Unlimited annual leave. And lives of quiet desperation.

Part of the 1000 year old UNESCO World Heritage Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Trail, near Wakayama, Japan. (Credit: Kiyotaka Noda/iStock)

On days when I’ve literally disappeared under a pile of marking (today actually), I dream of hiking Japan’s 1000-year-old Unesco heritage listed Kumano Kodo trail. Not just on days when I am doing marking, to be honest. But it takes around 9 days. Many Japanese don’t take enough annual leave to do the trek. To try and combat this issue, in 2019 the government introduced a law that sees employers face penalties if their employees don’t take a minimum of five days of leave a year.

And while many countries don’t face issues with overwork to the extreme that Japan does, it’s still a significant problem. There is a lot of discussion at the moment about leave of all types. Sick leave. Annual leave. Life leave.

Companies like Reddit, Netflix, Cliniko, and Goldman Sachs are offering unlimited annual leave. However, when workplaces are understaffed and many employees are taking not much more than half their existing annual leave allocation, such initiatives are likely to be seen as gimmicks. A distraction to temporarily relieve the pain or frustration of the underlying problem.

Gallup’s data on the global workforce in 2021 suggests that employee stress is at an all-time high, while worry, anger, and sadness remain at pre-pandemic levels. Reddit offers staff a day off a month for them to “rest, recuperate and recharge”.

Increasing awareness of the prevalence of stress, mental health and well-being is essential and positive. As is the awareness that employees need access to leave for things other than when they are sick, on holiday or having a baby. But if employees need a day off a month to recover from their jobs, a much bigger problem continues to be ignored.

There is a more fundamental issue not being addressed. An analysis of 382,000 employee exit interviews found that reports of employee burnout have almost doubled in the past year. It isn’t surprising then that the rise of the anti-work movement is currently the second most popular article on BBC Worklife. Despite the economic stress and uncertainty, there is a growing sentiment that no job is better than a bad job.

Increasing the amount and types of leave available to employees won’t help issues of overwork, toxic cultures or incompetent leadership. People aspire to find work that provides meaning and fulfillment. As Adam Grant says, no one grows up dreaming of a job that doesn’t interfere with their life.

The comment I hear most often in companies is “I don’t feel valued” and “I don’t feel heard”. Unlimited leave of any type is not going to make this better.

Let’s continue to offer an increasing range of options for, and access to, leave. Let’s also start more conversations about getting to the real issues around how we are working and living. There are a number of large studies being conducted in several countries at the moment on a trial of a four-day work week. While this is a promising development, the model of 100:80:100 (100% of pay, 80% of hours, 100% of productivity) has been predicted to mean that workers would need to become 25% more productive per day.

If we are more focussed on tasks (or dare I say it face-time) rather than results, if we have cultures where building empires of endless process re-engineering and unnecessary report writing is rewarded, if we tolerate understaffing or endlessly stretching the psychological contract as a way of being, we are missing the point. It’s no wonder employees are stressed, burnt out, and disillusioned.

Joy is a precious resource. So is creativity and inspiration. When I ask employees what they are passionate about, or when was the last time they did something that left them feeling joy, most often the resounding response is silence. This silence is usually broken after a few moments of reflection by an assertion that they don’t remember the last time they had time to think about what they felt passionate about. Or what brought them joy.

Now seems as important a time as ever to actually do something differently. To stop applying bandaids or inventing distractions that don’t help the actual problem. To interrupt the rise of people living lives of quiet desperation.