Why I'm closing my company for a week due to COVID-19

You can see it in people's faces now, perhaps you've seen it too. Even on a crappy video connection, you can tell. People are getting tired and stressed and they need a break and they don't know when it's coming.

Yet taking any personal leave during a pandemic lockdown is a weird concept because when you're working from home it's hard to find the physical distance from your work. Perhaps forcing people to book 'vacation' could increase anxiety rather than ease it?

Properly switching off has been proven to be super important mentally and physically. But as we all know, it is hard to do.

So we had an idea...

Remember the feeling of that magical week each December, between Christmas and New Year, when you can really forget about work?

It’s proper silence. It’s a nourishing feeling because you know that no one else is working that week, so there is no chance you have missed something important, no need to think about how you could be contributing. No emails to scroll through just in case. There is nothing to miss so there is nothing to worry about. 

Well, you might call that a JOMO (joy of missing out) week and I think we need to have that feeling right now, more than ever.

JOMOWEEK

Between April 10-17, ID Comms will be having 'The Joy Of Missing Out Week' so we can all take a restorative break together.

We want to give the entire ID Comms team the option of not working the whole week and we will encourage them to step away as much as they can. This will be especially welcomed by parents of young children who's kids likely will be on school breaks.

Any pre-scheduled client meetings or deliverables will, of course, be maintained and project timelines stay intact. But all internal meetings will be rescheduled and any new external meetings have been scheduled for adjacent weeks where possible. 

I hoped that this would be seen positively by our clients and partners and we worked hard to make communication clear and that everyone understands the reasons for this important initiative. 

We sent the news to our clients, crossing our fingers that they would understand that these unconventional times call for unconventional measures. I was worried they might find the idea a bit frivolous and probably inconvenient.

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UPDATE

Here are some comments I got back from our clients. Their overwhelming encouragement has been wonderful to hear:

"Really cool idea, nice & positive message"

"I would love to have a JOMO week right now, not sure how to sell this to our CFO at the moment..."

"Such a great practice that you guys do this. Would love if we did one of these too"

"Wow, wonderful idea"

"Totally understand, makes a lot of sense. I want one too"

"Impressive initiative, and agree with all the great reasons stated for the importance of it right now. I will dare and share with my management, hope you don’t mind?"  

"I love this. Knowing that you’ll be bombarded by emails and pings while staycationing isn’t too appealing, so I think it’s great that you’re all taking time together"

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CREATE YOUR OWN

I encourage all of you to consider creating a #JOMOWEEK at your companies too if possible. DM me for tips and suggestions on how to activate it.

We are fortunate, for many years our company has been a very agile, cloud-based business so we adapt easily to remote working across time zones. We use some clever collaboration tools and everyone uses video all the time.

Most importantly, we know that people's time is a valuable commodity and we trust each other to use it in the best ways.

During JOMOWEEK we will organize a few fun company things we can do, which will be entirely optional, but that will keep us connected for those that want to. This is not enforced isolation.

If we all switch off at the same time, we are all going to feel a lot better and be an even stronger team together. 

Join us, if you can. But please, keep your distance...

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Tom Denford is co-founder of ID Comms, a leading management consultancy specializing in media and advertising.

The company was ranked #1 Best Place to Work in marketing and advertising by Campaign Magazine.