Are your department employees tired, unfocused, and without motivation by the middle of the afternoon? Are their too many accidents in the lab? I have the perfect solution! Allow department employees to take breaks throughout the workday. In the following pages I will show why the brain needs downtime and how breaks allow employees to be more productive.
Why Breaks Should Be Given to Employees In the article “To Stay On Schedule, Take a Break,” a mental concentration is similar to a muscle, it will become fatigued after sustained use and needs rest before it can recover, according to John P. Trougakos, who is an assistant management professor at University of Toronto Scarborough and the Rotman School of Management (Korkki). In the same
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Yes, but not sure of the best way to structure them. There are many effective break patterns, I will share four specifically and how they can be effective.
Pomodoro Method
This method is common for employees who are busy. The employee sets a timer for 25 minutes, when the timer goes off, they take a 5-minute break. During they 5 minutes they may stretch, grab a drink, etc. After the employee has taken 4 Pomodoro sessions, the employee is encouraged to take a longer break of 30 minutes or so. Working in compact time periods, helps the employee get rid of distractions and focus on their work (Seiter).
90-Minute Work Blocks
Do the employees of Anatomy and Physiology need more than 25 minutes of continuous work with out a break? Maybe the 90-minute work block method would be more beneficial. In the 90-minute work block method, employees work continuously for 90 minutes, and then rest for 20 minutes between work blocks. This break method copies our sleeping cycles, discovered by William Dement and Nathan Kleitman. Dement and Kleitman discovered our sleeping cycles persist when we are awake. See Figure 2 – Waveform of Life for the illustration of our movement from higher to lower levels of alertness. Professor K. Anders Ericsson studied athletes, actors and chess players, he found the best performers practiced in focused in sessions 90 minutes or less. The 90-minute method allows employees to focus on longer tasks, but still have a break in between tasks
As I wearily sat in my seat, writing an essay on the importance of electricity in the modern world, I caught myself glancing repeatedly at the clock that was so carefully perched above the teacher’s desk. “Ten minutes, only ten more minutes left until school is over and I get to go home!” I told myself. In most schools, the average school day is about eight hours long. Eight hours of continuously sitting in a chair taking notes during lectures, doing classwork, projects, etc. During these eight hours of school, students deserve a short, outdoor break in which they can isolate themselves from the stress of working all day and just relax. Studies have shown that people who take short breaks throughout the day to do light, outdoor breaks are more productive than those who do not. A short, outdoor break will benefit students due to the fact that students will have time to relax; students will be able to focus more, concentrate, and be more productive; and teachers will have more time to prepare for the next class coming.
Inadequate rest which results in fatigue has major implications on the health and safety of registered nurses and can compromise patient care. Nurses often work three to four 12 hour shift a week without taking any breaks while on duty. They often have difficult workloads and challenges which can take a toll and impact patient care. I will be taking a look at nurse fatigue and the impact it has on the nurse’s wellbeing, work, and patient care.
Mentally there is a lot of preparation for a break. One’s mind must be able to conquer the fears...
at some point all employees will eventually need time off from work to deal with either a serious personal illness or other family obligations. “Many European nations took to the idea of making balancing family and work easier for employees but the movement did not gain momentum in the United States until the late 60s and 70s when working women were no longer the minority” (AAUW). There was a general shift in the nature of the common everyday american household and a two income household was slowly but surely becoming the new reality of american life.
In conclusion, this is why I believe that people are tired of doing the same stressful work consistently without any breaks. Of course you would have to work hard to achieve good things
In chapter two, Tirado says, “you have no legal right to take breaks in America” (p. 18). She was working like many other minimum wage jobs, in harsh and dangerous conditions because her employer did not care about her safety. I would feel worn out and concerned for my safety if I had to constantly worry about grease burns or heat strokes or whatever the case might
... other. Being able to take a break in a relaxing atmosphere will sustain productivity in the long run.
Well, to begin with us big kids need bigger and more breaks because little kids can hold more stuff in their brain for a longer period of time.
Many different types of workers are constantly connected to work. They work even when they are away from their jobs, often at nights, on weekends and on vacations,
Riddle , C. (2012, April 29). We need a brain break!” – incorporating physical activity breaks throughout
on my work enough. Even when I try my hardest to concentrate, my mind seems to
Sindelar,R., (2002) Recess: Is It Needed in the 21st Century? Available at: http://ecap.crc.illinois.edu/poptopics/recess.html, (accessed: 08/01/14)
Why, though, are breaks important from an educational standpoint? One reason is that they lightens students' stress loads. College is stressful enough with breaks; without them, students have no way to recuperate from the stress of classes. During Montana Tech's fall semester, there are over two months of straight classes that contain no breaks at all. During the spring semester, there are two more large gaps between breaks, one of which is also over two months long. Although weekends do help, these are often used for studying and homework and do little to ease the students' stress. Many students begin to dislike their classes because of the stress they cause, and as a result, some put less effort into their studying. Breaks allow students some time off from their classes to relax so that they can come back refreshed.
To begin with, the right amount of rest benefits people’s mental performances. Mark Rosekind of NASA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, conducted an experiment and stated that a pilot’s mental performance increased by 34% after a 26-minute nap; and a 45-minute nap had the same outcome but the effects lasted more than six hours (Pg. 3 Paragraph 14). Professor David F. Dinges and a group of researchers, from the University of Pennsylvania, discovered that even short naps reduce the amount of
Maynard, W., & Brogmus, G. (2006). Safer shift work through more effective scheduling. Occupational health and safety, 16.