With Offices up and down the country shutting their doors over the festive period, it gives workers the perfect opportunity to restore their energy levels. Whether your workers have got a couple of days off or nearing two weeks over Christmas, it is vital to take some well deserved time off. However, for many of us, it’s tempting to take a ‘quick look’ at those work emails or to quickly to do that 20-minute task. Yet, these quick checks turn into much more and this means that you’re not taking a proper break from work.
A lack of relaxation time leads to increased stress levels and can have a range of negative impacts on our mental health. In 2017/18 alone, 595,000 workers suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, showing that this is a real issue in the workplace! Not only does this lead to employees being unhappy at work, but it means that they are working less productively and end up taking more time off work sick.
Furthermore, if employees fail to take time off it can have a significant impact on a company’s staff turnover. A lack of breaks can mean employees feel overwhelmed, overworked and undervalued at work and therefore encourage them to search for employment elsewhere. Make it part of your company culture to encourage proper relaxation time – especially over the Christmas period! Make their health and wellbeing a priority, and help them to be both happy and productive at work. How do you do this? Share these tips to help employees switch off over the Christmas holidays.
Over Christmas and New Year is the perfect time of year to take a break from technology, and social media. This doesn’t mean go to the extremes of a digital detox, but avoid looking at work emails and work social media if you can. Or, try limiting yourselves to checking them once per day in order to have a good break. Focus on the here and now, and worry about the emails and tweet you were mentioned in later.
The festive period is often the one chance a year we get to spend some quality time with our friends and family. Embrace it! Focus on the people you’re with, and the conversations that you’re having rather than putting your attention on that email that can wait until you’re back from the Christmas break.
Getting some fresh air is a much underrated method for clearing your mind and helping you to switch off over Christmas. Not only this, but exercise helps us to feel much happier and more balanced due to hormones being released in response to increased physical activity. Help your body feel happier!
Whilst making sure that you go to all the family gatherings and Christmas parties that you want to, take it at your own pace. Don’t feel obliged to say yes to everything! Go to the events that you really want to, but make sure you keep some time in your schedule for ‘me time’. Most importantly, remind yourself that a holiday is necessary.
If you need some help managing health and wellbeing, or perhaps sickness management in the workplace do get in touch – our team is happy to help!
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