Want the best results at work? Develop a rest ethic.
Steph Q, Unsplash
By: Rachel Zieleniec & Josh Feldman
Your rest ethic matters as much as your work ethic.
Similar to how a work ethic is an expression of an institution or individual’s values around work, a rest ethic can help a team or person have an orientation towards rest and its integration with the work.
Rest ethics can be defined in multiple ways. We love how authors Fitch and Frenzel describe it. In short, they share that if your work ethic is your “inhale” (making, executing, coordinating, managing, fulfilling), then your rest ethic is your “exhale” (recovery, ideation, fresh perspective, creativity). You can’t keep inhaling without ensuring you have enough time to exhale.
While individuals can develop their own rest ethics, which could help them decide the type of organization they work for, organizational rest ethics are just as critical to help find and retain those same individuals. Rest ethics are an important part of equity work, helping to define organizational culture and giving all team members consistent language and agency to help make their jobs and days feel sustainable. A rest ethic and its application allows for better results, stronger cultures and a workforce that hears back from its employer: “We care about you as a person. Our collective results will be stronger if you are healthy and well rested.”
Each of us needs different restful behavior (there are actually 7 types of rest), and developing an organization-wide rest ethic requires thoughtful approaches to integrating rest more proactively into the days and weeks. If done right, these healthy habits - big or small - lead to more innovation and a fresher, energized team. They are about harnessing the collective energy and creativity of an organization. Ultimately, rest ethics underpin organizational practices - they are how the organization lives out its values.
Take a moment and do a personal inventory of your most recent work week. What has it felt like around “the office”? At what speed are you and the people around you moving? Is there a sense of urgency, or more fluidity in the projects you’re working on? Have you been in back-to-back meetings, or has your week felt spacious? Think about these answers in relation to your organization’s values. Does your day-to-day feel aligned with these values, or possibly in competition with them?
For many of us (our team at R&R included!), when we do this kind of self-reflection, we see plenty of room for improvement. If you feel excited, unclear, or even confused by all of this, here are a few ways to get started on defining or redefining an individual and organizational rest ethic:
Ensure the inner game informs the outer game. Before you begin to think about your organization’s rest ethic, first turn inward to your own beliefs. This is a process you could start today without any stakeholders, buy-in, or approval - it’s just you exploring these powerful questions: 1) What are my core beliefs and needs around rest, recovery and how they each relate to my work life? 2) What are examples that I can point to in my last month that show that my organization/work life is either in alignment with my core beliefs/needs, disconnected, or both? 3) What is one action I want to take now to better align my core beliefs/needs with my day-to-day work life?
Develop a working group to articulate a rest ethic for your organization. If you determine your organization doesn’t have an explicit rest ethic (and you feel it could be helpful!), first build a coalition of the willing. Ideally, this group includes a senior manager who has decision-making responsibilities in the organization. Listen to your team, draw from HR and talent experts in the field (there’s so many), and then give yourself some time to articulate it in writing. Bonus points - reach out to three organizations and discuss their best practices for rest in their workplace.
Put your organizational rest ethic into practice - even if it’s just a pilot. Insert the written rest ethic alongside your organization’s vision, mission and goals. Develop principles to put that ethic into practice. For example, practices could look or sound like: all internal meetings are restricted to 45 minutes at their maximum; there is a reserved table in the break room for team members who do not want to talk about work over a meal; the weekly staff call is converted to a walking/wheeling update call a couple times a month; every individual who returns from personal time-off of at least three business days has at least a half-day upon return with zero meetings on their calendar.
Evaluate your organizational rest ethic by fielding feedback from your team. This does not have to be a survey (we have enough of those), but could it be chatting about it with your manager at your next 1:1? Could it be a walk-and-talk session that is open to anyone who is interested in sharing their feedback on the rest ethic? We encourage you to ensure the evaluation of something like this mirrors its intended goals.
There is no right or exact way for a rest ethic to manifest in the workplace, but a lack of one is likely contributing to a cycle of burnout and attrition. Both organizations and individuals can and should develop their own rest ethics - as living practices. Ideally, those two ethics will align in some capacity so individuals feel held and supported by the organizations, and organizations feel they have the right people in place to do the work at hand. By developing and applying a rest ethic across your entire organization, you will see improvement in morale, retention, recruitment, and results. It has the power to create a thriving workplace where everyone feels valued and worthy.
Josh is a master facilitator, coach and public speaker with 20+ years of experience building cohort communities, experience design and community building with other do-gooders. He is a creativity evangelist, dirt digging aspiring gardener and life long student to his three kids.
Rachel is a builder and a creator with 12+ years of nonprofit experience. She enjoys helping manifest great ideas - big and small - and bringing them to life. You can find her on long walks around her Atlanta neighborhood, sometimes with her family, other times with her dogs or a good podcast. Rachel gets energized by heart-opening yoga sessions, being outdoors in the sunshine, reading a really good book and traveling the world with those she loves.