Holiday Time or simply Working Away
How many of us can really enjoy our annual holiday leave? How many of us actually switch off, turn off our email connection, stop answering our phone from work and go into true holiday mode when on our break?
The pressure so many of us place upon ourself when we step away from work is enormous and often stops us from enjoying our holiday, worried we must get back.
It’s hard nowadays to disconnect. In fact, we are always connected, and someone always knows how to get in touch with us. While this is ideal for family and friends, it becomes an issue when we can’t escape the pressures of work. Staying within the communications loop has become a natural human habit.
A recent study conducted in the by the American Medical Association indicated that taking your yearly holiday vacation decreases the likelihood of heart attack around 32 percent. It is also believed that taking that break aids productivity once you return, enables your mind to refocus and recharges your body allowing better focus and more skilled determination to succeed.
How then can we ensure we get a good holiday break if we need to stay in communication with work?
There are a few tips to follow to safeguard you can have a break away while remaining in touch if you really have to. One important point many often forget is to set up the person who can receive the calls and emails when you are away. Always remember to place the date of your return as many miss this one point and it can create great confusion. Don’t forget to prepare, train and share information with colleagues as having one primary person knowing everything is not smart business. These days with such amazing communication sharing, it permits us to distribute so much information keeping the business or organisation running along in your absence.
Preparing and taking some necessary steps can provide you with both. Following these few tips can provide you with a good rest and break, allay the issue of your partner or family complaining you never stop working and helps you to recharge which is what a break is all about.
According to a study done by the travel getaway group, Expedia, only half of people that come back from their holiday feel rested, therefore 50% do not obtain the rest or break they need. This is often due to them not taking these following steps to ensure they can, in fact, have that needed break. If employees and workers do not obtain the opportunity to rest, relax and recharge the company or organisation suffers. Productivity drops, more sick leave is taken, mental health issues escalate, tension at work increases and the organisation suffers. If that isn’t reason enough to ensure your workers get their needed break, not sure what would.
Tips to ensure you and your employees get that needed break while on holiday:
- Send a message to all colleagues that you are on a well-earned break and only a major issue permits them contacting you
- Prepare your team so processes are in place in your absence
- Organise an out-of-office auto response from your email stating you are away and providing the name and contact of the person undertaking your role or job
- Turn your phone off during times of the day when eating, sightseeing or sleeping
- Have your phone message stating you are on leave until a specific date and provide the phone contact and email of the person they need to contact
- If needing to cover some work requirements, set specific times of the day, allocate the time length you spend on work and stop when time is up.
- Have a Dropbox, Evernote or similar account, so it is easy to check documents and fast to share
Take some time to switch off; this can take a few days for your mind to start relaxing. Body and mind relaxing are essential. Regardless if you sit on the beach, read, sail around an island or trek up a mountain, as long as we are doing something we enjoy and take the time to enjoy our activity, it can deliver amazing recuperation for us all.
Holiday vacations are designed as a needed part of our human existence and vital these days considering our busy, fast paced and highly pressured lives. Spend some time sleeping in, lazing around, laughing, seeing and experiencing different things from your normal lifestyle. Return rested and recharged, ready to go, prosper and thrive.
