Everyone needs to take time off work, but for people who are particularly busy or feel a high level of responsibility to keep a business running, the prospect of a holiday can be more stressful than exciting.
Despite this, it’s vital that all employees and individuals involved in a business – from senior management all the way down to the newest junior recruit – permit themselves to take holiday time. Here are some of the key reasons why:
Recharging the batteries
In order to stay fit and healthy, your mind and body need regular spells of time off and genuine distance from the stresses and demands of your job. If you run your own business or occupy a senior role, the chances are you spend a lot of your evenings and a fair amount of your weekends at least thinking about work, so it’s vital to take defined blocks of time off to rest and relax.
However difficult it might seem, forgetting about the professional side of your life and spending one or two weeks simply enjoying yourself can make you feel energised and reinvigorated on your return to work.
Letting other people take responsibility
It’s not uncommon for business owners, directors and senior leaders to feel that the responsibility of running the organisation rests almost entirely on their shoulders. As well as being detrimental to mental wellbeing, this attitude can make it difficult for other people to step up and make a contribution.
By taking a holiday, you can clear the way for your colleagues or ambitious junior staff to show what they have to offer. By the time you return, you might be surprised to see just how well the company performed in your absence, making delegation of key responsibilities much easier in the future.
Rediscovering your passion for work
One of the most common consequences of working non-stop is that you lose sight of the passions and ambitions that led you to go into business or take up your current role in the first place.
Taking some time off and shifting out of your day-to-day professional mind-set can be the perfect tonic to this problem. Getting some distance can prove invaluable if you want to rekindle your love for your job and return with a refreshed, open-minded and productive attitude.
Broadening your horizons
Taking a holiday doesn’t have to mean spending lazy days on the beach or fighting through crowds at tourist traps. Regular periods of annual leave give you the freedom to enjoy all sorts of activities and experiences that could feed into your performance and productivity at work.
Travelling to far-flung places and encountering new cultures, for example, can introduce you to new ways of thinking and interacting with people. Realising a lifetime ambition or doing something you have never done before can also provide a sense of confidence and personal fulfilment that can prove highly useful when you go back to work.
Ultimately, taking holidays is a vital part of your workplace performance, and could therefore be a key factor in the long-term success of your business.
Image courtesy of iStock/Natalia Deriabina
