With summer nearing its inevitable conclusion, many colleagues, friends and family are hitting the road to the beach, the mountains, or simply to their hammocks in their back yards. It’s always such a great time of the year where many finally take the time to unplug, unwind and relax.
However, it always comes as a surprise to me that many colleagues don’t take vacation or time off at all. In fact, as my colleague Mary Lake pointed out in our blog, nearly 400 million hours of vacation time go unused every year. In addition, throughout my years of working in-house and as a consultant, many organizations I’ve worked with don’t actively encourage their employees to take time off.
While traditionally companies provide vacation to full time employees, there are no regulations or rules that state that an organization must remind their employees to use their time off. But I would contend that reminding your employees to take time off to re-charge or re-energize is the imperative duty of every responsible organization.
There’s tons of research out there that shows that taking time to step away from the rigors of any job increases productivity, employee happiness and improves an individual’s mental health. So encourage your employees to take time off, it’ll be better for your bottom line. Also, for those employees that don’t want to take time off, perhaps ask them to get involved in a community service project, turning vacation time into community time.
Either way, with these last few weeks of summer, enjoy it, relish it, relax and recharge and get ready for the fall!
