The Benefits of Disconnecting

For the first 10 years of my career, my work followed me everywhere I went. 

For most people, when they start a new job, they’re sometimes asked by their employer to download and install a few work-related applications to their personal devices - email, chat, and in some cases, time management software.

While I don’t necessarily consider myself a workaholic (perhaps a reformed workaholic these days), the lines between my work and personal lives in those first 10 years or so were blurred to the point of being essentially non-existent. I had, of my own volition, installed those applications onto my personal device as a sort of way to be hyper connected to my career. And as a relatively new people leader at the time, I wanted to create exceptionally clear lines of communication with my team that were open 24/7. And while that sounded great on paper, in reality it was a massive problem.

For example, I would be on vacation - time that was meant for myself and my partner, not work - and be checking my team’s group chat to make sure I wasn’t missing out on anything important, or to ensure that if they had questions, I could be there to answer. Aside from not coming back feeling rested - the whole point of vacation - I had unintentionally created a culture where by being hyper available, my team no longer had the resiliency to problem-solve on their own. Worse yet, they began to feel like they too needed to be connected and online while on vacation. 

Having spent far more time in leadership roles since with amazing leaders and mentors of my own, my understanding and approach has completely flipped; I am now and will always be a vehement advocate for the right to be able to fully disconnect. 

Aside from the obvious and given fact that is burnout, there Is more to not being able to disconnect than meets the eye. One 2018 study found that two-thirds of professionals are significantly more stressed out than they were five years prior, and another study found that when a company has expectations of their employees to monitor emails after work, it almost always leads to emotional exhaustion. Most surprising of, at least to me however, is that one study found that 61% of respondents ages 25 and up found it challenging to not think about work over the weekend. 

So, what are the benefits of disconnecting? Well, aside from preventing burnout, disconnecting is the best way to promote work-life balance. That’s what allows us to rest, engage with our hobbies, and spend quality time with friends and family. Moreover, promoting work-life balance has been proven to increase productivity and reduce attrition, and most importantly, it signals to employees that they are not just a number, or a cog in the machine, and that their personal time is also of value.

As counterintuitive as it sounds, but disconnecting is sometimes the best way to maintain your output and levels of productivity. If you’re constantly multi-tasking, staying late, and never slowing down, the quality of your work will begin to degrade and suffer, and subsequently, so will that of your personal life. One thing that I’ve had to learn over the years for myself is that nothing is too important that it cannot wait until the next day. Accepting that has helped me to disconnect more easily and stop worrying. 

How have I been able to disconnect? Well, I’m incredibly luck to work for an organization that values and actively encourages us to disconnect. But beyond that, I think the biggest help and change was to remove all work-related applications from my personal devices, and keep everything work related on my work laptop and phone. Initially, there was a certain level of anxiety that came with letting go, with losing that sense of control, and with being so disconnected. However, over the last month of so that I’ve been experimenting with this, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the freedom that this allows. While I want my team to always feel like they can reach out to me, I also think that it’s important for leaders to lead by example, and I think my team appreciates this.

These days, when I finish work, I can fully disconnect. I’m able to leave my work at my desk, walk away, and spend that time with my family, engage with my hobbies, and just be fully present with whatever it is I’m doing wherever I am.