Holiday Time Off Leads to Happier Employees and Ultimately, Happier Clients

It’s a well-known argument that time off from work has great benefits for employees, yet many don’t seem to take enough each year. Distance from the office allows a mental break from to-do lists and deadlines and can have a major impact on one’s health, including reducing the risk of serious ailments.

At Idea Grove, we know employees’ time away from the office is important for maintaining a healthy work-life balance, as well as reinvigorating our energy in our work and our clients. In addition to our generous time off policies year-round, we closed our offices from Christmas Eve through New Year’s Day again this year. We recognize that it’s especially important to spend the holiday season with family and friends, and we’re grateful we could provide this time off for employees to do just that.

As a business, it wasn’t easy to consider closing for such a long period the first time we did it. However, as we reflected on client and media needs historically, we realized two things: Many of our clients also close at that time, and media needs often slow significantly. However, we never want to disappoint a client or miss out on a media opportunity because we’re out. Therefore, preparation and communication would be key to having a successful office-shut-down during the holidays.

Our team worked hard to make sure client deliverables wouldn’t be adversely affected by our time out this past week. We made sure our clients had plenty of notice on the days we’d be out, as well as where they could contact us if needed. We pushed up deadlines and meetings to make sure we accomplished everything planned in the slightly shorter month of December. In addition, our senior team members were “On Call” checking email to make sure client and media needs were met.

Although there was a bit more planning and work on the front end, we know our team appreciated this extra time away to decompress. We can see that our team is returning refreshed and rejuvenated in this new year, ready to take on new challenges. This renewed energy brings with it fresh perspectives and new ideas, leading to more value for our agency, our clients and more job satisfaction for our team.