It’s not a myth – holidays and taking time off work is good for your health. Everyone needs time to rest, relax and recharge, yet according to a study by Glassdoor, the average employee only takes 62 per cent of their holiday allowance. This can be for a multitude of reasons; feeling too busy, worrying their work won’t be covered while they are away or feeling guilty about giving extra work to their colleagues.
Especially in a job like PR and social media, where there is always more that can be done, taking time away to reflect, recuperate and unwind is incredibly important. Despite all of this, Little Red Rooster is an agency trying to actively encourage its employees to take annual leave; earlier this year an unlimited holiday policy was put into place to further encourage staff to take as much holiday or annual leave as they may need or want. Awesome, right?
In addition to this, I was awarded a one-month sabbatical as a thank you for five years of service with the agency. Acknowledging the pressures of working in a fast-paced, high-pressure environment, the reward of having an extended holiday to look forward to was incredible. And, with such extended leave, comes a myriad of benefits.
Having taken my one-month sabbatical in June 2022, I can say first-hand how incredible this was for being able to properly unwind, relax and completely switch off from real life for a decent chunk of time. It can often take a few days, or even a week, to properly shake off the pressures of work, so having four weeks means you can truly reap the rewards of having time off.
I used the one month off to take myself to South America, ticking several countries off my bucket list in the process. With dodgy wi-fi and (inevitably) smashing my phone one week in, it was also a chance to not only switch off from work but wind down on how much time I was spending on social media, deleting all the apps from my phone. When I wanted to log in to Instagram, I’d have to use the mobile web version which, if you’ve ever used it, is not worth the hassle.
Over 800,000 people in the UK experience work-related stress or anxiety and this is set to increase, so it’s poignant that the agency is encouraging people to make use of their annual leave which, in the long run, is also proven to reduce absence, improve productivity and increase creativity and insight.
