Vacations are meant to provide an opportunity to relax, de-stress, and detach from the pressures and anxieties of the workplace. Yet, most American travelers continue to juggle at least some of their work responsibilities during their paid time off.
Bringing work home with you, so to speak, has only become harder to avoid amid the pandemic. With more companies adopting work-from-home models, the delineation between work hours and time to recharge has become increasingly blurred.
And, with communications technology advancements making it easy to reach a person anytime, anywhere via various channels, employees feel increasingly bound to engage in work activities-checking emails, taking calls and responding to various notifications-during their designated time off.
An Indeed survey conducted earlier this year discovered that 61 percent of remote workers were finding it more difficult in 2021 to "unplug" from work in their off-hours, and more than 52 percent said they were suffering from acute burnout. A similar survey by The Conference Board found that 60 percent of workers were concerned about the effects of stress and burnout on their mental wellbeing.
Realizing this, some companies are taking a new, novel approach to battle employee burnout by embracing company-wide vacation periods. That means closing down the entire office and giving all employees the same week of paid time off. The trend began by gaining popularity among tech firms this summer.
Imagine being able to go on vacation knowing that you won't be subject to constant interruptions in the form of phone calls, texts or emails from the office; and being able to truly relax without having a backlog of work piling up in your inbox that you'll have to catch up on when you return.
"Having true time off is essential for our mental health and, with all the technology available to us today, it is getting increasingly challenging to take off," says Kathleen Pike, professor of psychology at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told Conde Nast Traveler. "Having company-wide holidays can have the benefit of shared down time, and greater potential to unplug and restore our mental health reserves when on vacation."
This fresh approach to PTO, "is a great idea for peoples' mental health," said Lucy McBride, an internist doctor in Washington, D.C. "In the pandemic, there's very little separation between work and life, and people need to have breaks and clear lines around those breaks."
Scientific evidence actually backs up the argument for fully unplugging from work. A recent study by researchers at Finland's Tampere University found that "detachment" from work is key to effectively vacationing, and achieving true rest and relaxation during time off.
LinkedIn was among the first companies to test out the concept of a company-wide vacation back in April, giving its 15,900 employees a week off all at once. "We wanted to make sure we could give them something really valuable, and what we think is most valuable right now is time for all of us to collectively walk away," Teuila Hanson, LinkedIn's chief people officer, told CNN. "And what is really nice after a [company] shutdown, you come back and you don't have a barrage of emails or meeting notes that you feel like you have to catch up on, or feel like you have to peek at your email."
In June, also with the aim of alleviating burnout, dating app Bumble likewise decided to give its 700 employees a collective week off in addition to their existing vacation allotments. The experiment was such a success that Bumble has decided to offer all its teams week-long, company-wide vacations twice a year going forward.
Social media management platform Hootsuite also instituted a company-wide "Wellness Week" in July, "where we can all 'unplug' together-forgoing the collective need to check notifications while we're out or 'catch up' upon return," the company explained. The extra week given to employees on top of their usual vacation time came in response to an observation that employees were increasingly suffering from "depression, anxiety, loneliness, and uncertainty". "More and more, we're living in a world where the workday effectively doesn't end-and as a result, many of us are finding ourselves 'languishing'," Hootsuite wrote in a release.
For the latest travel news, updates and deals, subscribe to the daily TravelPulse newsletter.
Topics From This Article to Explore
