Business 2 CommunityEmployee Productivity Will Be Low In The Holidays, Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter
Everyone deserves a break, especially during the holidays. The holidays are a beautiful time, meant to be spent with family and friends.
Vacation around this time is ingrained in our society, so most employees (and managers) are pretty focused on taking some time off. Plus, especially where I live in Montreal, Canada, it gets dark very early, so it’s hard to stay productive later in the day.
Everyone should do as much as they possibly can to ensure maximum productivity.
Managers should be prepared and forewarned, don’t be upset if employee productivity is low. If employees see executives going to the Caribbean islands during the holidays, it’s not fair to expect them to work overtime. There should be some level of equity in the workplace.
The main issue is that our society views the holidays a “write-off”, where since everyone is going on vacation soon, not much work needs to be done. Everyone is slacking. So it creates this network effect of other slackers.
Are We More Productive In Winter?
Did you know that we’re actually more productive in winter? Most companies don’t seem to take advantage of this. Like I mentioned earlier, it’s more of a societal tradition that we slack off in the winter.
Researchers at Harvard found that we are our most productive during the winter. How the researchers discovered this, was they tracked employees working at a bank in Tokyo, and found that their most productive days were bad weather days, and they were least productive on nice days.
When it’s cold and dark outside, you don’t mind staying in an office, so I understand how this would lead to higher productivity.
I do think taking time off in the winter is important though, since most people take time off, it’s a great time to unwind, and spend time with family. It’s very important to have a good work-life balance.
Work-Life Balance
Work-life balance is such an important, but such an underappreciated issue. So many companies don’t actively encourage a work-life balance and are trying to maximize productivity out of their employees.
Overworking employees is a dangerous game to play, because short-term, it might work, but longer term, it could have serious negative effects.
Employee burnout is a very serious issue and can lead to employees getting sick and taking months off of work.
There was a major Canadian study by Carleton University’s Linda Duxbury about work-life balance, and they found was:
57% of those surveyed reported high levels of stress
Employees in the survey were twice as likely to let work interfere with family as the reverse
What do you think it does to children when you bring that stress from work home?
Work-life balance isn’t only for employee’s health; it’s also a very important part of success. In a study done by Accenture, they found that having a good work-life balance is the key to a successful career.
I’d recommend running frequent employee surveys to find out if employees have a good work-life balance.
Tips To Be More Productive
There are plenty of simple productivity tips that I could give you, but the truth is, being productive is about taking care of yourself, and making sure your energy levels are high.
There are three things that ultimately affect productivity.
1. Sleep
You need to be well rested to be very productive, no matter how many coffees you pump into you. The two best pieces of advice I have for trying to get a good night of sleep are meditate before bed, and avoid any screens before bed.
The meditation calms you down before bed, and the screens on any device (phone, computer, TV) release a chemical in your body that keeps you awake.
2. Eating Well
In order to keep your energy levels up, you need to be eating properly. If you eat foods with lots of bread and carbohydrates, you’ll feel very sluggish, think about the last time you had a big pasta for lunch.
If you eat high protein foods like chicken or eggs, you’ll have more energy and will be more productive.
3. Exercise
Exercise is important, but like I was mentioning at the beginning of the post, in the winter time, it gets darker earlier, so you’ll get tired earlier. If you can, I’d recommend exercising during the day, around 2pm, to get that extra burst of energy for the rest of the day.
Is It Okay For Productivity To Be Low During The Holidays?
Let me know your thoughts on Twitter @JacobShriar or @Officevibe.
This article was syndicated from Business 2 Community: Employee Productivity Will Be Low In The Holidays, Here’s Why It Doesn’t Matter
More Business & Finance articles from Business 2 Community:
