Take that well deserved vacation

A change in the workforce demographics show a younger talent infusing into the workforce. This in itself is a period of transition. If you are working for a decade or longer, you will agree that organizations give a set of leaves to the employees namely privilege, casual , maternity, sick leave. An employee on an average gets about 1.25 days a month as casual leaves yielding to a 12 days leaves a year .

With latest transitions in place, organizations have introduced newer form of leaves owing to mental health , paternity leaves signifying diversity and inclusion. While I was reading an article on the same, I came across innovative kind of leave policies such as extended weekends, flex-places, hours that help, unsupervised leaves in the corporates and start-ups .

Whilst being modest employees, many in India are still afraid of speaking up for a leave and sharing reasons to the supervisor . While we want to be "at our best" at work, we do get into an assumption bias that leaves might be a sign of slack or being casual about work . As I was casually speaking to the close ones in my circle, I realized that this problem lies in most of the cities across organizations . I could totally relate to it as I had a similar mindset as I started my career in the early 2016.

Assumption Bias restricts the possibility of change. It acts like a steel safe, locking in a static belief system and locking out the possible alternatives. Let's be honest, how many times in the recent times have you made a decision based on pre-conceived notions of a group of people/ system? More often than not, we think of a particular outcome ,and we don't want to act .

According to this article , 75% of Indian feel vacation-deprived which is the highest in the world. 17 % of Indians , haven't taken a single leave in the past one year . Although the % of people is lowering by 2 % year-on-year, it's best to debate why leaves form an integral part of the work-life. I would like deliberate on this by giving an example . I personally love travelling and one of my personal ambitions is to cover the world .

Of course having a demanding job , and pressure is a part of the routine . But "taking a short break" helps in the following ways .

1. Fostering creativity : Breaks help to foster creatively in unknown ways. Best ideas come , when I am meandering in airports / talking to locals in the cities / creating a travel blog while looking at the ocean. Creativity happens when you are able to connect infinite dots between things which are completely unrelated from each other .

2. New way of doing things: Believe it or not, I have personally seen myself behaving and doing things differently , when I return from a short trip . According to this article, it is seen that cognitive function increases, when we spend time away from clocking hours overnight.

3. Embrace the unexpected : Breaks help you to throw unexpected events in real life . This certainly helps to escape a few boulders at work . Once I was exploring a German town , a year back , I had missed my train connection and thus was a day late to return to office. But that day , I spent my time sitting at Starbucks to devise a project plan. This was the most fruitful time and one of my most successful plans till date. This sort of flexibility helps to manoeuvre projects with ease.

Do think about these bias and assumptions, and take the next step . I am sure you will see a start difference when you hop on a flight /take that much needed holiday that fits your schedule . I personally have explored 2 Asian cities, which was on my bucket list this year. I am inching to see more as time resumes.

Would love to hear your thoughts/comments after you are back to work :)

Disclaimer : All images are from here.