When I was a young employee eagerly climbing my career ladder, I often put in extra hours to get the job done. Now that I’m a bit more experienced, I realize that those extra hours didn’t always result in extra productivity.
We all have a ‘peak’ of our performance – a point in our day when we’ve reached our most effective level. Working much beyond that point has an adverse effect: the more I worked, the less I could focus and my attention to detail waned, so mistakes increased.
Little did I know that what I really needed to be productive was to take a break and unplug for a while.
Taking Paid Time Off Allows Time to Recharge
My young eager-beaver self simply thought that the more I worked, the more I’d get done. Given that belief, it made sense to me to bypass some paid time off and/or check email while on vacation. This was especially true once I started managing others – of course I had to be there or at least check in, right?
Manager Behavior Matters for Taking Paid Time Off
It turns out that your boss makes a difference in how they model using paid time off, and employees can be influenced. I can easily think of two managers I’ve had that fit both ends of this spectrum.
The first, Jamie, was a proud workaholic; the hours worked equated the level of dedication and work ethic. While very productive, that drive was very strong and often lead to Jamie losing out on vacation time.
My other boss Sharon also worked very hard, regularly putting in more than expected in time and effort. She had great results and a productive team. However, Sharon was the first boss I ever had that took all of her paid time off. She used it up each year, and when she was out of the office she was truly out of the office! Unlike Jamie who would check/return messages if out, Sharon relied on her out-of-office message and her team to get things done in her absence.
Looking back, it’s easy to see that when I worked for Jamie, I adopted a different approach to taking time off than I did with Sharon. I think one difference is that Sharon saw time off as a benefit, while Jamie saw it as a perk rather than a component of total compensation.
If it’s been a while since you’ve reviewed your Paid Time Off Practices, maybe it’s time.
Time off is a key part of your total compensation package – one that is often overlooked even though employees place a high value on it. Having true breaks from work is re-energizing; time away is necessary so we can be more effective and productive overall.
After all, almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a bit. Including you.
