The Case for Mandatory LOAs
Sports. Education. Art. Three disciplines united in their pursuit of excellence. In these fields, success is measured predominantly in terms of quality and a few excellent athletes, theories, works of art are prized over any quantity of average or even above-average output.
In the realm of business, however, success is measured differently. Here quantity (and reliability) reign supreme and while excellence and innovation are officially encouraged, the system discourages it.
Think that’s too extreme? Consider a few examples:
- Employees are expected to work ‘9 to 5’ regardless of productivity or workload
- Capturing new sources of revenue and/or reducing costs does not benefit the individual
- Ideas are usually evaluated by a committee of one i.e., your boss (and all the bias that brings)
Now to be fair there are good reasons such a system exists. Businesses need to be extremely reliable and excellence is disruptive by nature. Temporary disruptions that jeopardize short-term profits are usually not tolerated for long by shareholders. For a business leader concerned with keeping their job, the best strategy is to pursue profits that are predictable and modest over those that are speculative and lucrative.
However, businesses can also benefit from excellence and the innovation it breeds. Indeed, all business is born from innovation and those that continue to innovate outlast those focused solely on milking the cash cow.
While it is challenging to balance stability and innovation, there are specific policies that can help. I began this post by bringing up sports, education, and art because they share a common practice in their pursuit of excellence: obligatory leaves of absence (LOA). Every sport has an off-season, every semester a summer, and every artistic triumph a creative winter.
The argument I make for businesses introducing mandatory LOAs is not a logical one. It could be, but citing case studies on productivity, burnout, and turnover is unappealing and ultimately counter-productive because extended breaks are so obviously beneficial to individuals, businesses, and society. Personally, I’ve enjoyed multiple extended breaks and came back far more engaged and productive. And if someone leaves their job after a break because they realize they were better off elsewhere, there is now an open spot for someone who is a great fit for that job—a win-win-win-win.
Even if you have not experienced the benefits of an extended break yourself, the evidence of its righteousness is overwhelming. Not only is extended rest key to the performance of our favorite athletes, the enlightenment glimpsed by our best thinkers, and the creation of our favorite works of art, it is also embedded in so many of our favorite stories, including, most importantly, the ones we tell ourselves. Many of us believe that our life will truly begins when we retire and take a permanent break.
Breaks, cycles, variation are deeply embedded in the world around us as well. Night turns to day, seasons change, all life is born, blossoms, and dies. Our ancestors—hunter-gatherers, herders, and farmers–lived for hundreds of thousands of years in rhythm with the seasons, alternating between extended periods of activity and rest is in our DNA, blood, bones, soul. It is a crime against the human spirit to not allow people to satisfy this primal desire when there is such abundance in the world. What good is productivity and progress if it does not result in the contentment of those now and those yet to come. Mandatory LOA may seem like a trivial step toward betterment, but every step counts.
Vacation is not enough (especially in America). Optional LOAs are not enough. Mandatory LOAs are our birthright.