Supporting Mental Bandwidth: Break Culture in Workplaces
We all start the day with limited resources. When it comes to work, those resources include our time, our energy, and our attention. And, despite what hustle culture tells us, there’s a limit to how much we can accomplish each day.
We know there are costs to overextending ourselves at work, yet cases of burnout seem to be rising. In fact, the World Health Organization classified it as an “occupational phenomenon” in 2019, and this 2023 report by the American Family Life Assurance Company of Columbus found that 57% of respondents reported at least moderate burnout in their current jobs.
How can we prevent burnout? Let’s start by rethinking what it means to “take a break,” and how we can foster work environments that support them.
Photo by Karolina Grabowska (Source: Pexels)
Why We Need Breaks
We need to take breaks to restore our mental bandwidth. This need is a cognitive one, and universally human. Think of the brain as a complex machine that needs routine maintenance. One function that needs regular recharging is our brain’s capacity to focus on tasks that require effort, like reading this post.
The quality of our work, as well as our mood, can suffer when we deplete this attention store. Mental fatigue can manifest as feeling distracted, stressed, overwhelmed, irritable, or unmotivated. It’s best to take a break before we get too far down that path. When we push our brains to the limit too often or for too long, we experience negative health outcomes, like burnout. It’s an unpleasant wake-up call that affects not only the individual but also those around them.
We all play a role in fostering workplaces that support mental bandwidth, whether we are employers, leaders, or staff members. A big piece of this is creating a positive culture around taking breaks, like establishing social norms and benefits policies. It can also include designing physical spaces that support breaks.
Culture Shapes Our Attitudes
When we talk about “workplace culture” we mean the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors that make up some of the intangible parts of environments. We absorb both explicit and implicit messages within our workplaces that shape our individual perception of the culture, such as expectations about productivity, work ethic, and rest. On a macro scale, in the US and many other places, there is significant pressure to treat work as our highest priority.
Workplaces that measure success by hours logged and output often seem at odds with an environment that encourages taking breaks for mental restoration. It can be hard to break free of the mold of such an environment. Reflecting on my early career as an architect, the mantra “design is never finished,” comes to mind. Through my education and early career, I often convinced myself that I hadn’t accomplished enough to deserve a break. Often I thought: ‘If I take a break now, I won’t meet this deadline.’ Or ‘If I get up from my desk too often or for too long my supervisor will think I’m a slacker.’ Or ‘I’m new: I need to work extra hours and show that I belong here.’
Leaders Shape the Culture
One of the best ways that workplaces can foster a supportive culture toward breaks is for leaders to model them well. In Deloitte’s 2022 workplace wellbeing survey, they identified “leadership behaviors” as one of the three primary factors that impact wellbeing in the workplace.
Tim Allen, CEO of Ask Media Group, illustrates this weIl in a personal story he shared with the Harvard Business Review Later in his career, Tim realized that the way he prioritized work demands above his personal life had contributed to a workplace culture he didn’t actually support. He shares that the day his twins were born was one of the happiest of his life. Yet it coincided with one of his biggest regrets: joining a conference call as he entered the hospital.
It’s taken introspection and experience as both a father and a leader to admit a hard truth: By not taking all my paternity leave — and working while I should have been “off” — I was letting my sons down as their dad and my partner down as a co-parent. And, through my example as a leader, I was letting down the other parents at my company.
...the problem wasn’t my paternity benefits — my company had the right policies in place. The problem was the disconnect between written policy and actual culture. I was contributing to a norm that company comes first and being a dad comes second. When I took that call on the day of my sons’ birth, I was unwittingly sending a message to other dads at my office that they’d be stigmatized if they didn’t do the same.
Although this example deals more with rest and balancing life priorities, the core idea of modeling acceptable behavior is still there. In my own experience working in the design field, I saw leaders and coworkers model breaks and ‘work-life balance’ both in healthy and unhealthy ways. It was common for people to eat lunch at their desks or regularly work into the evening. Project managers would run out the door for a meeting and squeeze in an extra ‘walk and talk’ on the way, maximizing each minute. On the flip side, others went to lunch together or took group walks for a coffee, rallied the team to join office social gatherings, or went to the gym during lunch.
Individually, we have personal struggles, life goals, and responsibilities outside of our jobs that shape our attitudes and behaviors towards taking breaks. Personally, even when I worked in break-positive environments, I still had my own internal taskmaster nagging me. I would often decline lunch invitations because I worried about finishing projects on time. But, in retrospect, I can see now that instead of draining myself at my desk, accepting more invitations or taking a walk could have had a restorative effect and helped me work more effectively.
Amazon's campus near downtown Seattle. Photo by Rachel Schad.
Modeling Breaks
Some ways that leaders can model taking breaks is by leaving the workplace for lunch and encouraging others to do the same. They could also organize social events during work hours rather than afterhours, helping employees feel that their time is valued.
Additionally, leaders could have open discussions about break habits, encouraging employees to find what types of breaks are most restorative for them. Early-career staff, in particular, may need guidance and reassurance, as they are likely observing their colleagues to form their understanding of cultural norms.
After Tim Allen had his own epiphany and began to change his work habits, he recalls getting on a zoom call and seeing an employee who was meant to be on family vacation. "Instinctively, I told him, “I really appreciate your commitment, but you’re not supposed to be working right now. I’ll catch up with you when you’re back from spending time with your family.’… I wasn’t just talking to him. I was talking to everyone on that call, including myself."
The Importance of Advocacy
What can we do if we find ourselves in a work setting where breaks are not modeled from the top? Or worse, they are discouraged or looked down upon? That’s a tough place to be in and there isn’t one right way to navigate it.
But one thing we can do is advocate for breaks by helping others build a new mental model about them. We need to help reshape perceptions about breaks and demonstrate how they can benefit the entire organization, from improving productivity to boosting morale and retaining employees.
Another resource we can tap into is our network of coworkers. We can take a “team player” mindset and try to build a mutually supportive network where individuals help one another as their own workload ebbs and flows.
When people change their attitudes toward breaks, work cultures can evolve. Bill Gates gives us an encouraging example of his own perspective shift in his 2023 commencement speech to graduates at Northern Arizona University.
My last piece of advice is the one I could have used the most. It took me a long time to learn. And it is this: You are not a slacker if you cut yourself some slack.
When I was your age, I didn’t believe in vacations. I didn’t believe in weekends. I pushed everyone around me to work very long hours. In the early days of Microsoft, my office overlooked the parking lot—and I would keep track of who was leaving early and staying late.
But as I got older—and especially once I became a father—I realized there is more to life than work.
Don’t wait as long as I did to learn this lesson. Take time to nurture your relationships, to celebrate your successes, and to recover from your losses. Take a break when you need to. Take it easy on the people around you when they need it, too.
Restorative Breaks
This post focuses on understanding how workplace cultures either support or discourage breaks. Next, I would encourage you to explore our companion posts to learn about the best kinds of breaks to restore your focus!
