Are you feeling tired, exhausted, and stressed? Are you struggling to cope with all the work and life responsibilities you have on your plate? Are you taking enough holidays…?!
In Australia, employees are legally entitled to a minimum of four weeks annual leave each year. But with the onset of COVID-19, many employees have not used as much leave as they ordinarily might. In May 2021, Roy Morgan[1] published research showing Australians' annual leave balance was at a record high, having increased by 15.7% since before the pandemic. Astoundingly, they reported 1 in 10 Aussies had at least 7 weeks of annual leave owing.
It's an issue that seems to keep popping up a lot. Leaders often ask me what they can do to better look after themselves so that they can be present for their employees, and getting enough rest and recovery time is a good place to start. Just last week I was speaking to a large group of leaders, and they raised the challenges with being able to switch off on holiday. This further prompted the question: “how much leave do we really need?”
Before I attempt to answer this question, lets first consider the purpose of annual leave.
Purpose and significance of annual leave
Way back in 1935 unions started successfully championing the rights of workers to have paid leave entitlements. Whilst the introduction of paid leave schemes increased labour costs for employers, it was thought this would be offset by the increased energy and enthusiasm rested workers would demonstrate, leading to higher productivity. Over the next few decades, the industrial relations movement saw a rise in favourable court decisions to increase entitlements. It was felt holidays would be critical for promoting physical and mental health and enabling leisure time families. By the 1970s Whitlam era, the standard leave provision reached four weeks, and in 2006 the National Employee Standards were legislated, legally mandating four weeks annual leave for all workers.
So why the history lesson? It is important to highlight that Australian employees are entitled to annual leave because throughout history, we have acknowledged the health and social benefits of rest and recovery. We often talk about ‘mental health days’ and ‘taking a sickie’ to get some time out. Perhaps we have lost sight of the fact that we effectively get 20 mental health days a year… Let’s not even get started on the purpose of the 8 hour working day…
Why aren’t we taking time off?
In the modern world of work, there are so many reasons why we aren’t getting sufficient rest and recovery time:
The need to be always on – technology has made us accessible 24/7, and this has created unhealthy expectations about responsiveness to work.
Blurring boundaries and difficulties detaching – when working from home, work is just there in the next room, blurring boundaries between different domains of our lives.
Having nowhere to go – people have this belief that there is not point taking a ‘holiday’ if there is nowhere they can vacate to – do we really need to ‘get away’ to get away?!
High work demands and pressures – sees people feeling compelled to keep working, do more, and keep trying to achieve to succeed in work and life.
Not wanting to let others down – we often know that if we take a break from work, someone else must pick up our workload, and that leads to feelings of guilt and anxiety.
Having no-one to back fill and knowing work is piling up in your absence – alternatively, no one is doing our work while we are away, and we can’t switch off knowing it’s piling up, waiting for our return.
Do some of these issues sound familiar to you?
There are some very serious consequences to not taking sufficient time off and looking after ourselves. The World Health Organisation[2] led a research review, published in 2021, that found that long working hours were linked to around 745,000 deaths in a year due to stroke and ischemic heart disease, a 29% increase over the course of a decade. That is pretty scary stuff…
How much time off do we need to reap the health benefits?
What do we need to do to ensure sufficient rest and recovery throughout the days, weeks, and months to avoid stress, anxiety, depression, and burnout? To maintain optimal mental health, we need to focus on rest and recovery time at three levels:
Daily – short breaks throughout your workday
Weekly – getting extended hours off during the week
Throughout the year – taking sufficient holiday time
None of these is a substitute for any other, we need to build all three into our working lives.
Short breaks
It might seem counter-intuitive, but short breaks throughout the day will actually make us more productive. Powering through your lunch break really isn’t helping you to get more done. It is potentially leading to stress and fatigue, and they are job performance killers.
Top tip:
Look for signs that it’s time for a break – perhaps it took you longer than usual to write that email, you’re feeling tense, you are having trouble concentrating, you seem to have lost the ability to use proper English! Get up and stretch. Do a quick breathing or mindfulness exercise. Take a walk around the house/office/block. Go and check in with a colleague. The benefits of these “micro-breaks” come from engaging in a mental break and doing something different with our brains. Even a minute or two every hour could help reduce strain and improve concentration in the afternoon.
Extended hours off through the week
This rest comes at the end of the workday and scheduled days off. To get value out of this time, we need to psychologically detach from our work. This has become increasingly hard with technology use and working from home. People tend to feel more satisfied with their life and work, and less likely to experience stress and burnout, when they can successfully switch off.
Top tip:
Establish a healthy work to home transition routine – at the end of the workday and week, shut down your computer, close the office door, turn off your work phone and stop replying to calls, messages, and emails! This is certainly easier said than done, and it might take some effort to put these boundaries in place. Engage in an after-work routine to help with detachment, go to the gym, cook dinner, listen to an e-book or podcast on your trip home, do a fun activity with the family, immerse yourself in helping the kids with their homework. On weekends, consider putting an out of office reply on your email. If you do feel you need to check emails and messages, don’t do it constantly. Set yourself a special dedicated time when it’s least likely to impact your personal life.
Holidays
So then how much of a holiday do we really need? First of all, lets just consider that holidays are not a luxury or an indulgence, they were designed for our wellbeing, not to enable international adventures (though this is a great way to take them, of course!). Taking regular holidays has been associated with lower rates of stress, depression, anxiety, heart disease, and burnout. And importantly, research has also shown you do get the same health benefits even if you don’t travel anywhere and enjoy a staycation at home.
Regarding how long our holidays should be, even a 4 to 5 day break can result in positive health benefits. Taking a day or two off either side of a weekend could be a winning formula for many. The most critical thing to focus on is psychologically detaching from your work. The more you can forget about work, ignore calls and emails, ensure everything has been delegated to someone else, the better off your health and wellbeing will be. This may mean it is better to take shorter breaks of a few days where you totally switch off, then take 2-3 weeks leave and constantly check and respond to calls and emails.
Top tip:
Engage in fun and relaxing holiday activities – this is what we call ‘proactive recovery’, and you don’t need to go away to do it. Consider all the elements that make holidays away great and incorporate those in your time off. Engage in a fun hobby, sit in the sun and read a book, go to the beach or for a bushwalk, visit the day spa, or visit local attractions. Setting goals for your holidays may also increase wellbeing and satisfaction, such as spending time with family or tidying up your garage. This is less about having a to-do list, and more about defining ways to spend our time that give us a sense of purpose, sees us feeling accomplished, and ensure we don’t feel like we are just wasting time.
Importantly, don’t wait until you are desperate for a holiday to take one. By then you may be so stressed out and exhausted that you can’t even enjoy it – so plan them proactively. And remember, there are also fantastic wellbeing benefits to be gained through anticipation of a holiday in the few weeks leading up to it! The stress will start to melt away as your excitement for time out builds.
Mental health is so important. We should do all we can to promote it. But just remember the purpose of annual leave… if you feel like you need a rest or some time out, take some leave.
Further information
To stay up to date with WorkLife Psychology and read more articles and tips like these, follow us on social media. Scroll to the bottom of the page for our contact details and social links.
[1] Roy Morgan. (2021, May 18). Australians have nearly 175 million days of annual leave due – up over 23 million days from early 2020. http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8696-annual-leave-holidays-march-2021-202105170711
[2] Pega, F., Nafradi, B., Momen, N.C., et al. (2021). Global, regional, and national burdens f ischemic heart disease and stroke attributable to exposure to long working hours for 194 countries, 2000-2016: A systematic analysis from the WHO/ILO Joint Estimates of the Work-related Burden of Disease and Injury. Environment International, 154. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412021002208