{"id":268339,"date":"2021-06-07T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T07:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/you-arent-taking-enough-time-off-and-neither-are-your-employees\/"},"modified":"2021-06-07T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T07:00:57","slug":"you-arent-taking-enough-time-off-and-neither-are-your-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/you-arent-taking-enough-time-off-and-neither-are-your-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"#You aren\u2019t taking enough time off \u2014 and neither are your employees"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#You aren\u2019t taking enough time off \u2014 and neither are your employees<\/strong>”
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How many days off have you taken in the last 12 months? Can you count those days on your fingers? Do you even remember the last time you took a proper break? When I started writing this article I double-checked how many days\u2019 holiday I\u2019d taken off in the last year and I was surprised by how low the number was.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure many of you are in a similar position, and we\u2019re not alone \u2014 we\u2019re not even in the minority. Almost 60% of people haven\u2019t taken a single day off yet in 2021.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

UK statutory leave is 28 days a year, which is on par with many countries, so in the last year and a half-ish (from 1st Jan 2020 to date early June 2021) theoretically, the average person should\u2019ve taken about 41 days off. Just over two months. Are you anywhere close to that? What about your team?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The data suggest that they won\u2019t be, because people have stopped taking their annual leave entitlements. And this is terrible news<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the UK, we have a habit of glorifying overwork \u2014 and the same goes for many other cultures. We\u2019re proud of pushing ourselves as hard as we can; working long hours, working while we\u2019re sick, and not taking all the time off we need, and are entitled to \u2014 all to prove we\u2019re committed to our jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And while, especially if you\u2019re someone who\u2019s in the process of building a business, it can seem that it\u2019s at the very least necessary, and often desirable, to spend all your time working \u2014 it\u2019s not good for you. And it\u2019s certainly not good for your employees.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The average Brit used to end the year with about seven days of untaken holiday leave that they\u2019d just forfeit. But in 2020 that number went up to 14. Almost three whole weeks of holiday leave per person was allowed to disapp<\/a>ear.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When my team and I found this out in December, we decided to do some more digging. We analyzed data from 100,000 RotaCloud users, across a range of sectors, to find out exactly how the last 12 months had changed annual leave usage, the effect those changes had had on the UK workforce, and the subsequent consequences for businesses (<\/span>full report here<\/span><\/a>).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only is annual leave usage dropping, but when we take leave is changing dramatically too. The typical British employee used to be predictable. We holidayed in summer and around the bank holidays, took the odd Friday off for a long weekend, and had little interest in taking leave in the winter.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, when lockdown 1 was announced in March last year, we saw more than a 50% drop off in leave taken, almost overnight, and people didn\u2019t start taking holiday again until late July \/ early August. That\u2019s four months without any leave.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

While there was more holiday taken in November and December than we\u2019d usually expect, it wasn\u2019t enough to make up for earlier falls. And it still hasn\u2019t recovered \u2014 leave booking is still more than a third lower than it should be.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is a huge problem for people. With cases of <\/span>burnout<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>exhaustion<\/span><\/a> rising, it\u2019s absolutely vital to take regular time off from work, to rest, recharge, and look after yourself. And it\u2019s a problem for employers too.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Things like presenteeism (coming into work while you\u2019re sick when you should\u2019ve stayed at home to rest and get better) and, unbelievably, leavism (using your annual leave to take time off to catch up on work you don\u2019t have time to get done during your workday) are on the rise too. And in teams where these types of behaviors are present, not only does productivity obviously suffer, but instances of illness are often higher, as is staff churn.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As employers, we can help to combat this though, and there are lots of things we can do to help staff stay healthy and encourage them to make the most of their leave. But first, we need to figure out and understand the underlying reasons behind why someone might not be taking their leave:<\/span><\/p>\n

Either;<\/span><\/p>\n