Speaker 0: So my colleagues and I have been advocating for building in breaks, boundaries and transitions deliberately into our schedules, given that they've gone missing, Microsoft recently put our suggestions into practice, and they have virtual commutes now, where employees were not able to schedule meetings between eight and nine and instead cannot be logged in until they have taken a virtual commute. Whatever that means for that, maybe it's breakfast with their family. We've also been advocating for starting meetings later and ending meetings earlier to allow employees to have these informal social interactions that have completely gone missing in the virtual environment and to not schedule for herbal social interaction time. Because that's simply adding another obligation onto employees already very overwhelmed schedules. You know, we've been hearing so much in our interviews in in our research that people say, Well, I feel like even though I could exercise during the day What if my boss needs me? So they've been running in 10 minutes, intervals around their house, so their apartments in the middle there, running five minutes or 10 minutes in every direction, just in case they're needed. And so there's a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity, and employees lives. Right now, we are in
Luke's Note
Microsoft recently implemented “virtual commutes” between 8-9AM, meaning meetings can’t be scheduled during that time and employees can’t login until they’ve completed a virtual commute, whatever that means for them (ex. breakfast with their family, etc).
Speaker 1: Why is it so important to take time off?
Speaker 0: So we show over and over again in our data that employees who take time off come to work happier, more engaged, more satisfied that employees who are the most productive employees are the ones who take a break from their workplace so they can come back to work being more fully engaged. And yet so many of us leave our vacation time on the table. In one survey that we ran pre pandemic, 75% of working Americans did not take all of their paid or unpaid vacation on. What I'm hearing with the organization's I've been consulting for now is that virtually no one is taking vacation or paid vacation. At the moment. It's not often until we stopped to check in, do we realize how tired we truly are? And I think it's really important for workplaces to be encouraging
Luke's Note
Always take your vacation & don’t feel guilty about it. The research shows people who do are happier, more engaged in their work, satisfied, productive, etc.