Have you guessed what that tip might be yet?
It’s something you may have never actually done in this life. Hopefully, you’ve done it 10, 20 — even 100 times (if you’re lucky and truly living life to the fullest!)
There’s tons of scientific data backing its use as a morale and productivity-boosting tool for you and your staff.
Failure to use this one simple-to-implement tip for your business can actually lead to an early death for you and your employees…
Have you guessed it yet?
Take a VACATION!
Yes, I cleverly gave it away in the title already. Call me Captain Obvious now if you like…
The summer vacation is as synonymous with americana as eating pizza or blowing your nose in public. Don’t believe me about the nose-blowing thing? Check out this funny rundown of common americanisms: American Behaviors on Mentalfloss.com
Much like the guy pictured above, you too can take at least a brief respite from whatever daily grind you find yourself smack dab in the middle of every single day. Freedom has a way of making everything in life clearer: it erases bitterness with hope; contempt with compassion; freedom changes pouts and frowns to nothing but toothy, bright-eyed smiles.
And if you have a family and haven’t planned a vacation this year, what’s wrong with you seriously? When fully grown, your kids won’t revel in the long-since-past memories of summer of you telling them to cut the grass, or taking them back to school shopping. No, they’ll remember the time spent with their friends and parents (typically in that order) doing fun things: seeing new places, road-tripping, flying in a plane, going on a great adventure, etc.
These are the things that we, as adults, also need in order to forge lifelong memories — truly happy memories. Most important, vacations have a way of cutting away at a good chunk of the mental chafe that you, and most of the people you work with have accumulated over the last year or years of work.
Guess where overwork leads?
For starters, working too much without a reasonable break from the work grind makes you feel bad inside, and will probably kill you. Check out this study from the Families and Work Institute. And by the way, depression is the most costly healthcare expense to government and business when it comes to mental disorders. In fact, I want to recap something from the Executive Summary of the Families and Work study:
In 2000, the World Health Organization reported that by 2020, clinical depression was expected to outrank cancer and follow only heart disease to become the second greatest cause of death and disability worldwide.
I tell ya, if that doesn’t spark a deep desire in you to take a vacation right now, you might just be a beyond-hope workaholic! I mean, depression’s spreading so fast, it’s going to win the race to kill the human race off faster than cancer!
Overworked (read: non-vacationing) employees are:
- More likely to make mistakes at work. Twenty percent of employees reporting high overwork levels say they make a lot of mistakes at work versus zero mistakes reported from those who experience low overwork levels.
- More likely to feel angry at their employers for expecting them to do so much. Thirty-nine percent of employees experiencing high overwork levels say they feel very angry toward their employers versus only on percent who experience low overwork levels.
- More likely to resent coworkers who don’t work as hard as they do. Thirty-four percent of employees who experience high overwork levels versus only twelve-percent of those experiencing low overwork levels say they often or very often resent their coworkers.
Looking at the bullet points above, does it really actually make sense to NOT take a vacation from work, just to “keep the doors open” and go through the motions?
Just the simple act of planning a vacation can work wonders on a person’s quality of life, though coming back from one will probably always be a hardship for all of us (see more on the positive effects planning a vacay has on our psychology: Quality of LIfe Research — Springer.com)
I don’t know about you but a happier, well rested, and more productive staff sounds much more appealing to me than:
- Depression.
- Heart disease.
- Dealing with more headaches in the form of avoidable mistakes in the workplace.
- Employees that despise their employer.
- Employees that resent their coworkers.
There are several more consequences that come from managing a business with overworked people manning the helm of the ship, but I hope those listed above are enough of a reason for you to plan a two-week (or longer) siesta for you and your staff this summer or fall. Some, like entrepreneur Marie Forleo, shut down their entire company for at least two weeks during Christmas and summer vacation. Not a bad gig working for her, am I right?
Of course, many of you can’t close up shop for a day, let alone a couple of weeks, meaning that individual vacations (including your own) will have to be staggered to accommodate everyone in the company.
Anyhow, that’s my one summer-inspired tip to help you re-energize your business.
Have any business-boosting tips of your own to share? Leave a quick comment and tell everyone.