“Summertime… and the livin’ is easy”. So the famous song goes, but it’s not quite the reality for the majority of workers.
Though the warmer months are often associated with relaxation and vacation, summer is increasingly becoming a source of stress for many.
From covering for vacationing colleagues to juggling childcare responsibilities, these months can bring a host of challenges that push employees too far.
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According to Westfield Health’s Wellbeing Index, 57% of HR professionals observe colleagues experiencing burnout during the summer, and 41% say it affects productivity.
These are four common reasons why workers are feeling the heat.
Vacation coverage
While summer is traditionally a time for employees to take well-deserved breaks, those left holding down the fort feel the pressure.
With colleagues OOO, the remaining workforce often finds itself stretched thin, covering additional responsibilities, and struggling to complete their own role requirements.
This increased workload can lead to heightened stress levels, and a sense of being overwhelmed.
As projects pile up and deadlines loom, many workers find themselves longing for their own vacations – a respite that may still be weeks or months away, or not on the cards at all.
For certain roles, freelancers are enlisted to lighten the workload but sometimes managing new contributors is as much work as doing it yourself.
Childcare scrambling
For working parents, the end of the school year signals the beginning of a frantic race to secure childcare arrangements.
With schools closed for summer, parents are left to patch together a complex web of day camps, babysitters, and family favors to ensure their children are cared for while they continue to work.
This constant juggling act can be both emotionally and financially draining. Many parents feel guilty about leaving their children in care for long hours, while others struggle with the costs of summer childcare options too.
Battling the heat
As the climate crisis continues to push summer temperatures to new extremes, many workers find it increasingly difficult to cope with the heat.
Whether commuting in sweltering conditions, working in offices with inadequate air conditioning or suffering reduced sleep quality at night, the physical discomfort of extreme heat can significantly impact productivity, morale, and general health. And of course, those working outdoors face even greater risks.
Entertaining guests
The summer months often bring an influx of visitors and house guests, especially around key holidays like July 4th and Labor Day.
And while hosting friends and family is meant to be enjoyable, it also adds another ball to the juggling act that many workers are already struggling to maintain – especially if particular house guests aren’t exactly easy relationships.
Balancing work responsibilities with the need to entertain guests or manage a full house can leave employees feeling stretched thin, and unable to fully focus on either their personal or professional lives.
Summer supports
Recognising the toll that summer stress is having on their staff, progressive organizations are putting creative solutions into place to assist employees.
Some employers are tackling the childcare issue head-on by offering a range of family-friendly benefits. These may include on-site daycare facilities, subsidies for childcare expenses, discounts on summer camps, and transportation services to and from childcare and/or camps.
Companies with existing on-site daycare often organize summer programs for employees’ children too. Arts and crafts, day trips and sports activities provide novel and engaging experiences for kids, and help to ease some parental guilt.
Flexible scheduling is another solution offered by companies during the summer months.
This may include allowing employees to adjust their start and end times to accommodate childcare drop-offs and pick-ups, implementing a no-meetings policy during common pick-up hours for camps or daycare, and offering compressed workweeks or summer Fridays.
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Strategic workload management can address the stress caused by covering for vacationing colleagues too.
Whether it’s temporary reassignment of tasks to ensure more equitable distribution of work, the hiring of previous collaborators to cover gaps during peak vacation periods, or encouraging teams to plan vacations in a staggered manner to minimize disruption, there’s a whole host of practical steps employers can take.
And lastly, to aid employees struggling with rising temperatures, companies can upgrade office air conditioning systems, allow for more casual dress codes, and offer flexible work-from-home options on particularly hot days. The occasional treat of ice-cream is appreciated, but doesn’t exactly count as an extreme heat benefit.
Summer doesn’t have to be a season of stress. With the right support and strategies in place, it can be a time of balance, productivity, and even enjoyment for American workers. But if your organization hasn’t got the memo, and isn’t willing to consider some of the above accommodations, it could be time to look somewhere new.