The "Leave" Experiment: Part 1

I was the third in the company to go on the “compulsory one-week leave”.  Ravi was the first, Marco the second.

It was the start of a new experiment in SimpliFlying. Each of the team members is expected to work hard for seven weeks then take the eighth week off, completely. The idea is to take a break and have space for free-rein thinking. Reply to a work email or text message and risk losing one week's pay. Honestly, I wasn’t quite sure what would come out of this experiment. 

For my week off from 23-29 May, I decided to take a trip with my husband to our favourite country - Japan, namely the cities Tokyo and Kyoto.

NOT A GREAT START

There were two challenges from the start, or even before the "compulsory one-week leave" started.

• Challenge No. 1: Handover. Going on a one-week break (without being allowed to check in on work at all) means a thorough handover was necessary. This proved to be slightly difficult, especially during a busy period, such as now when SimpliFlying Awards has just started.
  
  One way to improve on the handover would be to start by regularly updating the team about the projects one is working on. I imagine this would help a great deal in relieving the burden of having to deliver a verbal/ textual diarrhoea when the next handover is due. 
  
  Something else that would help a great deal is a journal of ongoing updates related to the client/ project. At SimpliFlying, we refer to this as the "client diary".

• Challenge No. 2: Switching off completely. I confess. I couldn’t switch off from work completely for the first couple of days, partly because of the abrupt handover and the inner perfectionist that sometimes gets the better of me. Letting go is an aspect I continue to work on.

NOT A GREAT START BUT A PRETTY GOOD FINISH

The first three days were spent in Tokyo, a glorious city full of gastronomic food and entertainment. It was inspiring but somewhat overwhelming.

I felt much rested when we made our way to Arashiyama, Kyoto, right by a lake and surrounded by rolling green hills. No itinerary was needed for three days. Once my mind began to clear, the world around me became a beautiful place. That in itself was entertaining and inspiring.

In Kyoto, I reconnected with myself. There I read aplenty - a book about my personality type and another book on “how to break out of habits”. Both books provided me varied sets of lens with which I was able to zoom out and evaluate myself, my life and my work from different angles.

This one-week break helped me reconnect with my loved ones, namely my husband Lester on the trip, and back at home with my family when I returned from the trip a more patient daughter and elder sister.

A few days after returning from Japan, I had to fill in a survey at work designed to find out what I had gotten out of this “compulsory one-week leave” experiment. One of the questions asked if I felt I had come back with more ideas and creativity. I couldn’t say for sure, but one thing was clear. There were less clutter and clog in my mind than before, and I was able to think and perform with more clarity when I came back from this forced break. 

How will the second round of "compulsory one-week leave" turn out if I apply lessons from this round? Is this experiment sustainable? Personally, I see much potential in how this can drive productivity and work satisfaction level of our team members. That said, I do have a couple of reservations, and I look forward to testing those grounds over the course of the year.