With an increase in hybrid working, for many people, the boundaries between home and work have become blurred. They are continuing to work beyond the time in which they should have switched off. This is despite the effect that working excessive hours can take its toll on our physical and mental well-being.
Many of you will be looking forward to taking annual leave this summer, but how many of you will totally switch off from work whilst you are on your summer break?
One topic that doesn’t get given enough airtime (and which is a growing concern), is leaveism. A term coined by Dr Ian Hesketh and Dr Cary Cooper in 2014, leaveism is described as the practice of employees:
- using their annual leave or other time off (e.g., flexi time) to take time off work when they are actually sick;
- taking work home that cannot be completed during normal working hours;
- working whilst on leave or holiday in order to catch up
I frequently speak to people who do work whilst on holiday or on annual leave, which prevents them from totally switching off and having a complete break. One study found that 94.3% of people took work home and 88.7% worked when on annual leave. Figures which I think are far too high.
A survey of people professionals by the Chartered Institute for Personnel Development (CIPD) and Simply Health revealed that 60% responded ‘yes’ to employees were working outside of contracted hours to get work done, and 37% responded ‘yes’ to employees used allocated time off (such as annual leave) to complete work.
It can be easy for leaders to turn a blind eye to leavesim (and many of them are probably doing it themselves), because it means that the work is still getting done. But it is something that leaders need to be concerned about.
With reduced headcounts and increased workloads, many employees are still expected to deliver the same performance outputs, but something has to give. If they are unable to get work completed during working hours and are taking it home with them or working whilst on holiday, they are not switching off. Failure to address leaveism could have implications to the physical and mental health of employees, as well as having a negative impact on performance.
Many organisations overly rely on those employees who practice leaveism, which masks the need for extra resources to cope with demanding workloads. Some employees can feel under pressure to work whilst on leave. They may be worried that it will be viewed negatively if they don’t get the work done. Some may do it because it will make things easier for themselves when they return from their break.
I was recently speaking to someone whose CEO sent them an email at 11pm on a Friday evening, and they responded to it. When I asked why they had responded, they said because the CEO was a reasonable person and allowed them to be quite flexible.
They didn’t feel pressured to respond, and responded willingly, but that’s not the point. The boundaries had clearly been blurred. The CEO shouldn’t have been emailing them at that time on a Friday evening. And by them responding, it gives the CEO permission to do it again.
We need to stop this always on culture that has crept in over the years because it is not good for us in the long run. Make sure you switch off from work and have a proper break and encourage your team members to do the same.
Thankfully some organisations recognise the need for all employees to switch off and have introduced company wide summer breaks. The whole organisation shuts down for two weeks.
Whilst this is not possible for all organisations, all leaders can make sure that they themselves disconnect from work during their summer break. And they can embed a culture where employees do the same.
Are you having a break this summer? If so, what will you be doing to make sure that you completely switch off, and what can you do to make sure that your team members do too?
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First published on LinkedIn.
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