August arrives and here in Europe we're in vacation season. Summer, heat, sun until late and school recess for the little ones. It's the equivalent of our Christmas to Carnival season in Brazil: the ideal time to take a few weeks off and recharge. In this climate of pause, I decided to dedicate this column to this topic and its consequences.
In the constant search for productivity, the number of vacation days is falling. In the United States, the average employee took 20 days off in 1978 and after 2015 the number fell to below 17 days, with 30% of Americans having not taken any personal time for more than two years. However, as we'll see today, giving up this tool may be doing more harm than good to the global economy.
Vacations are not a new concept. The rural economy has always had its moments of rest between the planting and harvesting seasons. After all, it was impossible to speed up nature's timetable and no matter how motivated the farmer, it was impossible to start planting in winter. To this day, many of the festivities we celebrate have their historical origins in moments in the agricultural calendar.
Then came the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, when an increasing percentage of the population left the farms and joined a production model capable of operating 365 days a year thanks to the efficiency of machines that no longer depended on the weather and the season for their operation. Rest was then a loss of productivity, and Sunday became the only day dedicated to it, thanks to the influence of religious traditions that with millennial wisdom already understood its social usefulness. This period lasted until workers began to organize themselves into unions and demand rights, and in 1871 the Bank Holiday Act in England gave workers a few days of paid rest. In 1948, the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights stated in its article 24 that "Everyone has the right to rest and leisure" and in 1970 it suggested 3 weeks of vacation as good international practice.
Today we no longer live in an agricultural economy, where productivity was governed by the weather, nor in the economy of the 18th century, where it was a question of tightening the same screw as quickly as possible.
In a world where more and more operational jobs are automated and what creates value in the economy are activities that machines will never replace (creative, management, collaboration between people), productivity is no longer a linear concept (more work - more results) and we see some effects that would seem quite counter-intuitive in the previous paradigm: such as the fact that taking time off work (vacations) can improve your results.
A diverse world
The first observation is that in such a large and plural world, the subject of "vacation" is also treated quite differently. From a legal point of view, there are different situations around the world. One is the American model, which does not have a minimum number of days by law and the issue is always dealt with through individual negotiations. We also have the Chinese model, which is based on collective recesses during the "Golden Weeks" (like the Chinese New Year between January and February). We also have the European model with its 20-30 days of paid rest (depending on the country), which inspired the Brazilian model.
Culturally, we also have many differences. In the United States, 84% of executives have already canceled vacations for work reasons and 41% check emails and resolve work issues during their days off, while in France 91% take their full 30 days and few feel the need to work during this period.
Well-being
Science leaves no doubt that vacations are good for the mind and studies have shown that they improve feelings of well-being.
Several publications have shown their positive effects on the ghost of burnout, considered a real epidemic according to the WHO itself, which estimates that 324 billion dollars are lost annually in the global economy due to excessive stress in the workplace. However, living waiting for the next break doesn't seem to be a good idea in the long term, as after just 4 weeks the positive effects on stress and burnout tend to return to the post-holiday period (Etzion 2011, 2010). In other words, vacations help, but they don't solve the problem.
Boosting Motivation
But in addition to the mental health benefits, there are very pragmatic reasons to take advantage of the vacations. Often, the most effective way to stay focused is to unfocus for a controlled period. Scientists have been trying to understand the neurological pathway that makes this happen, but evidence shows that "deactivating" a goal for a short period of time is a very effective way of ensuring that attention to it remains high. It's as if our brain gets used to having constant vigilance over certain goals and slowly loses the ability to keep an eye on them. Sporadic breaks where this goal is not a priority reactivate this neurological control.
So yes, that drive and motivation you feel after the first cup of coffee on your return from vacation has an explanation in neuroscience.
The great elite athletes and Olympic coaches have understood this for a long time, just look at the annual training cycles of the great champions and medal winners. They all incorporate cycles of at least two to three weeks of rest and the vast majority have at least two weeks of absolute pause, with a total break in training and diet. Of course, the physical and hormonal issue is preponderant for an athlete, but many also cite the mental benefit of this renewed focus. In other words, they have empirically learned the above effect: resting the mind is pleasant and maintains focus.
Creativity
As we've already pointed out here in another article, creativity is one of the most important competitive differentiators in today's economy. The World Economic Forum has placed it among the top 3 job skills in Industry 4.0 and some call it the most important skill of the 21st century.
This skill, so fleeting, so ephemeral, so volatile, is very difficult to control and stimulate (even more so at the scale of a large organization), but a good vacation policy can be one of the simplest tools to stimulate this precious skill in your team.
Neuroscience shows us that alpha waves in the brain are key to creativity and that they are triggered in moments of relaxation and idleness, helping our brain to create new and unusual connections. What's more, offline time helps to reduce levels of cortisol, the stress hormone, which is one of the great villains of creative thinking.
In addition, another interesting effect is that being exposed to novelty has a powerful effect. Interesting studies show that the SN/VTA area of our brain, which is closely linked to learning and creativity, is activated when we are exposed to novelty. Just being exposed to pictures of different scenarios in a laboratory already has an impact on this area and increases our creative capacity. Now imagine the impact of a trip to a new continent, with new sights, smells, tastes and cultures.
Even better if the vacation time is in contact with nature. In another study, participants who spent four days in nature without using cell phones had a 50% impact on creativity in the short term. Fifty percent growth in one of the most important skills of the 21st century has a clear impact on business. Think about it!
Big Picture
In the same Future of Job reports, the World Economic Forum shows that as machines automate more basic processing functions, the need for professionals with more critical thinking and complex problem-solving skills is growing.
A major dilemma that most professionals face is the fact that they are always so involved with the infinite demands of day-to-day life, so caught up in the endless loop of meetings, calls, deliveries, that there is no time left to think about the future, to look at the business "from above", to make more macro strategic connections. The famous big picture that is talked about so much, but to which few manage to dedicate themselves in practice.
In fact, it's not at all easy to flip the switch between tactical execution and strategic thinking on a day-to-day basis, so this can be a great way to use your vacation. Not that you have to take a blackboard to the beach to do your next strategic planning with your feet in the sand, but a bit of time left in the diary, that long walk on the beach, 8 hours on a flight, perfect time to dedicate your mind to exploring long-term paths more openly.
If possible, travel!
When asked what their favorite way to use a break longer than two days is, most professionals cite traveling. And apparently, that's a great choice.
Research on the subject shows that vacations with travel, especially those away from home, contribute more to well-being than those in which you stay in the same city (also known by the cool name of staycation), with a particularly pronounced negative effect if they involve sitting on the sofa watching television.
Insight that was confirmed by a study at the University of Vermont that cross-referenced Twittter data to confirm that the further away from home, the greater the good mood boost during vacations.
The right amount of rest also seems to be important. Studies observe that the range of 11 to 15 rest days seems to be the period that optimizes its beneficial results.
Take it into account when planning your next ones!
And the results?
If it seems that being on vacation has great benefits in terms of important skills for the job market, could it be correlated with results?
Apparently so. Research published in the Harvard Business Review (Project Time Off: 2016) shows that executives who take more than 11 days of vacation are 30% more likely to get a raise or promotion, contradicting a still very common view that performance is related to less vacation.
The effects on performance are remarkable! Productivity increases by 31% in these executives and those with sales-related functions have 37% higher turnover results. So it should come as no surprise that they are also more successful.
In the same cross-check, 27% of those employees who used their vacation days in full were promoted within a year, compared to 23% of those who didn't use the benefit in full.
In terms of raises, the result was similar: Over a 3-year period, 84% of "vacation users" received a raise, compared to 78% of the other group.
Reflection
As always, I like to leave a bit of personal reflection here to make our conversation more human. I've always had an ambiguous relationship with the subject. At the same time, I've always been passionate about travel and couldn't wait to explore another corner of the map, but I've also always found it difficult to switch off and deal with anxiety. I'd spend months dreaming and planning my next adventure, but the moment I got on the plane I'd feel like I was abandoning my responsibilities - I still do! Taking time away from the reins of the business has always been a difficult exercise for me.
In my development as a leader, learning to trust the team to deliver results in my absence wasn't automatic, but it was quicker than resolving another blockage. The most difficult thing for me was my relationship with "example". I always believed strongly in being a model of the attitudes and behaviors I expected from my team, and "Leadership by Example" had a huge impact on my training. This made my relationship with vacations difficult, because it made me feel a certain hypocrisy: if I, as a leader, had my feet in the sand in the Caribbean, how could I expect the team to be doing their best in my absence?
It took me a while to understand that the example I had to set was precisely that of taking a few days off. If we start from the assumption that time off is a tool for productivity, creativity, stress management and has short- and long-term benefits, as we saw above, perhaps one of the most important examples a leader can give is that it's OK to take a few days off to replenish your energy without guilt or fear, and that this is not only accepted but valued in the company. So think about that when you're planning your time-off.
See you next month, because now I'm going to take a few days off too!
Some sources:
-Sonnentag, Kuhnel 2010, How long do you benefit from vacation? A closer look at the fade-out of vacation effects
-Sonnentag 2012. Psychological Detachment From Work During Leisure Time: The Benefits of Mentally Disengaging From Work
-Lleras 2011 Brief and rare mental "breaks" keep you focused: deactivation and reactivation of task goals preempt vigilance decrements
-HBR the Data Driven Case for Vacation https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-data-driven-case-for-vacation
-The impact of vacation and job stress on burnout and absenteeism Mina Westman &
Dalia Etzion
-Bretland et al 2021 - Reducing workplace burnout: the relative benefits of cardiovascular and resistance exercise
-Future of Jobs Report, 2018, World Economic Forum
