We have all done it: checked our emails or responded to a work request whilst on holiday. The trouble is that doing this stops us from fully disconnecting. For managers, having semi-rested employees is a problem for productivity.
If you want to address this issue, it might be worth looking internally as to why this happens. There are some strategies you can try out to make it so employees do switch off during their personal time off (PTOs). Kathy Gurchiek sources a collection of the best ones for SHRM.
Amazingly, even at companies with unlimited holiday on offer, staff avoid taking it up. Requiring staff to take time off through "minimum holiday" quotas - in consecutive days, not just odd days here and there - is a recommended method to ensure staff get the downtime they need to work at their best. But this only works if holidays are tracked and talked about at performance reviews.
Bonus tip: be on the lookout for staff members who appear online when they are supposed to be offline.
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