July 2024

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Slack Study Finds Massive Benefits to Taking Breaks, but Half of Employees Don’t Take Them

Research from Slack’s Workforce Index found that making time for breaks during the workday improves employee wellbeing and productivity – and yet half of employees don’t take any breaks during the workday. Why? (Looking at you, recurring 2pm meeting). And what are practical tips to maximize performance and productivity by taking intentional breaks? Read on for 4 tips to build recovery time into your workday to do and be your best.

1. Give me a break

Nearly half of workers never take a dedicated break during their workdays — according to a new survey from Slack, which included responses from over 10,000 workers in the U.S., U.K. Australia, France, Germany and Japan. And this has real consequences: These workers are 1.7x more likely to experience burnout – in a time of rising burnout globally.

For those in the study who regularly took breaks, it had a profound impact on their mental health. They had 62% higher scores for work-life balance, 43% greater ability to manage stress and anxiety, and 43% greater overall satisfaction. 

Yeah, of course they did! Those slackers! But what about productivity?

Um, it went up. Double digits. Workers who regularly take breaks have 13% higher productivity than those who don’t.

“You need that physical separation from whatever your workstation looks like,” says Christina Janzer, svp of research and analytics at Slack. “Once you do that you find that your brain sort of unlocks, you start to think about things in a new way, you brainstorm new ways of working, so it makes so much sense that that ends up being a productivity booster.”

2. Downtime a feature, not a bug: ‘productivity multiplier’

The fact that giving people breaks increases performance isn’t exactly new or breaking news.

A Wall Street insurance company called New Century Global found in a 10-week study conducted by Cornell University (in 1999!) that workers receiving reminders to take breaks were 13% more accurate on average in their work than coworkers who were not reminded. That was 25 years ago! The link between breaks and positive outcomes has been clear for a quarter century, and somehow half of workers still aren’t taking any breaks. But it is deeply rooted in our psyche and history to idolize efficiency.

“Why did we all come to believe that we are more productive if we are always on and that we need to burn out in order to succeed?” asks Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO of Thrive Global.”It goes back to the first Industrial Revolution, when we started revering machines. The goal of machines is to minimize downtime. But for the human operating system, downtime is not a bug, it’s a feature. Elite athletes know that recovery is part of peak performance. Downtime is a productivity multiplier.”

The most productive people use time management strategies and take breaks. What are small, concrete steps you can take to build more effective breaks into your day?

3. Four tips to improve productivity and job satisfaction

Here are 4 tips to maximize your productivity and job satisfaction.

1. Actively schedule breaks. For many people, the only way to consistently take breaks is to have them in your calendar. An optimal time to take a break is right before or during the afternoon slump. Three out of four desk workers said they’re typically working those hours, but just one out of those four consider those hours highly productive, according to the Slack report. Spread your breaks throughout the day — specifically, taking shorter breaks in the morning and longer breaks in the afternoon to help prevent burnout. 

One technique to try, recommended by the folks at The Decision Lab, is the Pomodoro Technique (I need slightly longer chunks but I use a similar method myself) >

2. Remember to schedule short breaks between meetings (and maybe less meetings!). Microsoft has found that, since 2020, workers in their sample have tripled the time they spent in meetings. And further Microsoft research shed light on the importance of taking breaks between meetings. One fascinating study that tracked people’s brain waves as they attended multiple hours of meetings – with and without breaks. What did they find? Back-to-back meetings are stressful, and so is transitioning between them.

3. Get your body moving. Going for a walk and getting a breath of fresh air can boost your well-being and reduce stress. Adding in just a few minutes of physical exercise, like strolling around the block or stretching your muscles out, can help you reap these benefits, too! Another hour sitting versus some movement can make a huge difference.

4. Take a real lunch break. While you may think that taking a full lunch break eats away at productivity, normalizing workplace lunches actually benefits everyone. A survey revealed that North American employees who take daily lunch breaks report higher engagement levels, improved job satisfaction, increased productivity, and a greater likelihood of recommending their workplace to others.

So take more breaks, seriously. And make sure your people are doing the same.

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