Articles From the Team

The benefits of taking a holiday from work

As a recruiter of interim lawyers I am often shocked to see that some of our temps can easily clock up in excess of 80 hours worked in a week, often more if they are working a seven day week.

Whilst I understand that as a temporary worker it can often be a feast and famine situation, meaning work as many hours during an assignment and have a break in between I still find it worrying that some people, even those in permanent employment, will work as many hours as they can with very little down time which surely must affect productivity and in the long term health.

A recent survey from Glassdoor found that an average UK employee only uses 77% of their annual leave which I find both shocking and mind boggling. I don’t understand why people are not enjoying the privilege of paid holiday. The survey also found that of those that do take a holiday 44% admitted to do some work whilst on holiday so didn’t really switch off.

Work life balance is a difficult but in my opinion very important thing to manage ensuring that it’s not all about work, but life too.

I for one love my holidays and am fortunate enough to travel every time I take time out of work and really feel the benefits of doing this. As a recruiter my job is demanding and can often mean long hours, coupled with a daily three hour commute so when I take a holiday I ensure that I have a real break, somewhere hot, on a nice beach with my blackberry switched off and quite often a cocktail in hand. This means that I get the opportunity to fully relax and unwind, spend quality time with my family and friends and return to work feeling recharged and raring to go again.

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