- August 17, 2010
- Posted by: admin
- Categories: Blog, Corporate Culture, Human Resource Management
Taking short vacations from hectic work schedule once or twice a year is an important necessity. A person at work faces loads of challenges almost every day and strives to perform better and better which can increase the stress level.
Therefore, short vacations or break from work is an effective way of refreshing one’s mind as it brings positive energy that can be very helpful indeed. Besides, it gives an opportunity to spend some quality time with family and friends that is usually neglected.
For this reason, importance of vacations/leaves should be considered by the management because it can tremendously help in improving overall employee productivity, creativity and job satisfaction. Therefore, when the workload is of less significance or a suitable standby resource is available, employees should be encouraged to take time offs during which they can relax and when they resume their responsibilities; they will be more energetic and enthusiastic as a result, an improved quality of life and work can be achieved.
Please share your thoughts on this. When was the last time you took a vacation or break from work? Furthermore, what changes did you notice on the quality of life and work before and after these vacations/leaves?
19 Comments
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Vacations are not only important for you. They are required for your family too. Vacation lets you partly compensates for your loss of quality time with your family when you are too busy with official work.
I am very busy between April to July. And 10 Aug is my marriage anniversary. We made it a point to go out of station for atleast 2-3 days between 9 – 11 Aug every year. I am glad that I maintained this for the last 26 years. I missed one year in 2008 ( 24th anniversary), thanks to boss, I had to go to Egypt. And last year, we visited USA on our 25th marriage anniversary.
Yes. The holidays re-charge you tremendously. You are fresh and ready to work 18 hours a day again !!
Ramesh
The Human Search Engine
http://www.computerbasedexams.com
I think that short vacations or break are essentials time to time. Each of us, we are doing our job during all the day, during all the year, but the danger is to see the routine taking place in our daily work.
The question of balanced life is important. If we take some vacations, and we are travelling, it is an opportunity to see and to discover new things, new cultures, new landscapes, things bringing welness feeling and contributing to our personal and professional performances, but also new ideas. The routine is when we are always going in the same direction like an atom. To change the direction of the atom, it has to collide with another object or atom. To change the direction of our mind and to make it take another way than the routine, we need the impulse of new ideas, inspiration sources. It help us to solve and to face problems on another way, and it contribute to increase our efficiency and productivity, but also our welness.
Best regards
I always come back from vacation needing more money. So, the more I vacation, the more I have to work to pay for my vacation, the more I need a vacation from work.
I started doing less vacations when the economy tanked. My last real vacation was 5 years ago and I don’t miss it.
Having the challenges of struggling and surviving is so different then where I have come from that it is almost refreshing and stimulating all at the same time.
Vacations are great to take and depending on what country you come from, each culture takes the role, the necessity and the privilege of vacationing differently.
From adventure escapes to relaxing on the beach to chasing the kids through a theme park for three says…if it helps you adjust to the stresses and complexities of modern life, have a great time and send me a post card.
I love all the vacation takers out there! Of course, being in the vacation business, I vote for as many as possible. However, realistically, there is only so much down time one can have before they lose their focus and work product will suffer.
I try to schedule my personal vacations around the time of year which I know is my slow season. I balance this with the number of calls I get certain times during the year along with the number of clients I have traveling.
Sometimes a quick 3 or 4 day vacation help energize the brain and body. There are times when even a one day break from email and phones rejuvenate. I have clients who have not vacationed in a while and return telling me they had forgotten how great they feel when they are away from the phones and grind of the workweek.
My last vacation was about 6 months ago, a nice 4 nights on a wonderful beach. I visited a few friends and relaxed too. October, or November will most likely be my next shorty. I haven’t gotten that far yet.
So, I vote for vacations for your well-being!
I am in total agreement. Some people, like myself, are workaholics and would never take a vacation unless told too. I will say, the last company I worked for was awesome with vacation time. If you worked for this company “x” amount of years you got what is called a sabatical for 6 weeks and you were not allowed to show your face at the company let alone have anything to do with it for those 6 weeks. They would have someone to cover your position for those 6 weeks and on top of the 6 weeks, you still got your two week vacation. you just couldnt take them consecutively. How’s that for some vacation time???? You definatley get your unattended jobs at home done and relaxation as well. Once you return to work, you dont have to worry about coming back to a mess of work because someone has been doing your job (generally another manager with the same background knowledge) so you come back refreshed, not stressed and ready to roll!
Morning Salima
Too busy at present.
However I know their value, we should never forget the power of the sun to gift us the Vitamin D to help our body to absorb vital nutrients.
Next especially if taken out of season, they can provide building blocks for our children to create that stability of a family unit.
A holiday allows us to refocus, recharge and most importantly get our work life balance back into our mind to consider what we truly want from life and where we should head in the future.
I’ve always returned from holidays with more energy and better able to relax quickly after a stressful event had occurred.
I’ve posted the link for others to use.
Links:
* http://blog.ephlux.com/index.php/2010/08/value-of-vacations/
I agree that taking one’s annual leave entitlement is essential and on top of that weekends away are an effective way for recharging your batteries. One of the problems with annual leave is the volume of work that builds up in your absence so the first week back can often mean a number of late nights.
I wrote something for my blog about managing the stress of holidays – see http://www.sfmconsulting.co.uk/blog/?p=183
Hi Salima
I take regular vacations.
I find vacations stir my creative juices. Perhaps it is reading a book, or just time to allow the wheels of my mind free wheel rather than always be in gear. Whatever it is, I find they restart my creativity and help me see the path ahead more clearly.
I adore nature, I just video anything that is showing life goes on all around us.
As far as an employer is concerned good holidays are a great boost to their staffs performance.
I think the greatest single attitude benefit of a holiday is that it recreates a sense of well being and optimism in the holiday maker. It creates a can do attitude.
I am for short vacations or break from work as every one of us really need to be free from our daily drudgery and busy work schedules.
At Hyderabad we have lots of resorts where we go for short vacation,and forget ourselves for a few days.
When we are back we jump to work with enhanced vigour and enthusiasm.
Our output is increased very well.
I take 6 mini vacations which is made up of 14 hours to 48 hours for the past two years in my current role as Group Managing Director of Fatz Express Packaging Services Limited, regrettably I have had to cancel my planned vacations twice due to business concerns of my Board and Chairman aka my boss, having said that I live in the country in the middle of a rainforest so it is pretty relaxing furthermore as I am on an island in the Caribbean , beaches are only 1 hour drives away and Tobago a world class tourist destination is only a 30 minute plane flight so it is easy to overnight. Steve Covey put it best with his parable of sharpening the saw, especially for me as the company is poised for a cosmic leap forward , which requires two steps back, so as I live my work , vacations as I have described allows me to meditate and mind map, envision and focus on what it is that is required to be done and be open as well for serendipity. Thank you for your question , I am going to walk on the beach now.
Salima,
It’s been more than 10 years since I’ve taken a vacation for more than a weekend and I’m doing great. I can get away with this because I’m purposeful and proactive in keeping the different parts of my life in balance. We’re all multi-faceted creatures….emotional, physical, spiritual, social, personal, recreational, vocational, intellectual creatures. I firmly believe if we sacrifice any one area for success in another area, then it will slowly degrade our quality of life if done over a long period of time.
Salima:
In the last couple of years I have been taking short vacations like 2/ 3 days because the fact that I started my own business and have a lot to do as a start up
But I cant also imagine me going on 6 months at a time without at least a W/E mini vacation. It does recharge the batteries, clear the mind and stimulates creativity. When we go on vacation I dont take my lap top, dont check my BB- I just disconnect
Before that we used to go on long vacations my husband and I for 1 week to 10 days – we will resume this soon again
Vacations are important to recharge and regroup. I vacation with my family twice yearly and take other short vacations with my husband throughout the year. I generally find myself ‘checking’ to make sure everything is ok – I do find the short trips very relaxing and fun. When I return I am ready to go again!
Debra
I cannot take break from my work because I have to support my Bro & Sis as well as my mom in my home country.
I think that vacations or holidays are extremely important for Mental and Physical wellbeing. I have just come back from 3 weeks holiday in Europe and it did wonders for my mental wellbeing ( not to mention my skin was glowing from my tan!). Prior to that I had not had more than 1 weeks holiday in more than 3 years!
I also subscribe to the theory that mini breaks are a good way to break up the time period inbetween long holidays- I am a big fan of the long weekend and taking a couple of days off here and there to get away is great and also has the added benefit of there not being too much work piled up when you get back. I agree with others that sometimes the amount of hours that you have to put in in the weeks after the holiday almost outweigh the benefits of the holiday!
I tend to take cruises where there is wireless in the cabins and I can still produce 3D.
I was just looking at 21 and 30 day cruises out of San Diego today in fact! 😉
Some go to Hawaii and Polynesia and others go to Mexico, Panama & South America.
I take regular breaks from work. Couple of days here and there and an annual extended vacation or two. By being overworked and stressed out, you end up offloading on clients and that is never a good thing. I come back refreshed with new ideas and with a renewed enthusiasm for my business.
I take 6 vacations per year and a goal of mine is to vacation twice per year for six months each! 🙂
Links:
* http://bit.ly/b8XkCk
I take a long vacation every year and work like a trojan in between. I find the break feels like a quality break, and with my wife being a teacher, allows us to spend a lot of time together again. Usually the few days before heading back you begin to think about work. During that time I can refocus on what is important and when I come back I am generally on top of my game.