How to Help Employees Unplug From Work

Let's face it: the line between work and personal life has gotten pretty blurry over the years. Thanks to after-hour emails, Slack pings, and a culture that seems to reward being "on", burnout has become more common now than ever before.

As an employer or manager, you may be asking yourself what the problem with constant connectivity is. It's simple: declining productivity.

This is why helping employees unplug isn't just a nice gesture. It's crucial for job satisfaction, long-term wellbeing, and enhanced performance. Here are the top sustainable ways to achieve this goal.

1. Start With Culture, Not Just Policy

Even if your handbook contains elements like "no emails after 6 p.m.", but managers are still sending weekend messages or praising after-hours availability, your employees will avoid unplugging by all means. That's why you must prioritise company culture over policies if you want to encourage your teams to feel safe about unplugging.

Here's what you can do about that. If you are the business owner or manager, be the first to unplug. Also, avoid rewarding burnout behaviours such as bragging about working late or skipping vacations.

Most importantly, make it possible for employees to unplug from work while still in the workplace through wellness and fitness solutions. For this, you can work with wellness facilities design consultants like Plus One to create a custom wellness centre that takes your employees' needs and preferences into consideration.

2. Make Time Off Truly Off

Did you know that 55% of American Workers don't use their paid vacation time in full? These workers often cite reasons like difficulty in getting away from work, vacation costs, and air travel hassles as being some of the top barriers to enjoying their time off. Still, we can't ignore the fact that managers often disrupt employees by engaging them during their time off.

It's important to ensure that none of your workers end up quietly logging in while on PTO if you're serious about encouraging genuine time offs. So, create a coverage plan to motivate your employees to disconnect from work without worrying. Also, consider effecting a "no contact" policy for employees who are on leave. This policy means that an employee isn't expected to check messages from work at all.

You may want to recognise or even reward people who take their time off seriously. This will set a positive example.

3. Help Employees Create a Pre-Vacation Planner

You probably didn't expect to find this one here, but it can go a long way toward making it easier for your employees to disconnect from work. Wondering how? If you think about it, your employees will feel all the more excited about their vacation if you're involved in helping them plan it. This makes it more likely that they won't feel guilty about unplugging once they leave work.

With so many planning tools and personalised ideas that you can come up with based on how well you know your employees, there simply isn't a right or wrong way to get this one done. Keep in mind, however, that it works best when an employee is supposed to be away for more than 2 weeks.

4. Rethink Communication Norms

Many businesses and companies make it look as if all messages are urgent, but the fact is, they aren't. So, by adding "ASAP" to every message you're sending, you're essentially making your employees or team members feel like they should remain plugged 24/7 just to keep up.

That's why you should:

• Use scheduling tools to delay sending emails until work hours.
• Separate urgent from non-urgent channels, for example, SMS for urgent messages.
• Have clear expectations around response time, for instance, "Emails after 5 p.m. can wait until the next work hours."

These may look like simple actions or rules, but they will certainly offer a huge sense of relief to your employees.

5. Allow Your Employees to Work Flexibly

You may think that flexibility means your employees are online all the time. Far from it. Pure flexibility is when you give your employees the freedom to work when they are most productive and disconnect if they feel the need to.

To enable this, allow custom work hours (when possible), avoid "butts in seats" management and focus more on the outcome rather than activity, and be mindful of time zone differences (where applicable) and life schedules. Wondering why such changes would work? It's simple: when people are trusted to do the right thing, they take care of themselves and ensure they do what's expected of them.

Get the Help You Need to Allow Your Team to Unplug

Encouraging your employees to unplug isn't about lowering expectations; rather, it's about setting sustainable ones. Doing this shows you value people, not just as workers but also as human beings. And when your employees are well-rested and mentally refreshed, it's easier for them to be fully present during work: that's when the real magic happens.

If you're wondering where or how to start your journey, Plus One can help. With creative workplace wellness and fitness solutions that will also provide an avenue for meaningful conversations around disconnecting from workplaces, you'll have everything you need in one place!