality of that time.
The year-end period is always rather unusual for businesses, especially startups. While most employees associate it with holidays and bonuses…, for managers and executives it is often a time for breakthroughs and final efforts to fulfill the year's plans.
These differing expectations are precisely why many problems arise in businesses during holidays such as Christmas and New Year…
Specifically, a recent study by market research company GfK surveyed 7,331 working-age people in the United States, in roles ranging from employees to senior executives. It found that 46% of employees frequently check their email during vacations, causing 51% of those employees (out of that 46%) to experience stress-related problems.
The research team explained this rate by noting that only 14% of managers completely avoid thinking about work throughout their holidays. Among senior executives, the figure is even below 7%.
‘Today's business world is extremely fierce, especially for startups. Most companies follow the motto of working just a little harder than their competitors. As a result, even when we rest, work still follows us,’ said Katie Denis, who led the survey.
Of course, we cannot advise managers simply to relax completely or maintain their usual pace of work, because each business has its own culture and each manager a different management style. However, as holidays approach, managers should pay particular attention to several points to avoid internal conflict.
During vacations, let's… stop contacting one another
A study conducted by The University of Texas, based on a survey of 713 adults from six countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain—found that working during a vacation, even for just one hour, can reduce your sense of rest by a factor of 1.43.
Therefore, any email, call, or message managers send during a vacation must be handled with extreme care and deliberation. Not only can it ruin both the manager's and employees' vacations, but every email, call, or message sent to an employee signals to all employees that time off is not real.
Messages such as ‘Management does not trust employees’ or ‘Management cannot organize work well enough to take a worry-free vacation’… will emerge. From that point onward, employees’ dedication to the business will begin to decline.
“Many startup managers work from morning until night. Some managers I know even keep their phones on 24/7 and respond to employees anytime, anywhere. They think this demonstrates extraordinary commitment to their work. But life requires balance, and your employees have more in their lives than work,” Katie Denis concluded in Harvard Business Review.
Instead of waiting for vacations, treat every day as a vacation
A three-week study involving 855 people, conducted by the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, found that productivity usually falls most sharply just before holidays.
Because this is when many employees enter a waiting mindset, become distracted from work, and want to start resting early… Some even experience anxiety disorders.
One secret that personnel coach Leo Babuta recommends businesses cultivate is making employees feel that every workday is like a day off.
“Have you ever noticed that your best ideas often come while you are showering, meditating, or exercising? That is because you allow your mind to wander. You do not have to think logically, analyze, calculate, or strategize… You are free to let your mind drift toward the strangest things,” Leo Babauta shared on Fast Company.
Besides letting your mind wander in the ways above, Leo Babuta lists two other approaches: keeping a childlike spirit and creating a perfect working day.
First, keep the heart of a child. Because most of us fall into the trap of “all work and no play” as adults, our lives gradually become dull. Holidays let us reconnect with the playfulness of the child we once were, bringing a little joyful energy back to the workplace.
Therefore, smiling often, staying curious, changing your workspace, and being unafraid to express yourself are ways to put this method into practice.
The second method is to create a perfect working day and Cynthia Maxwell, former Engineering Director at Yahoo and Apple, is one example. Cynthia Maxwell applied the perfect-workday method by listing the standard tasks required for a perfect day. She then worked to perfect these tasks and repeated them to create her own standard work system.
“If I won the lottery tomorrow, I would still go to work. I used to count the days until the next holiday. Now, however, I have built a life from which I do not need a vacation. Of course, I still take holidays because everyone else is off, and I cannot have a perfect workday if I go to work alone,” Cynthia Maxwell concluded humorously.
Collected.
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