Taking A Breath With The Rest And Relaxation Program

Picture this: You’ve just found out there’s a pandemic headed straight for your city. Your entire company, including you, has been moved to work from home to protect you and your family from the spread of the virus.

Your position doesn’t typically work from home, so you’re having to make adjustments as you go. You’re working on a tiny laptop screen while waiting for your usual monitor setup from the office to come in. On top of that, your kids are home from school, so during your high stakes meeting with senior leaders, they’re chasing the dog around screaming “PICKLES” at the top of their lungs. You can only imagine what that means for your brand new carpet in the living room. And wait, did you remember to sanitize that jar of pickles before putting it in the fridge?

While this scene is enough to make anyone want to rip their hair out, millions of people faced a similar reality in March and April of this year. Any one of these things individually would have been enough to cause stress. These changes, while necessary, came so quickly that many of us didn’t even have the chance to slow down and process what was happening.

We could all feel ourselves getting heavy, and I’m not just referencing the “quarantine 15.” Our bodies are resilient and made for handling a little bit of stress now and then. But when that stress is long-term, it can start to take a real and noticeable toll on our mental and physical health.

We recognized that we were in unprecedented times. Unprecedented times call for unprecedented tactics. The Rock Family of Companies has always been known to adapt well to the ever-changing environment, and this time is no different.

When team members expressed the burnout they were beginning to feel because of the inability to unwind and unplug, the Rock Family of Companies launched the three-part Rest And Relaxation (R&R) Program.

Working from home can seem like it might never work at first, but eventually, you start to find your groove. You might realize your children don’t usually wake up until around 10:00 a.m., so maybe you get more done if you start the day at 7:00 a.m. and take lunch at 10:00 a.m. Or maybe your little one gets to sleep around 7:00 p.m. and you find working for a couple of hours at night makes you more productive. This step is all about helping team members find a schedule that works for them, even if it’s not always during the traditional 9-to-5.

One of the major reasons team members who start to work from home suffer from more burnout is because they’re not taking breaks they normally would. We might discount the value of needing to walk between meetings and walk to the coffee pot, but that time can often be decompressing for team members. When you’re working from home, you’re not getting those minidecompression sessions. On top of that, virtual meetings can be thrown on your calendar back to back, not giving you any time to run to the restroom or even just take a quick breath in between.

This part of the R&R plan is all about being intentional about giving yourself breaks throughout the workday.

It’s easy to work through lunch when you’re working from your kitchen table. Sometimes, it can feel a bit awkward stepping offline for a moment or two. You might feel like you’re abandoning your team when you sign off. But by adding blocks in your calendar to allow you to grab a snack or just to step away from the computer screen for a moment, you’re taking care of yourself. This translates to avoiding burnout and benefits your team more in the long run.

This was a paid day off for every one of our team members with only one expectation: to relax and recharge. Team members were assigned a day off based on their birth month. These days were staggered to make sure we were still catering to the needs of our clients while giving our team members the much-needed break they deserved. Keeping our companies operating at a high level starts and ends with putting our team members first.

Curious about what else we have to offer? Hide the jar of pickles on the top shelf and head over to MyRocketCareer.com to find out more about the programs offered to team members and about how you can join the Rock Family of Companies.