As the Covid pandemic endures and the UK is beset by logistics difficulties and a lack of skills, companies are being presented with enormous challenges at the very time their leaders might be thinking ‘it’s time for a holiday’. Adam McCulloch asks leadership experts their views of the tensions created by this unique situation.
Boris Johnson’s recent holiday in Marbella, just as a damning parliamentary report on Covid was released and supply problems continued across the UK, attracted criticism.
On the face of it, the timing of Johnson’s departure looked insensitive to the say the least – as did then-foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s much-publicised trip to Crete in August – but leaders need holidays too, and burnout can affect anyone who is expected to be “on call” at all times.
Johnson’s previous holiday, in the West Country in August, had been dislocated by the Afghan crisis and regardless of questions about the prime minister’s work rate and attention to detail, arguing that his latest trip was poorly timed sounded, to his colleagues, to be lacking in generosity.
For example, Home Office minister Damian Hinds defended the prime minister’s holiday, which came in the wake of the Conservative party conference, by asking: “When is the right time?”
He told Sky: “I think it is important that people do have an opportunity to be with their families to have some relaxing and unwinding.
While the pandemic rages on we have lost sight of what the future looks like” – Margo Manning, consultant and author
“What is important for the rest of us actually, for the whole country, is that the prime minister does get to have some family time, does get to have a break.”
For author and leadership and management consultant Margo Manning, it’s legitimate to ask “Did Boris lead by example and put his family and health first? Or was it a selfish decision and he did it regardless [of the situation at home]?”
Presumably the answer is “yes” to both questions depending on your opinion of the PM.
Manning points out that this is a natural dichotomy: because of the enduring Covid pandemic there is more work to do and yet there is an equal need to lie on a sunbed in a warm country. She says leaders must balance “what is the right thing to do” and “what is needed”.
She says that with wellbeing and burnout now at the forefront of most workplace conversations, staff should be encouraged to take leave, despite the knowledge that this would adversely impact output. “There is never going to be a good time to take off at the moment and therefore there is a need to bite the bullet and do it, it’s important,” she says, echoing Hinds’ loyal comment.
Certainly, putting off holiday and allowing employees to accrue far more days than normal simply delays the inevitable. “While the pandemic rages on we have lost sight of what the future looks like,” warns Manning.
Management and leadership should not be solitary roles, she says, and continuity plans should provide a support system for when people are absent.
Johnson’s cabinet colleagues also claimed the PM was still working while in Marbella and the West Country. Perhaps a working holiday is as good as a real holiday when it comes to refreshing the mind. “Covid has proven that we can work from almost anywhere, and so for some, a change of location doesn’t always mean a holiday,” says Manning.
Then again, holidays themselves have become more stressful. Not only in finding the time and the money to take one – neither of which fazed the prime minister greatly – but because they now involve taking PCR tests, and understanding ever-changing travel rules. Carmel Moore, organisational development consultant and director of The One Moment Company, says: “Madonna’s chirpy insistence that ‘we need a holiday’ is not a universally accepted view.
Leave and wellbeing
How should employers deal with the holiday conundrum?
“How and when a leader holidays is met with great fascination and a degree of judgement by their employees,” she says. “The holiday habits of senior execs set the template for everyone else in the business. As we emerge back into the workplace, holidays are a thing of novelty.”
Moore believes there is a disproportionate interest in the holiday habits of others. She breaks down leaders’ holidaying habits into three categories:
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- The “race to the line holidayer” – this leader works to the point of exhaustion. They go on holiday, collapse (often triggering a rotten cold, or a long-dormant ailment) and then they return to work, rinse and repeat. They send the message to their teams that holidays are something to get done with and out of the way.
- The “passive-aggressive holidayer” – this leader takes holiday because HR policy dictates it. They announce their holiday availability loudly and well in advance. They work all holiday, spitting random email replies from exotic timezones. They take calls from the beach, the ski slopes, the top of the giant roller coaster, irritating everyone in the process, including their own family. They send the message that holidays are begrudgingly to be tolerated.
Madonna’s chirpy insistence that ‘we need a holiday’ is not a universally accepted view” – Carmel Moore, The One Moment Company
- The “healthy holidayer”: This leader uses all their annual leave, holiday is taken regularly. Their ‘out of office’ exudes an air of calm. They clearly signal any windows of availability in case of urgent business and they are clear about channels of communication. They set holiday boundaries. They return refreshed.
Whatever our feelings about holiday and the difficulties some people experience trying to relax and erect boundaries in their lives, there is a deep human need for taking a break. Without one, performance is inevitably impaired, says Lesley Cooper, management consultant and founder of WorkingWell.
“Mental output needs to be balanced with intentional recovery or face reduced innovation, engagement, creativity, working relationships, trust and openness. We are not designed to be always on – our brains see to it that personal performance (and therefore aggregate output) suffers if we do not balance contribution with strategic resets.”
She says that holidays abroad – when possible – are particularly good for putting real physical separation between work and leisure. “So many aspects of your new environment will be different that it makes it more obvious where to redraw boundaries – which have become very blurred over the Covid pandemic – and reflect on the nature of our work and our frequently all-consuming approach to it, through a different lens.”
We are not designed to be always on – our brains see to it that personal performance suffers if we do not balance contribution with resets” – Lesley Cooper, WorkingWell
Life in lockdown is very “linear”, says Cooper, so a change of scenery can do much to break that up.
Staycations are effective, she says, “but if you are still in the UK, you are not often sufficiently distracted to guard the boundaries. There’s nothing like a time zone difference to shake things up for 14 days!”
Importantly, leaders need to role model the wellbeing behaviours they want to see in their team. This means they need to be seen to be taking leave and disengaging when they are away. Cooper says “being fully present when you are on leave is not required and is certainly not to be seen as a badge of commitment. Taking leave and recovering is an investment in the next performance wave for you and your teammates. It should therefore be celebrated, not hidden away or apologised for.”
But despite the clear psychological need for breaks, holidays should be booked according to work needs. “Great leaders will time vacations accordingly”, she says. “Team unity dictates that although we are empowered to make individual decisions that suit us, and we have that agency, we need also to act with the team ambitions and constraints in mind.”
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Unlike Dominic Raab, the prime minister’s holiday timing has not seemed to have any impact on his immediate career prospects but while it’s easy to be critical, perhaps even jealous, we are all subject to the same human needs.
