Question

 

Managers encourage your team to take time off. “I’m going nowhere fast.” This was the concern one of my clients recently. Her complaint wasn’t about working in quarantine per se, but about her frantic pace and static productivity. With the initial adrenaline rush of the crisis passed, vast numbers of my clients are reporting that they and their teams feel exhausted to the point of being useless, work demands are on the rise, and the time saved commuting has been converted to meetings that creep earlier into the day and fill the space between dinner and (a too-late) bedtime. It’s not just our commute times that have been co-opted but also our vacations. With nowhere to go and much to adjust to, most people have cancelled not only their travel reservations but their time off as well.

However, while the number of hours worked is soaring, people’s capacity to focus and

produce quality work is diving. Several of my clients — executives and managers, along with

their human resource partners — are increasingly seeking guidance on how to unplug and

recharge and encourage their employees to do the same. Companies are offering a range of

wellness options but also vary in their policies about taking time off, from “we trust you, take

care of what you need to” to “take some of your allotted vacation time” to “we need all hands

on deck right now and we can figure out time off later.”

Research shows the benefits of vacations to employee productivity and the economy — both

of which are currently under threat. Unused vacations have cost U.S. businesses $224 billion

a year. Project: Time Off’s new study found that 95% of people surveyed claimed that using

their paid time off was very important. And yet for the first time in recorded history, more

than half of Americans (55%) left vacation days unused, which equates to 658 million unused

vacation days. Take a moment for that number to set in. Imagine the impact those vacations

could have on the U.S. economy — on airlines, hotels, restaurants, attractions, and towns —

not to mention the impact it would have on individuals’ stress levels.

Remember, this is paid time off that is not being used. Let us ask you two questions to make

this idea come alive: Would you do your job for free? And do you take all your vacation days? If you say no to the first, you had better say yes to the second.

In truth, if you are not taking all your time off, you’re not working more — you’re volunteering your time. This is our favorite conclusion from the study: “By giving up this time off, Americans are effectively volunteering hundreds of millions of days of free work for their employers, which results in $61.4 billion in forfeited benefits.”

Working from home doesn’t mean working all the time. Ease the numbness induced with

back-to-back video calls and a long to-do list by reinventing vacations and time off, and

encouraging your team to do the same. As Limeade’s CEO Henry Albrecht stated in my survey,“Share the rules, show care, model the behaviors, and trust people to do the right thing.”

Question 4:

4) Can we use ethics to make to make better managerial decisions? In reference to the article

above, discuss two potential ethical approaches that we can adopt to make better

managerial decisions

Answer 1

4. Yes, we can use ethics to make our better managerial decisions.

Operating a business also requires morality in the decisions, especially when it comes to handling employees or the human resources.

So I think it can help make better decisions regarding the management of the organizations.

Referring to this article above, the two potential ethical approaches that we can adopt to make better managerial decisions can be the 'utilitarian approach' and the 'common good' approach.

Under the 'utilitarian approach,' manager would have to assess their actions in terms of the outcomes while considering all the benefits and costs to the individual level stakeholders.

The 'utilitarian approach' helps the manager to analyze and assess conditions from all the perspectives. The manager should then contemplate all such views to arrive at the solution that will favor the greater good and would be the most effective or beneficial.

In the above article also, the manager needs to take their decisions regarding the employees, while considering all the possible cost of decreased productivity and stress on the part of employees, and the benefits of reduced time off while coming to a solution.

When we talk about the 'common good' approach, it suggests making decisions and finding a solution that would benefit the whole community and be suitable for all.

Thus, the manager has to consider the interests and goods of all the stakeholders, especially employees in this article, while considering any solution for making any managerial decisions for their organization.

they should consider all the perspectives and interests at the time of formulation of their policies and structure their framework