Unplugging is going to look different for each of us. For some employees, unplugging means not being connected at night. For others, it means the weekend. It’s important for us to respect an employee’s “unplug time” even if it’s not the same as ours.
Communicate when you will be unplugged. If your unplug time is Friday date night or Sunday mornings with the kids, let others know so they won’t expect to hear from you. Maybe it’s me, but I think part of the stress associated with tech is that we feel compelled to answer things right away.
Don’t feel guilty about unplugging. This is easier said that done. But the key to getting employees to truly take a technology break and receiving the benefits of unplugging is not feeling guilty about doing it. We need to practice guilt-free unplug time. In fact, maybe we need to share with employees how nice spending time unplugged felt.
The business world moves very fast. I remember in my first HR job, my boss telling me “The work will still be there tomorrow. Don’t worry about it.” That doesn’t mean we didn’t stay late or come in over the weekend. Her point was that we would be better if we took time for ourselves. That means finding time to unplug from our devices. Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Las Vegas, NV 18