The importance of holidays: a desire or a must!

The importance of holidays: a desire or a must!

The summer season is in full swing, as far as Albania is concerned. The weather has been great so far, people have been on the beach since the first two weeks of June, sometimes a little bit too hot but you can not have it all. In this piece, I will share the following opinion about the holidays: a desire or a must!

Holidays are significant, and recharging the batteries is a must for every professional who works in any industry. A few weeks of holidays every year, according to me, is a must and not a desire. Recharging the batteries is not only meant for the summer period, but people also need to get extra quality time and some R&R during the whole year. Since we live near the sea, we Albanians tend to go on real holidays during the summer months. Investing in quality time with your family and friends, is the number one advice I might give to everyone I know. The number two is investing in experiences, discovering new places, get in touch with new cultures, and meet new people. During this activities every individual will be opening new horizons, learning new things, and accepting other people and cultures more. 

Being a manager also has its responsibilities when it comes to your co-workers and colleagues, and for this reason, I am a big fan of spending time together with our staff throughout the year. This helps people get to know the company better, know their co-workers, know other aspects of everyone, not only during working hours. This is what it takes to make a great Team, and a great ecosystem where everybody feels home. 

As stated above, we organize many get together gatherings throughout the year. We start with a Christmas/New Year big party, where we thank everyone for the year that we have left behind and look forward to the next year. During the last week of March or beginning of April, we celebrate a weekend away, usually in Korca (southeastern Albania). The beginning of the spring is a tradition that goes back 3.000 years in our country, and even being a pre-religious tradition, Albanians celebrate it as a national holiday. During the month of July, we usually hold a summer party in Tirana (not during the weekend) which has more a chill-out format of a live band (this year is Eugen Bushpepa), talking to each other and having some drinks. Mid September we do out after summer Weekend Retreat, always in the south of Albania near Dhermi/Palasa area, which is one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life. The weather is always very warm, but the beaches are not that busy which is perfect for us. The whole weekend is a short holiday after the summer months’ holidays, and we have been doing this practice for some years now. 

The four above mentioned get together periods are meant for the whole staff of Landmark and Móveo, but we also do smaller versions of having a drink after work, dinners, football and other activities with smaller groups. 

The importance of such activities is immense, and I invest a lot of time and resources into these activities because after all, work is not the essential thing in life. Your have to feel good where you work, you have to like what you are doing, and you got to have a little fun now and then. 

I learned from my time in The Netherlands the expression: Work hard and Play hard, even though playing hard for me is getting less and less these days J      

Erion Isufi

CEO/ Founder

Landmark Communications and Technologies

Co-Founder Móveo Albania Technology