If you’re an employer and your member of staff is on holiday, please let the person rest.
If you’re an employee and you are on leave, please utilize your leave well and have proper rest.
With the exemption of those who work on shifts, respect your weekends or days of rest. Stop bugging workers and stop entertaining official calls, texts, and chats while on leave, except if it’s an emergency.
As a customer or a client, know the days and times to make business enquiries or calls. Look at the time before you call/text.
Know when to rest and when to let the people in your life rest. Your parents need rest. Your children and domestic staff need rest. Your spouses need some time to rest. Your colleagues, friends, priests/pastors, and everyone in your life need time to rest. Know when to give them the space to rest.
There are days of rest, respect it. God rested on the 7th day, and Jesus Christ in Mark 6:31 told his disciples to go to a quiet place and rest.
Don’t be abusive of people’s private time, don’t be a user, don’t be used. Don’t cheat yourself. Don’t suffer your health, don’t deprive yourself of a deserved rest. Give your body the needed attention when it’s called for.
Whether as an employer or an employee, knowing when to rest and taking time to rest is a goal in itself and must be taken seriously. As an employer, do you go on holiday at all? Have you had a period where you take a total and uninterrupted break from work? As an employee, do you make good use of your rest hours? Or do you answer the call of duty anytime? As a student, how do you utilize your holiday? Do you engage in leisure and fun activities, or do you still engage in academic activities during the period?
I’ve been trying to figure out why some people work while on holiday and why they take their work materials and respond to official emails, chats, rext, do research, and study while on holiday. It is true that sometimes, especially as a business executive, some work requires urgent attention that may disrupt our holiday period, but measures can be adopted to take care of these. Maybe by delegation or by postponement.
Years back, I used to work round the clock without giving attention to holidays, but I have realized that my health and well-being are at the receiving end. It was a habit I formed, which became a pattern that was hard to adjust. I remember how I used to work while on maternity leave. I was giving clients appointments at home based on their choice, even on Sundays. My mum made me stop working on Sundays when she preached to me to respect God’s holy day. Yet, I was doing so much from Monday to Saturday.
We must recognize the need to invest in our well-being as we make other investments in life. Resting is the chance we have to recharge our lives and educe stress and anxiety. What’s the essence of a holiday if your brain can not rest? A holiday should be a period to shut down completely from any official engagement and academic work and get the desired rest that the body needs before resuming. When we discuss mental health, we forget to add the mental troubles we create for ourselves in our constant chase for money.
Taking periodic stock of our lives is an important aspect of life, and taking time to have a proper rest is part of it. Being on holiday does not necessarily mean going on luxury trips or engaging in leisure activities. Time off at work or school counts. Maybe staying indoors, watching movies, playing games, telling stories, having family time, or doing any relaxing activities that are completely off work or studies.
The roles and functions of leisure in the physical, psychological, and mental well-being of an individual can not be over-emphasized. It improves learning and behaviour in children, and It’s a way of creating new life, new experiences, family bonds, mental healing, and stress reduction for improved productivity.
✍️ Amara Ann Unachukwu
