When I first started The Latimer Group, nearly twenty years ago, I worked from home full time. The company was a “group” in name only, and it was just me for several years. An office wasn’t necessary… or affordable. But as we grew, an office became an imperative, and it has now been nearly thirteen years that I have been running my company out of official office space.
In the early years, I had a really hard time turning my work off. There are certainly lots of reasons for this, some of it my basic DNA. And some of it was the realities of entrepreneurship.
But perhaps most importantly, is that it is a lot harder to turn off work when the lines between “home” and “work” are not defined by space. It has been a while since I realized the impacts of working from home. There are lots of benefits, and many people like it. But the fact is that, like anything else, there are pros and cons. One of the cons is that it is harder to turn work off when your home and your work occupy the same physical space.Â
I think we can all agree that we continue to be in uncharted waters. The news and the data as of this writing (late June 2020) suggest that we are seeing spikes in the virus all over the place in the USA, and that efforts to “open up” may have caused people to let down their guard and start trying to behave “normally.”
Bottom line… there is a lot going on right now, and lots of people inside your organization are probably feeling heightened levels of anxiety. So, as we get into a typical summer vacation period, make sure you are creating a culture that encourages people to disconnect and clear their heads. Because of the stress of the last few months… because many people are having a harder time turning work off right now… and because we don’t know how much longer this will last… vacation has never been more important than it is right now.
If you are the leader, make sure you create a culture, where you encourage people to do that. Make that the norm. Make honoring vacation part of your company culture. Everyone needs a break right now.
And give yourself a break too. Take a vacation. And before you go, clear your desk, pass off your tasks and allow yourself to be on vacation.
You and your organization will both be better for it.
Have a great day.
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