How to Use All Your Vacation — And Really Unplug

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2021

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When was the last time you really took a sustained break from work? No emails. No calls. No taking care of that one little thing. For most of us — particularly in the United States -- it's been too long. As we head into the end-of-year holidays, we asked University of Texas psychology professor Art Markman and Cornell University associate professor Kaitlin Wooley to explain why it's so important to take real vacations (or even staycations) and how individuals, bosses, and organizations can do a better job of making them happen.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Alison Beer.
0:41.1	Think of your last vacation. Doesn't have to be an amazing trip. Just the last time you took
0:53.4	some time off from work. Did you really take the time off? Or did you check email? Take a few
0:58.3	calls, work on the train, or buy the pool? I remember one pre-pandemic holiday when I spent
1:04.1	an entire day on my laptop editing an article, occasionally looking up to see my family having
1:10.0	an amazing time on the beach. Mary Dew, my colleague and friend and the producer of this podcast,
1:15.7	was recently working on it from the Galapagos Islands. Yes, she was on her computer instead
1:21.3	of looking at turtles. And we're not alone. A recent survey indicated that 82% of Americans
1:27.4	work on vacation and 90% check work messages. Then there are a whole bunch of people who don't
1:32.7	even take their allotted time off. Research indicates that only about 50% of people in the US do.
1:37.9	This situation might be better in other countries, but there's no question that technology is
1:43.2	interfering with our ability to truly disconnect from our jobs. As end of your holidays approach,
1:48.7	we wanted to talk to some experts about time off. Why it's important? Why we're often bad at
1:53.7	using it and how to actually unplug. Art Markman is professor of psychology at the University of
1:59.6	Texas, Austin, an author of the book Bring Your Brain to Work. And Caitlin Wolley is an associate
2:04.8	professor at the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. And co-author
2:09.2	of the hbr.org article Don't Work on Vacation Seriously.
2:13.6	Caitlin, let's start with you. What is wrong with us? Why aren't we able to take time off and
2:18.9	put work away? I think a lot of it has to do with the feeling of urgency. If I don't finish
	...

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