Allowing employees to take a rest will help the company grow faster.

Companies often put a lot of effort into establishing corporate culture, but many managers seem to have not realized that corporate culture is difficult to build and extremely easy to destroy. Just two steps, and you can unintentionally destroy corporate culture. Step one: take a vacation. Step two: work as usual during the vacation. Every work email sent by an employee on vacation will gradually erode the corporate culture. Because this action will make other employees feel that vacation is not a real vacation.

Our latest research shows that only 14% of managers completely stop working during their vacations; among executives, this proportion is only 7%. Most managers check work matters at least once a day during their vacations.

If you are one of them, you may feel that checking work during your vacation is to maintain peace of mind—what if something big happens during your vacation? How can you keep up with the progress if you completely ignore work during your vacation? But before sending work emails, please think about it. The meaning represented by the emails is not all the same, and the message conveyed by your action of continuing to work during your vacation far exceeds your imagination.

Every work email sent by an employee on vacation will cause a little collapse of the corporate culture: this action makes other employees feel that vacation is not a real vacation. These small collapses accumulate into problems. The information received by other employees is: "Without me, I don't believe you can complete the work" or "I couldn't finish my work neatly before my vacation." Both pieces of information will affect others' favor and trust in your work ability.

Every employee may contribute to such problems, but the impact caused by managers is greater. Unfortunately, many managers do not realize this until the corporate culture has problems. A corporate culture that does not support employees to take a complete vacation will reduce employees' commitment to work and the organization. Compared with employees in a culture that supports rest, employees in this corporate culture feel less valued (69% vs. 50%), feel that the company cares about them from a personal perspective less (64% vs. 43%), and are more likely to seek other jobs. In a corporate culture that does not support a complete vacation, 2/5 of employees are looking for a new job or planning to find a new job in the next year, almost twice as many as employees in a supportive culture (21%).

Their reasons for leaving their jobs have also changed significantly. The most common reasons for leaving the previous company are as expected: salary increases, promotion opportunities, or commuting conditions. Now that they are looking for a job again, the above reasons have significantly decreased. They are leaving not to seek positive factors, but to escape negative factors. In a culture that does not support a complete vacation, employees say they are leaving because they feel unappreciated by their employer, the work pressure is too great to bear, or they have a bad relationship with their boss.

The number one factor affecting employees' time is their boss—even more than their family. Managers themselves may not realize this influence, and the negative impact of continuing to work during their vacation is not intentional. However, the situation of managers maintaining work contacts during their vacations can reflect their attitude towards employees' vacation time. Among managers who regularly check work during their vacations, over 1/3 of them say that company pressure prevents them from approving employees' vacation requests, while among managers who occasionally check work, this proportion is 20%, and among managers who do not reply to work contacts at all, it is only 17%.

A culture that prohibits vacations will have extremely serious consequences, and a company that values letting employees rest can achieve a lot. Employees value vacations very much—vacations are second only to medical care in the minds of employees, but more important than retirement benefits, bonuses, and flexible work arrangements. Companies should see it as an opportunity to improve their culture.

Deloitte Consulting CEO Jim Moffatt had a sudden realization after sending an email to his employees. He was about to go on vacation in Scotland and the email covered all the work that needed to be addressed at the time. At the end, he absentmindedly wrote, "If possible, please relax a bit before Labor Day." Now he says, instead of saying "if possible," it's better to just say "don't do that."

He realized this because a colleague and friend replied, advising him to trust that he had hired the right employees and provided the right strategic direction, so there was no need to send emails during his vacation. If the employees and direction were not suitable, then sending a few emails would not make up for the mistake.

Now Moffatt has completely changed. "What you can accomplish when you take a complete vacation will surprise you, and the results achieved by employees when you return to work will also surprise you. I can personally prove that in this way, you will be more confident and become a better leader."

Looking back at the two steps that destroy the culture, think about how to reverse it. How?

Step one: Take a vacation.

Step two: Trust that employees can handle the work while you are on vacation.

Doing this can make you aware of the new abilities that employees possess, allowing them to develop skills and ultimately enabling the company to grow.

Work is inseparable from modern communication technology. To understand the power and value of vacation, create an environment that allows employees to relax during their vacation, which will ultimately make employees actively engage in work, feel valued by the company, and be motivated and willing to invest in it—all of which will have a lasting positive impact.

Keywords: vacation

Katie Denis is the research and strategy director of "Project: Time Off," a national movement aimed at changing Americans' attitudes and behaviors during vacation.

Translated by Shuojian, Edited by Zhouqiang