Why We Take a Holiday Break

We take a break between Christmas and New Year. If you want to know more about the reasons behind it, check this out.

Since the start of The Good we’ve always shut the business down between Christmas and New Year.

Back then, it was done out of necessity: we were a smaller team, we were always “on”, and we quickly found that the only way to fully shut down our always working minds was to shut down the entire office for a break.

I’ll admit that the first couple of years I personally felt guilty about taking the time. But as The Good grew, we found that this time off was ultra helpful for our growing team and for our clients.

It’s Medicine

Forcing the team to take a week off cold turkey – no email, no phone calls, no client interactions outside of true emergencies – forces them to take a break they otherwise would have not.

Harvard Business Review calls this “predictable time off” and states how a yearly holiday can reduce the risk of heart attack by 30% in men and up to a massive 50% in women.

It is no surprise the devastating impact chronic overwork has on productivity, health and happiness. Research even links overwork to depression and cardiovascular problems. We believe that, as our client Marie Forleo says, “time off is medicine, because a healthy, happy team makes for a healthy, happy company.”

If you are in a position to grant predictable time off to your team, consider what you and your team would do with a forced week out of the office. How would you feel the following week? I encourage you to see the benefits of our team taking the week off: we’ll be back shortly, super refreshed and bursting with energy, inspiration and creativity.

And even while we’re out, progress is still being made. We keep our data collection running all the time – while we are asleep, or out for holiday break. So all our client’s user experience and multivariate testing is still running, collecting data for our team to parse through upon return. This means we’ll deliver fresh updates to you soon!

– Jon MacDonald
Founder & President