Lockdown leave: why you should still take a holiday even if you can’t go anywhere
Like many Australians, Meredith Donkin had been so busy working in the “volatile environment” created by the pandemic that she’d taken very little time off since early last year.
“I’d taken very little leave. A day here, a day there.”
So when the Sydney lockdown hit, the marketing and communication manager at Wesley Mission found herself struggling to lead her team through the uncertainty.
“I didn’t have that lift I needed.”
She decided to take two weeks off at the end of July to get back in “the right headspace”.
Australians already had a large amount of annual leave stockpiled even before the pandemic hit, but the past year has brought the figure to a record high. Roy Morgan research released in May 2021 found Australian workers are owed 175 million days of annual leave, an increase of more than 23 million days from early 2020.
While many workers are doing it tough after being forced to take time off because of Covid restrictions, those that can work from home are pushing through and, in some cases, working harder than ever.
Psychiatrist Liz Scott says plenty of people tell her: “I’m not going to take time off, I’ve got nothing to do.”
But Scott says even if we can’t go to Italy or Queensland, taking time off work is important for mental and physical wellbeing.
“There’s lots of evidence about the benefits of taking a break. Particularly when you recognise signs of stress such as not sleeping well, changes in appetite and energy, needing to use more alcohol,” Scott, who is principal research fellow at the Brain and Mind Centre at the University of Sydney, says.
This message is especially important now as Australians are grappling with the uncertainty of when life will get back to normal again. “As people realise it’s not going to end soon, this is when cracks begin appearing.”
While people may not be able to travel far, especially those in lockdown with travel limits, Scott says there are ways to find space close to home by going “somewhere you can see the horizon, you feel less crowded, less stressed and less pressure”.
“We know being cooped up in small spaces, especially in environments with lots of noise and activity, is not good for our mental health.”
She recommends going to the top of a hill, the beach, a forest and parks or, if you live in the inner city, even the middle of a football field. She says research shows even virtual reality, for example putting on a nature documentary, also works.
Alex Zdravkovic, the practice manager at Moreland Psychology, agrees how you spend the break from work is important.
“What we’re seeing in terms of practical presentation is that without traditional coping methods, such as going out with friends and going on holidays, people get into a downward spiral.
“We call it zoning out instead of relaxing. You zone out on Netflix or a packet of chips, but even though you haven’t done anything, you haven’t relaxed. You wake up the next morning and you’re still tired.”
During her lockdown staycation Donkin specifically avoided scrolling through her social media feeds and Netflix “because I find it numbing”.
“I incorporated routines for selfcare and was very deliberate about that.”
She got up at the same time she normally would for work but filled her days baking, journaling, going for walks and listening to podcasts and music. She got to know her local area in West Pennant Hills better, discovering a nature reserve she didn’t know existed.
Donkin says by the end of it “I felt the same level of refreshment I had taking a week off at Avoca”.
Donkin had extra incentive to take the leave she needed because Wesley Mission is one of many Australian workplaces offering additional incentives for employees to take time off in light of the impact of the pandemic.
NAB has given its employees 10 days of additional paid ‘pandemic leave’ as part of a range of increased and improved wellbeing and mental health resources.
Australia’s Fair Work Commission recognises taking leave is beneficial for both employers and employees, stating that “not taking a reasonable amount of annual leave may pose a threat to the health and safety of employees and represent a significant financial liability for employers”.
Not only do employers want to avoid employees stockpiling leave because it becomes a liability on their balance sheets, but the professor of economics at RMIT Alberto Posso says “healthy workers are more productive”.
“A potential cost of people stockpiling leave is that employees may become more likely to burn out and if this is happening at a large scale, we could see a significant drop in average productivity in some industries,” Posso says.
Scott says many people are actually working longer hours in lockdown because they lose the rhythm of the day: getting up later and consequently working later and going to bed later.
Scott suggests taking time off could be used as a way of resetting sleep and activity routines, getting back into positive habits and practicing mindfulness. This might help those struggling to get their energy and motivation back.
For Donkin, her lockdown staycation not only helped her return to work with the lift she needed, but she says she’s also maintained some of her new habits.
She now blocks off an hour to go to the new park she discovered and have lunch with her kids. “Before the staycation I hadn’t been as deliberate about it.”
• In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, Mental Health America is available on 800-273-8255