From REP: VACATION DREAMS / RE-ENTRY DRAGS
Welcome to our first regular Saturday post in The Sandbox. Today we are featuring an article from September’s Racial Equity Practices: A Monthly Newsletter for 21st Century Institutions. R.E.P., as it is known around the BRJA office, is a monthly resource for organizations that partner with BRJA as part of their ARAO (anti-racism/anti-oppression) work. We also offer R.E.P. to monthly sustainers as a tool to assist them in expanding and strengthening their “racial equity lens” in both their personal and collective work. If you are interested in receiving R.E.P., head to BRJA’s donation page and become a monthly sustainer of BRJA.
Today’s article is by A. Adar Ayira, BRJA’s Director of Contract Services.
At BRJA, we have written a lot about the need for time off to recalibrate — mentally, emotionally, and physically. And although I am — both personally and professionally — a proponent of time off, believing it to be an anti-racism/anti-oppression practice, this is an area in which my personal practice has been poor — very poor.
Earlier in my career, it was easier to adhere to a consistent time-off practice. Texting and emails were not yet incorporated into business culture — hard as that is to believe now! Twenty-four-hour outreach and access to employees — with expectations of 24-hour response — was not a thing. There was time to breathe between inquiries and responses, and an 8-hour day was pretty much an 8-hour day.
Expectations were just different. And those differences helped create workplace cultures and environments that were more supportive of employees taking a week or two off without the “re-entry” consequences that employees face today.
As my workloads increased, I knew that I would never take extensive (more than 5 days) time off, because I saw how colleagues struggled with re-entry. This was further confirmed for me the first time I came back from a “vacation” to more than 200 emails to which I was expected to respond — and to respond quickly — while catching up with other work that had built up during that time away. After OVER-working hours so that I could feel that I was leaving with a clear conscience — with no tasks on the table — to come back to more than 200 emails PLUS additional deadlines and work left me feeling overwhelmed and defeated. I spent the next couple weeks slogging through everything just to get back to “normal.” The organization for which I worked had no process in place for “triaging” things that came up so that the person who was out would not be coming back over-burdened. There was not a culture of support in triaging projects to give the person who had been out time to “ramp back up” in getting things done. There was just the expectation that everything would be done at once and right away.
Re-entry from time off began to feel punitive, as if the organization was punishing those who dared to take the time that they had earned. My answer to the question “was it worth it” was a definitive “no.” And that “no” was a defining feature of my relationship to vacation time.
That “no” cost me, though. At the end of every year, I was mentally, emotionally, and physically spent. And because my “vacations” consisted of wrapping days off around holidays — instead of taking longer stretches of time off -- I never “re-entered” feeling as if I was really 100% recharged and ready to go.
I was always running on a deficit.
At BRJA, we always experience organizations stating that “work/life balance” is a high value. Yet, maintaining cultures of hard re-entries for employees returning from 1-2 weeks off lays bare that lie. The levels of stress that employees face when they return from vacations to workloads that quickly dissipate their vacation glow defeat that purpose.
Every organization is different, but below are three changes that can be incorporated in just about any workplace:
Incorporate As Organizational Culture That Emails Received During Employee Vacation Will Not Receive A Response. Every vacation message should incorporate wording such as “I will return on (date) and will respond to emails at that time. Emails received while I am out will not receive a response, so please do not leave an email before (date).” A sender who receives this response will hopefully not email again until the stated date. People send emails when others are out NOT because they are expecting a response but because they want to move things off THEIR desks. If no one is there to take action, why does it need to be sent?
Make “Project Triage” A Thing. One reason that vacation re-entry is so difficult is that everything is expected at once upon return. If an organization supports that culture, it is not supporting its employees. Modeling “project triage” by setting clear and reasonable expectations about what can be done during those first few days / first week is important in communicating that “work/life balance” is real — even after re-entry from vacation.
Develop Accountability Partners. For those of us who are overly committed to our work (because “workaholic” is such a negative term. . .), having co-workers who keep everyone honest and accountable for this change in or maintenance of organizational vacation re-entry culture is invaluable. From managers/supervisors to colleagues to other staff — everyone benefits when the same standards and expectations are held at all levels of the organization.
These small practices can help transform “vacation re-entry” for employees. Especially for staff from historically marginalized groups — who often work in workplace environments where they “have to be twice as good and get half as much” — developing and/or maintaining these practices can signal that there is more room for them to breathe.
This was the difference between my ability to take an extended vacation without feeling punished upon re-entry. When I finally took two weeks off this year — after a 25-year hiatus in longer vacations — I experienced this difference. I returned with my “tank” full — and finally understood the rejuvenation that extended vacations can offer when re-entry is not a concern.
