COLUMN: Could we all benefit from a summer shutdown?

Could we all benefit from a summer shutdown?

You don’t need me to tell you that schools are closed for their summer holidays. 

But did you know, GL11 Community Hub also shuts for two whole weeks at the start of the school holidays? Why do we do this? 

It actually started 10 years ago when we had just four staff, and it was impossible to keep GL11 open and functioning over the summer when staff went on holiday.

So for purely practical reasons we decided to close our doors for 2 weeks and all staff went on holiday at the same time!

Over the years, the benefits of having a GL11-wide closure have become more and more apparent.

So now, although we have many more staff, we close down for 5 weeks each year: 2 weeks at Christmas, one week at Easter and two weeks in summer.

There are the obvious practical benefits: we can do a whole load of building maintenance and redecoration much more easily when there's no one in the building. 

But the people benefits are far more significant.

Research shows that it is increasingly difficult for employees to switch off from work, with many of us continually accessing work emails on our phones and responding outside working hours. 

This blurs the line between work and personal life and has a negative impact on our mental health and wellbeing.

This is especially intense at GL11, when our staff spend their time caring and supporting people, which is both rewarding and exhausting work.

So our closure means that staff get really good quality time off. 

The research actually shows company-wide closure can prevent employee burnout and even extend your life. 

So as I write this today, on our first August day back from shutdown, the feedback from staff is entirely positive; we are relaxed, rested after some really good downtime.