October 22, 2007 Take Back Your Lunch Break Oct. 24 is Take Back Your Time Day New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada – Today’s workforce is putting in more hours than ever before and taking fewer vacation days. These disturbing trends are why we are celebrating Take Back Your Time Day (TBYTD) on Wednesday, Oct. 24. TBYTD is an international movement dedicated to eliminating overwork, over-scheduling and poor time management. Taking back your time is about creating healthy work-life balances by better controlling the amount of time workers give to their jobs. “Workers need to start looking after themselves by using resources that are available to them, such as vacation time, banked time and breaks,” said Janet Dean, President of Advance Corporate Training. “Relaxing on your lunch break instead of eating at your desk is a great way to start.” Working through your lunch break may seem like a good idea at first. However, overall productivity decreases when workers do not take their lunch breaks because doing so reduces energy and mental engagement for the balance of the day. Instead, mental breaks give workers a chance to de-stress and create better work-life balances. Employers should encourage their workers to take breaks because they will be healthier physically and mentally, thus reducing rates of absenteeism and “presenteeism” (here in body but not mind). “Employers will have workers that are better able to perform their jobs because they are living better lives. It’s a win-win situation,” said Dean. Workers can also take back their time by scheduling a meeting to discuss overwork, over-scheduling and time pressure, asking for a sabbatical and learning to say “No.” Employers can help employees by formally allowing “mental health” uses of sick time, creating a comfortable break room and requesting staff use it and better planning employees’ work flow and committing them to realistic deadlines. Advance Corporate Training (ACT), a 2006 WorkLife Award Winner, has been providing training in areas such as work-life balance, leadership, management, customer service and HR to performance-driven businesses, institutions and organizations since 1990. ACT operates out of its head office in New Westminster, BC. Take Back Your Time can be found on the web at www.timeday.org
|
|
