The importance of taking annual leave

Why should we take a break from work?

Putting off booking that week off from work may seem like the best idea at the time and continuously working may help your career initially but it can also have the opposite effect and be damaging to your health and in turn affect your ability to perform your job role effectively.

Nobody knows how you are feeling better than you, so it is important that you do not rely on your employer to recognise when you need to take a break.

Taking holiday from work is vital for long-term career health. When you have time off from work it can help to prevent burnout, significantly boosts your mental health, your physical wellbeing, and in turn helps you to become more productive. Regular time off allows you to recharge, reducing stress-related illnesses and increasing creativity and can lead to better performance upon return to work.

Key Reasons for Taking Annual Leave

• Regular breaks break the cycle of stress, reducing the risk of exhaustion, anxiety, and depression.
• Disconnecting helps lower blood pressure and reduces risks of heart disease. It also enables better sleep and immune system recovery.
• Time away from day-to-day tasks enables a “reset,” allowing you to return with renewed focus, energy, and improved problem-solving skills.
• Taking leave provides time for family, friends, and hobbies, which improves job satisfaction and morale and is a boost for relationships.

Preparing for annual leave

Schedule your time off well in advance to ensure a smoother handover of your work to a colleague. Block some time out of your calendar for your first day back after your holiday to catch up.

Be sure to switch off work emails and turn off work phones to ensure proper rest.

Making the Most of Your Holiday

In order to make the most of your holiday you should avoid over scheduling and allow time for relaxation, hobbies or simply doing nothing to properly recharge.

Connect with friends and family, read a book , go for walks and spend time in nature or pursue creative hobbies, or book that sunshine holiday abroad.  Ultimately it should be time to enjoy!

Key Statistics on Stress and Unused Holiday

Breathe HR is a cloud-based, all-in-one HR software designed specifically for SMEs and growing businesses to streamline administrative tasks like holiday management, employee records, and performance tracking.  They recently carried out a survey called the Unused Holiday & Burnout epidemic with the aims of understanding how these ongoing pressures influence the amount of holiday people take and how well they’re able to disconnect when they do.

The key findings were:

1. Workers feel too busy, understaffed, and worried about their jobs to take time off.

High workloads are leaving staff feeling overwhelmed and unable to take time off. Only 35% of UK workers use all their holiday days. 17% of respondents had 5 or more unused holiday days.

2. UK workers overwhelmingly think that lack of time off causes anxiety, burnout, and poor mental health.

81% of people agree or strongly agree that they notice increasing feelings of burnout, exhaustion or poor mental health when they can’t take time off work.

3. Staff shortages were overwhelmingly the biggest contributing factor of unclaimed holiday.

42% of individuals agreed that staff shortages were a contributing factor to unclaimed holiday, making it the most common reason regardless of the respondent’s gender, age, or income.

4. The majority of UK workers undertake work whilst on booked leave.

57% of UK workers admit to working either ‘sometimes’ or ‘often’ while taking booked leave.

5. People don’t feel encouraged to disconnect from work while on holiday.

Only 37% of people agreed that their organisation encourages them to disconnect from work while on holiday.

6. GenZ are the least likely to take holiday and the most likely to work when they do.

Only 22% of 18–24-year-olds use all their holiday days, the lowest amount of any age group, and 25 percentage points fewer than the over 54s.

74% of 18-24s also admitted to working either sometimes or often on holiday, also the highest of any age group.

7. The lowest-paid workers felt the least encouraged to take time off.

Only 33% of UK workers on less than £30,000 a year felt encouraged by their employer to disconnect, vs. 44% of those on £75,000+.

8. Employees are interested in taking additional unpaid holiday.

58% of people said they were either ‘likely’ or ‘highly likely’ to take up to 5 days additional unpaid holiday a year, if given the option by their employer.

Returning to work – the post-holiday blues

Be kind to yourself in the first week back and recognise that Sunday blues are very common and usually come from anticipated stress where the brain predicts a high demand on Monday and activates the stress response early according to Executive Coach Beth Hope. 

When back at work ensure you take lunch breaks and leave work at a reasonable time so you can enjoy your time away from work. Catch up with colleagues to see what has been going on.  Focus on the things you enjoy about your job.

Time-blocking your calendar, batching similar tasks and prioritising certain bits of work can reduce mental overload and decision fatigue.

Remember to book your next holiday!

Photo by Sage Friedman on Unsplash