“In 2020, the average workday increased by nearly an hour – with productivity, especially among remote workers, increasing, even as about 92% of us have shortened, postponed, or canceled our planned time off since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic…. Overwork can even be deadly: Logging 55 or more hours a week on the job is a “serious health hazard” - Sian Beilock, Forbes.
As Beilock says, we are working more, and it is likely killing us. We need to break this cycle now.
“Vacations” in their traditional sense can be a tough sale right now. The economy is uncertain; Covid-19 is still a thing, travel is a mess, and I could go on. We need a break from it all.
The most successful solution is actively discussing, encouraging, and modeling taking time off. Time off might look like a vacation to the beach for a week. It might also be two days to tour a waterpark and some hiking paths around town. It might be teaching at a vacation bible school all week. I know one person who went on a “crochet tour.” Whatever it means for you and your team, we need to get away from work. Here are three tips to encourage team members to take time off.
Model taking time off
We need to model how to take time off, including announcing our plans, setting out-of-office messages, and not answering emails. We also need to model by not contacting people during their time off. When we model, we set the cultural norms for time off, even if it is just a single day. Modeling time off includes:
Communicating before the planned absence
Out-of-office messages on email, instant message platforms, and voicemail
Marking your calendar as “On PTO” so people see when they go to book a meeting
Coverage of current work including someone who people can contact
Behaviors of not responding to email, voicemail, and IM
No matter what a written policy or procedure says, no matter what comes out of your mouth, the team will follow your lead. You may think you are helpful by answering emails on your days off, but you are sending the message that this is what you expect when they take time off. You need to recharge. Refrain from email and work while taking time off. It is one of the greatest gifts you can give your team.
Regular balance and PTO plan discussions
It is time to redefine “vacations” and start encouraging people to take time off to rest and recharge. We used to plan week-long vacations once or twice a year, and that was it. Now, many of us would like, and need, a day or two connected to a weekend to rest and recharge much more than we need extended vacations.
We want to shift our culture to time-off friendly and benefit-aware. Remember, though, we do not want to shame people for not taking a vacation. Here are some ways to work this into conversations without swinging the pendulum too far.
Review PTO balances in regular one-on-one meetings every quarter, including a reminder of the maximum balance a person can carry, if your organization has a maximum, and the benefits of frequent breaks.
Have a shared team calendar reflecting planned time off, so it is easy to provide coverage and see when people are taking off. (Most teams already have this, but I still meet groups who do not.)
Start team meetings off with wins. At your next team meeting, ask each member to take 30 seconds to share a personal or professional win since you last met. If you do this every time, you will start to hear about how people spend their time off or plan for time off. People usually are excited to share. I have seen some great pictures!
The more we make this part of our intentional conversations, the more we normalize the behavior. The repeated topic helps people relax and communicate their needs.
Encourage full-life engagement
Each of us has activities that make us a whole person, not just our work selves. These could be the valentine’s party at our son’s school, a soccer game, our grandmother’s birthday, or an annual fundraising event for our favorite charity. These activities fill up our life with joy. Encourage sharing about these events. Make it easy for team members to attend these. Of course, we need to provide coverage for work, yet we will not all have the exact needs simultaneously. With communication, we can all engage in our lives fully.
How do we encourage communication and engagement with our whole lives and meet all the business’s needs?
Plan in advance high-demand times such as summer and holidays. Develop a written and agreed-upon rotation for such times. The same people should not always get Thanksgiving week or Christmas day off.
Develop staffing needs in advance and publish them. Review at least annually. Each team must know how many people can be out at one time. If there are shifts, this may need to be developed by shift. For example, maybe only two people can have planned absences at once, allowing one more person to be absent unexpectedly. Each team should understand the business needs.
Communicate and make decisions together. I have had situations where someone wants to take a week off to care for an ill parent, another has a relative getting married, and another has a planned training class that we already paid for. We could only have two people out. Instead of me deciding what we would do, the four of us came together and decided. The person with the training class let us know it would be offered later in the year, and he could call and get it moved. Problem solved. The key was that we did it together. Everyone was pleased and grateful.
Getting away from work and engaging in the rest of our lives, things that bring us joy outside work, are critical to fulfilling us.
Your Challenge - Run Reports and Update Agendas
If you have made it this far, you get it. We are all working more and taking less time off. We need a break, several. We are leaders. Let’s lead!
Run PTO reports - Get updated information on everyone’s PTO. Set this on your calendar to update quarterly.
Update your 1:1 meeting template - Add discuss PTO balance, carry-over balance if applicable, last time off, and next planned time off to the agenda. This should be 3+min. Not long. I have this at the bottom of my template with a note of when I last discussed it with the team member.
Update your team meeting agenda - Add “30-second win” to the start of your next team meeting. It’s your choice if you want to warn the team or not.
(Hardest one) Review your own time off - Check when you last took time off and when your next time off is scheduled. If it has been a while, get it scheduled. (Ouch, I know.)
(Finally) Update your time off checklist - Update the checklist you go through before you take time off (you have one, right?). Add, if needed, the things listed earlier in the article about messages, communications, and such. Think about everything you want your dream employee to do, then put them on your checklist.
Let me hear from you! Is anyone willing to share their pre-time off checklist?
I hope you will connect with me on LinkedIn and share.
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