As you know, employee well-being is a priority on our campus.ÌýWith commencement behind us, we encourage you to think about your wellness this summer, along with the wellness of those you lead. One way to do this is to encourage the use of vacation time or provide flexibility in scheduling.Ìý
Time away from work is vital to physical and mental health, well-being, and overall job satisfaction. Employees will also lose excess vacation days if they are not used by June 30, 2023. We want you to be a model and advocate for your employees, teams, and faculty colleagues to take full vacations or long weekends; it truly benefits everyone to have time to rest and rejuvenate.Ìý
Health and Wellness Services has outlined the many benefits to taking vacation time. When you and your employees discuss time-off, here are some tips to assist you.Ìý
- Communicate: Your expectations in addition to the campus-wide vacation and sick day policy specific to their employee group
- Provide clarity and transparency: Let them know the best way to ask for days off, what are weeks to stay away from, what to do when an emergency pops up, and encourage early vacation planning for the next fiscal year.Ìý
- Show care and concern: Ask how peopleÌý are doing, if they are needing a break, what they specifically need to rest and recharge. Taking a break from research, scholarship, and creative work to rest and rejuvenate. It is just as important for our staff colleagues as it is for our students.Ìý
- Redefine vacation: Vacation time does not have to be a week or two weeks off; it could be a long weekend, afternoons away, or an early end time on specific days.Ìý
- Model behavior: Demonstrate through action. Take a day(s) off yourself. What you do is just as important as what you say.Ìý
Please also note that , another way of providing staff more flexibility in the afternoons.Ìý
- Flexible Work Schedules: Think about offering alternate schedules; varying work days and times when roles allow for it. A 4/10 work schedule is a possibility in many situations. Factor in busy times and less busy times, allowing individuals to flex their work schedule to not only support the needs of the department, but to also give employees some flexibility in their role and responsibilities.Ìý
Thank you for your continued leadership and support of our ÃÛÌÒ´«Ã½Æƽâ°æÏÂÔØ employees. We want vacation time to be a normalized and respected perk of everyone’s job. It’s important that the conversation around vacation days is one of positivity and encouragement. This means for you, too–take the trip!Ìý
³§¾±²Ô³¦±ð°ù±ð±ô²â,Ìý
Jess Doty, Associate Vice Chancellor for Health and Wellness
Robyn Fergus, CPO and Senior Associate Vice Chancellor of Human Resources
Ìý