Stressful Workplace? Time off Can Boost Creative Productivity | Kathryn Minshew | Big Think

Stressful Workplace? Time off Can Boost Creative Productivity

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RIP to the 9 to 5 work day. Kathryn Minshew (CEO of career directory platform The Muse) is pro-unlimited vacation time and offers her employees a 1-month paid sabbatical after five years. How can we all live this dream? A good vacation can’t be beat. Whether you’re heading to the beach, the top of a mountain, or a buzzing metropolis, it is one of the best things you can do for yourself culturally, mentally and physiologically. So why aren’t Americans packing their bags?

A 2013 study (conducted by Expedia, so consider the bias potential officially flagged) estimates that American workers don’t take all their vacation days, throwing away an estimated 557 million unused days each year, which a 2013 Oxford Economics report estimates adds up to $67 billion in lost travel spending and 1.2 million untapped jobs in the US economy.

Kathryn Minshew is the founder and CEO of career discovery platform The Muse, and she finds it astonishing that, despite the numerous studies that speak to the benefit (or the necessity) of generous vacation time, American companies haven’t changed their approach.

Researchers from the Netherlands who set out to measure the effect that vacations have on overall happiness found that the largest boost in happiness comes from the act of planning the vacation. They discovered that when a person returns from vacation, their happiness levels quickly drop back down to the base line (they speculate it's due to the stress of returning to work and catching up). Even if the aftereffects are short-lived, the anticipatory stage is significant; for an employee, just knowing they have the freedom to plan vacations is incredibly valuable for personal wellbeing and will likely be reflected in boosted productivity.

Minshew takes the technology industry as an example, which is famous for its ‘unlimited vacation’ policy, which Minshew believes can be used for good or evil, depending on the situation and how genuine the intentions of a company are (wanting to have happy employees versus wanting to appear edgy and on-trend but not following through). Some companies, such as The Muse, even offer a one-month paid sabbatical after five years with the company. Minshew believes tight vacation policies are incredibly counterproductive in terms of staff retention, productivity, creativity and engagement. She initiated her company’s sabbatical policy as a way to honor and respect the commitment that her employees give to their jobs and to give them a real chance to take a break. Another byproduct perk is that companies with great vacation policies tend to attract better candidates.

Minshew acknowledges that some jobs require presence at certain or very regular times, but she also believes that the practice of enforcing attendance from 9 to 5 is on the way out. Trusting an employee to schedule their own work day so they can make a medical appointment, do something for their child or spouse, or rest when they feel they are not at their best is the way of the future in Minshew’s eyes. Companies that recognize their employees as full humans rather than task performers will be rewarded with commitment, loyalty, and a respect that flows both ways.

According to Terry Hartig, an environmental psychologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, the happiness that people feel in the lead up to a holiday can spread "like a contagion" to anyone you interact with. He says that Europeans, who get 20-30 days of paid vacation every year, live longer and spend less on healthcare than Americans, and that the widespread happiness caused by good vacation policies is an economic imperative as well as a quality-of-life decision. With depression costing the U.S. economy an estimated $23 billion a year in lost productivity, hopefully the financial figures will speak to business owners and policy makers when appeals to their better nature don't

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KATHRYN MINSHEW

Kathryn Minshew is the founder and CEO of The Muse, a career discovery platform that has helped over 15 million people answer the question: "What do I want to do with my life?"

Prior to founding the company, Kathryn worked on vaccine introduction in Rwanda and Malawi with the Clinton Health Access Initiative and previously worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company. She's appeared on CNN, Fast Company, PBS, Forbes' 30-Under-30 in Media and INC's 15 Women to Watch in Tech. When not at work, Kathryn is an avid globetrotter and an adventurous cook.

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