Let me take holidays

Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 11, 2022


A Service Design Principle to create a better work-life balance.

Would you like you and your employees to be 8% more performant and productive?

In his book “The Organized Mind”, Daniel J. Levitin shares an overlooked and forgotten tip that does precisely that.

When people work fewer hours per week, productivity improves. So time off benefits both staff members and organizations. That’s because overwork and lack of sleep lead to errors that take longer to correct than the overtime people do. The management firm Ernst & Young did a bit of math around this idea.

It seems that for every ten additional hours of holiday time an employee takes, their yearly performance rating improves by about 8%.

In some way, we all know it makes sense to take a break. Now we have a bit of math to prove it.

So let me ask you: How can you ensure people don’t overwork to stay more productive?

Footnotes

The first draft of this Service Design Principle was adapted into more understandable English by the lovely Joanna Bienz. Thanks, Joanna!

Daniele’s personal notes

  • You just read the second draft of this Service Design Principle.
  • The length of this principle has been reduced by XX% compared to the first draft.
  • Once improved even more, this principle could be part of the book “Service Design Principles 201-300.”
  • As always, feel free to share comments, feedback or personal stories to improve this principle.
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Daniele Catalanotto
Oct 29, 2022

The third draft of this Service Design Principle

Are vacations really useful, and can we prove it? I found some proof in the book “The Organized Mind” (1) and other studies (2).

It seems that when people work fewer hours per week, productivity improves. That’s because you make more errors when you work a lot and don’t sleep enough. And these errors take more time to fix than the extra hours you do.

Ernst & Young (3) did a bit of math around this idea in an internal study.

For every 10 extra vacation hours, the yearly performance rating of an employee improves by 8%.

So let me ask you.

How can you ensure people don’t overwork to stay more productive?

Footnotes

(1) Daniel J. Levitin (2015). The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Dutton. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/8Cwp accessed 20 October 2022.

(2) Bryan Lufkin and Jessica Mudditt (2021). The Case For A Shorter Workweek. BBC. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/MCV0 accessed 29 October 2022.

The first draft of this Service Design Principle was adapted into more understandable English by the lovely Joanna Bienz. Thanks, Joanna!

(3) Tony Schwartz (2013). Relax! You’ll Be More Productive. The New York Times. Available at https://extra.swissinnovation.academy/tuMU accessed 29 October 2022.

Daniele’s notes

  • This is the third draft of this principle.
  • I’ve reduced the length of this principle by 22 % compared to the previous draft.
  • Added reference to a New-York times article that cites the study from Ersnt and Young