Taking a Step Back: Why It’s Important to Take Time to Unwind In an Industry That Never Stops

Like every kid, I looked forward to the freedom and relaxation of summer vacation with great anticipation when I was growing up. The idea of being completely free from the pressure to perform and the deadlines of assignments was always appealing. It seemed that the days grew longer as June approached with the promise of time off and a release from schoolwork.

My father, however, was a relentlessly hard-working American business owner who didn’t really know how to take time for leisure. Every day that I didn’t have a job to go to during summer “vacation,” my father left me a lengthy list of work to do around the house. While this practice kept me out of trouble, it passed down to me the anxiety he felt when he wasn’t being “productive.”

The habit of working all the time is seen in America as a virtuous key to success. It’s commonplace for employees to forgo vacation days or personal time off granted by employers. In my observation, the business owners themselves take even less time away from work. But is working, or overworking, really a key to productivity?

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

According to data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and World Bank, the U.S. was the 12th most productive country worldwide in 2022 measured by Gross Domestic Product per capita. The same data ranked the U.S. 10th in output per hour worked. Clearly, the more hours we work in any society the more income goes up, and the U.S. is a world leader in productivity.

Yet, the U.S. is 48th in life expectancy, according to Worldometer, and many of those countries higher on the list–like several in Europe, for example–feature shorter workweeks, according to World Population Review data.

One result of taking more time away, working less or perhaps differently may be increased productivity while working. That seems to be the message from a study conducted by Ernst and Young, who reported an 8% productivity increase for each additional 10 hours of vacation they took as reported by CNBC.

Anyway, that’s enough with the data. I think most people–except perhaps my father–would agree that taking time away from work is a good thing, and the data supports that idea. The question is why don’t we. I think there are several reasons worth exploring:

We have a cultural focus on being viewed as hard working as opposed to achieving results. Clearly, that is an American value. So, we boast about our workweeks to colleagues and friends and managers focus on it in hiring and promoting. When was the last time someone boasted to you about how much vacation time they took?

I think it’s obvious that effective and efficient time at work is more valuable than mere presence, and most would agree that results are more important than time spent in most jobs. But many managers still operate by taking attendance rather than measuring results through metrics like Key Performance Indicators (KPI). While this has improved some since COVID-19 and the work-from-home movement, it is not clear yet how managers will view attendance in the future.

Guilt often drives behavior. For generations raised with similar expectations to my father’s, not knowing how to manage the emotions of being away from work makes it much more difficult. I have certainly struggled with this during my career, especially as I focused on trying to force myself to take more time off.

We don’t know how to take time away. As a society we clearly focus on working well. We spend a long time in education, work preparation, internship, and other means learning how to work. We teach, train, and mentor managers in how to supervise work. But I don’t see a similar set of efforts to help people learn to maximize time off and its obvious benefits.

Moving Forward

Hard work and success are American values that have made our country a great nation and our economy the envy of the world. But if we could continue to maintain that level of success while encouraging ourselves and employees to leave work completely behind on a regular basis and relax, recreate, and recharge, it would make us healthier, increase our life expectancies, and shape us into superior workers. Business owners and managers should consider the following best practices:

Value, measure, and manage work and play. We’ve been doing that in my companies for many years by insisting managers model and lead. We track and talk about our time away, encouraging people to even boast about it. We insist people leave their work cell phones behind, ignore email, and not check in when they’re gone. On the wall of our office is a statement, “We honor good intentions but what we value is results,” and we explain that what we mean by good intentions is time spent at work. We measure and value KPIs over hours. Over time, this has created a different kind of work culture, a different way of thinking about the value of work itself–and the bonus is measurably better productivity.

Don’t just offer time off, encourage it. We unavoidably carry the lessons of childhood and previous experience with us. But the lessons of the past may be replaced with better learning if we address issues head on and repeat as necessary. If managers believe that time away makes a better person as well as team member, they must not just give permission to check out but encourage it. Real encouragement gives those who are uncertain the courage to act and truly disconnect. Celebrating time away helps to remove the remaining stigma that exists throughout our society and many businesses.

Help your team understand how to disconnect. Leaders and managers can also teach their teams “how” to be gone in ways that benefit everyone. Start with asking employees to leave their work cell phones and computers behind. Assure them that leaning on coworkers to care for clients and complete important tasks in their absence is a compliment and an important vote of confidence for their teammates. It is also a chance for them to rest while their team has an opportunity to grow. Leaders and managers can help team members develop personal planning skills so they can plan time away effectively. If they don’t plan their time off, they will likely resort to thinking about work and miss out on the benefits of being away. Learning to plan better will assist employees when they return to the office, too.

As a leader, you teach by example. I’ve been working on improving my own non-working skills for over 20 years now. I share my progress and failures regularly with those I work with in the hope they will not only learn from my experiences but be inspired by them. I’ve made considerable progress, learning along the way how to take almost as much time off as time spent working. I’ve seen my own productivity increase by 25 times. I’m proud of both the results at work and the time they afford me away. I’m prouder still of the progress my team has made, their stories, and the people they’ve become.

So, get out of there and encourage your people to follow you. In an industry with unlimited work like ours, there will be plenty to do when you get back.

Caldwell is an author, speaker, and mentor who has helped independent agents create more than 250 independent insurance agencies. Learn more by visiting www.tonycaldwell.net or contacting him at tonyc@oneagentsalliance.net.