Whether you celebrate all of the festivals or none, gift yourself the right to rest and leisure this holiday season, says Kathleen Drum
Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitations of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.”
Whether you celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, all of the festivals or none, this time of the year brings not only the joy of meeting up with friends and family but the feeling that we need to “do everything” before the offices close, before we can rest.
In the Northern Hemisphere, we are coping with winter illnesses, longer nights, and shorter, grey days whilst in the Southern Hemisphere, there is summer, heatwaves, and long school holidays to contend with.
Sometimes, the “rest” we are looking forward to is not that restful at all!
So, what if powering through our days is not the answer? What if we ensure that we take our lunch breaks, finish on time, and don’t work the weekends? Our organisations and the executives we support need us to bring our “A” games to work and to be honest about expectations and workload. No one benefits if you burn out.
In this issue, Marsha Egan explains how practising the Art of Letting Go is the key to work-life balance, whilst Ian Child has some great advice for creating happiness pockets throughout your day in his article Get To Your Bucket List Sooner Rather Than Later. We also focus on technology to help you become more efficient in your role, with articles on Microsoft Loop, SearchGPT, and Google Gemini whilst Traci Williams introduces us to two brand new formulas in Excel with her article Excel Spreadsheets: Groupby and Pivotby.
Perhaps you use this time of the year to reset and think about your ambitions for next year and beyond. Joan Burge’s article How to Set Goals and Create Change is a good place to start. If you are looking for a promotion, Helen Monument’s article Successful Succession Planning is a must-read. And if the next stepping stone in your career is outside your current organisation, Sarah Howson and Marianne Whitlock’s article Why Your CV Is Too Personal to Automate has some great tips on when – and when not – to use AI to write your CV.
Whatever this season means to you, I hope that you gift yourself the right to rest and leisure.
I wish you all a joyous holiday season and a Happy New Year.
Kathleen
