Company wide time off is one of the latest tactics to combat employee burnout. Davis Riar, Business Value Consultant at Hootsuite said returning from the company wide vacation in July was the “most relaxing vacation yet.” Riar said “it was the healthiest break I’ve had mental health wise,” and he attributes this to not receiving internal emails and messages. Requiring employees to take time off at the same time is important for remote workers. Many remote workers are now working longer hours with fewer breaks and still having difficulty separating their personal and professional lives at home.
Hootsuite was strategic in choosing their week off. “They chose a week at the beginning of Q2 and when most people were already taking that week off,” Riar says.
For many organizations, it is hard to commit all employees to one full week off. Consider a three or four day weekend to combat burnout. There are creative ways for each organization to take the benefits of company wide time off and apply it to them. If you are a food manufacturer or have multiple customer service representatives, consider staggering the weeks off while allowing each team to take time off at the same time. Implementing this will require some changes in your operations during company wide time off. To expect business as usual during the week off is unrealistic and could be stressful.
Hootsuite has not publicly announced if they will continue the shut down next year. Riar told us they are “analyzing the effects” of the company wide time off. A team or company wide shut down will help retain employees as they feel ready to return to work from a true break.