Is it even vacation if we work while on it? Summer Vacation, if that's actually still a thing with COVID-19 impacting nearly every aspect of our lives, is usually a time of year where most of us have tried to take at least a short vacation to get away from work and out of town. Just like work habits, travel plans and activities have evolved as a result of the impact of the virus. One work related benefit of COVID-19 that might be a detriment to PTO and vacation enjoyment is the increasingly accepted ability to work remotely from anywhere. While this might be good for us on a day to day basis in most instances, it can be killer for vacation. A recent article by Harvard Business Review discussed how negative work impacts on vacation time can have greater impacts on full time work activities and performance.
One of the biggest findings in the article is that if work must happen on vacation, we should try to reframe it mentally. This could be having an inner monologue where we tell ourselves that a little work will prevent a massive fire at the office or in the trailer when we are back full time. We could even reframe vacation work by reducing the actual amount of PTO used. Leaders can help by supporting work free vacations by assigning work to other team members or by adjusting deadlines. Leaders can also lead by example. If they answer calls and respond to e-mails at all hours while away from work, everyone else might feel pressure to do the same.
This is all very critical as overall performance can be negatively impacted through frustrations caused by vacation work. One of the worst impacts is intrinsic motivation can be severely hampered by all work and no play. If an employee isn't intrinsically motivated, leaders better figure out how to motivate them or give them the full vacation they need and deserve or burnout and bailing out to greener pastures may quickly follow.
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