MINNEAPOLIS — Somehow, in the constant chaos of all of this, we are collectively not clocking out.
Working from home has meant, for many who are doing it, we just don't take a day off.
"I mean, we are exhausted," said Jamie Millard, an executive director for Pollen Midwest. "I got a really clear sense people were not taking their PTO, normally people go on summer vacations, doing trips and people weren't do that, so enough is enough, go connect to humanness, go get some sleep."
Millard told her staff of 10 it was time to go, and they all took a paid week off.
That was in June. And she did it again in July, and then again in August.
And if you are thinking, "Well, that must have affected the bottom line," you're right.
"Here's what I will say, this year alone we are going to take more time off than we have ever taken before almost three months of collective time off where people disconnect from work and we are going to produce more revenue than we have ever produced," Millard said.
Literally $1 million dollars more. On a year of record clocking out, they are raking it in. Ruby Oluoch is on Millard's staff at Pollen.
"Rest is a necessity," Oluoch said. "Its painful to understand that we are kind of at a point socially and culturally where our entire sort of understanding of our purpose and meaning on Earth is so closely linked to our productivity, and what we are able to accomplish in our work lives."
And it's not just Pollen.
Gloria Perez is the president of the Women's Foundation of Minnesota, and this summer, she too told her staff of 17 to clock out.
"Indeed I felt like that was revolutionary," Perez said. "As a group, we decided that while we will continue to advance the work that we had planned for the year that we would together take a week off to make sure that we are caring for ourselves."
Back at Pollen, this idea of collective rest isn't new. Millard says she's built it into the annual plan for years.
"It absolutely costs money," she said. "You have to prioritize it. It's prioritized in our budget. Sometimes in the past, we have paid temp staff to manage our operations so we can do two weeks at a time shut down."
And while her staff is small, she believes larger companies could do it, too.
"You can do it by department or teams," Millard said. "Its absolutely scalable and again if you prioritize it and put it in budget so you are compensating another group of people to be working while another group is taking that collective time off then it's scalable and possible."
Perhaps that is a way to look at work right now, and moving forward. Should we re-think it? Could we? I would to hear your thoughts on it anytime. Shoot me an email jshortal@kare11.com.