Not enough time to rest? Look for the reason in yourself
Erica Anderson takes 5 weeks of vacation every year. At her New York City firm, she works all day, blogging and writing books online, and answering customer calls. When she goes to rest, she asks her colleagues not to disturb her. “I can't be like a machine,” Anderson shares. And this is a good lesson for those who cannot be distracted from work.
In the 1990s, when Erica started her own business, she had to work 80 hours a week, she hardly left the office for a long time. But after some time, she realized that she needed a proper rest and wanted to spend more time with her children. The problem was that she could not take and leave - the company simply could not do without her. Anderson had to make big changes to the work process. She needed to learn how to share responsibility with other employees.
No vacation!
Many of us have made it a rule not to use our weekends for relaxation. In 2015, research found that about 67% of executives canceled or postponed vacation plans because of work, and 57% did not even plan to take time off. Americans, for example, are now mourning their weekends, which "burned out" by January 1, 2017. This is a compelling reason to give yourself some rest at least once in a while, because unlike our system, they don't add on unused vacation time.
Many of us know that weekends are good for our health as well. Taking a short break will lower your risk of heart problems, for example. However, in practice, it turns out that when we do decide to take a vacation, we need to finish all current affairs in an accelerated timeframe, thanks to which in recent days we strain twice as much as usual. There are many reasons for this: it is important for us not to let our colleagues down, not to look like a quitter, or not to lose our job. It's even more difficult to take vacations while everyone else is working. But think about the fact that most of the employees who prefer not to rest, simply do not know how to delegate their responsibilities and are afraid to let things go.
Many of us are pleased to think that we are very important in our business, that our absence will be a real disaster for the company.
It's not the same without me
Many of us don't take vacations because we don't know how to delegate responsibilities. According to statistics, only 30% of managers are ready to entrust their affairs to subordinates, and only 33% of them consider employees to be good delegates.
But why is it so difficult for us to shift the responsibility onto someone else? Because we don't want to. We mistakenly believe that if someone does the job for us, they will be worse off. And this happens not only with business, but in everyday life too. It is known, for example, that casino players will never allow someone else to play in their place.
This is an illusion of control
It seems to us all the time that we are irreplaceable and no one will cope with our tasks as well as ourselves.
In America, this may be true. Their companies and firms are doing everything possible to prepare a specific employee to perform the assigned tasks as efficiently as possible. But in Europe or Canada, management prefers to see teamwork and people-to-people interaction succeed.
Work to live or live to work?
Europeans have a system of values that is fundamentally different from the American one. While in America people go to work because they love what they do and dream of being successful in their business, Europeans do it to support themselves. The individual achievement of an employee of a company in the United States is always seen, appreciated, and celebrated collectively. Such events mean a lot to them. They try to prove to everyone and to themselves that they are professionals in their field and are ready to grow and develop in this all the time.
Learn to overcome your fear of outsourcing your tasks to your peers
Erica Anderson has come up with a support system at her company to help learn this collectively. When offering to carry out an assignment to one of the employees, she asks him to evaluate what and in what time frame he will be able to cope on his own, where he will need help, and what he is not ready to take on. In addition, he will not be waiting for a lack of time from an excessive amount of worries.
The company holds meetings and planning meetings to help determine who and what task in the project will be assigned. Thus, it turns out that several employees are involved in performing one task. This slightly reduces the individual level of responsibility of each of them, which means that at some points it will be easier for them to ask colleagues for help.
The best way out
As the situation has recently worsened and many have stopped resting, soon there may be many people with health problems, depression, and in the worst case, the average life expectancy will decrease. To avoid such a fate for yourself, we strongly recommend that you rest at least sometimes. Work brings money and provides an opportunity for self-realization, this is important for everyone. But will it be just as important if one day you just fall exhausted and no longer get up? A short vacation will not ruin your career, but, on the contrary, will give you the opportunity to sleep, refresh your thoughts and cheer up, so that later you can return to work with renewed vigor and ideas.
