With the bank holiday weekend upon us, many employees will be enjoying a longer break to help them rest and recharge.
During this time, it is crucial that employees and HR are able to properly relax and recuperate so that they are ready to hit the ground running when they return for a new working week.
As such, HR Grapevine has collated three tips for switching off over the bank holiday.
Don’t look at emails
If employees have time off over the bank holiday weekend, it is important that they are able to properly enjoy it without email notifications pinging every few minutes.
With many employees continuing to work from home – and with technology enabling staff to be constantly contactable – it may be tempting to check and reply to work messages outside of work hours.
Yet, as many remote staff are probably aware of, sending a ‘quick’ email could see staff members back to their desks when they are supposed to be off work.
To help with this, Joshua Zerkel, Head of Global Community at work management firm Asana, previously told Metro: “Opting out of notifications breaks the ‘always-on’ mindset that we constantly need to be available and reactive to others.
“To avoid continued disruption, I’d suggest turning off all but the most critical notifications – whether from a specific person or related to a particular project.”
Leave your ‘home office’
In pre-coronavirus times, it was easy to walk out of the office before the bank holiday and leave anything relating to work behind.
Yet, with so many people continuing to work from home, getting this separation between personal and professional life is more difficult to achieve.
To ensure that employees can properly switch off over the bank holiday weekend, it is crucial that they tidy away anything relating to work – whether this is laptops, notepads, work phones or papers – so that they can close the door on their dedicated office area, or even move away from the coffee table that they normally work from.
In a previous interview with HR Grapevine, Hayley Randall, People Development Manager at ICD Property, said that this can help employees to separate personal and professional life.
In addition to this, she alluded that if employees see leaders engaging in practices like this, it gives “further validation it is supported and encouraged”.
Find a hobby
After a long week at work, some may want to collapse on the sofa and use the bank holiday weekend to catch up on missed TV programmes.
Yet, the myfitnesschat website recommended that employees try and find a hobby that will keep them occupied and a bit more productive.
Whether this is painting, reading, cooking, bird watching or even finding new walking routes to go on, there are many hobbies that employees can pick up outside of work as has been shown throughout the coronavirus crisis.
Do you have any tips for switching of this bank holiday? Let us know in the comments below…
