A year ago, we ran an experiment at work. Emerging from the height of the pandemic, we were exhausted and running on empty. And, as an organisation that works with teachers, care workers, youth and community workers, local authority staff, academics and thousands of others, we found ourselves having the same conversation with everyone. They were burned out too.
So we decided to give our whole team August off. We were inspired originally by a similar initiative at the organisation of well-known researcher Brené Brown – and her explanation of the rationale behind it. We had no idea how it would go, but knew we had to do something radically different from the “keep on keeping on” cycle that we, and everyone else around us, was caught in. It was a rush to get everything finished and wrapped up with clients before we took the break, but it was worth the effort.
