The busy-ness of business
Friday 25th August — Blueprint discusses the importance of taking time away from the office to recharge, and why we need to embrace asking ourselves the big questions.
It’s the Friday before the August bank holiday weekend. Today, the office is empty and this week, the newspapers have struggled to fill their columns in the business sections. Everyone is on holiday, enjoying the sunshine and taking a much anticipated ‘pause’ from the relentless grind of city life.

For most however, it is very hard to fully ‘switch off’ and disengage from the office. Emails are still checked and sometimes, calls are still taken to discuss business issues. Many of us believe that this ‘50% off’ state will allow us to feel less stressed when we eventually return to our desks, but perhaps it is doing us more harm than good?
On Wednesday of this week, Blueprint recorded a podcast at the Tate Modern about why it is important to immerse yourself in art, culture, music and nature in order to feel more inspired and fulfilled in your day job (the podcast will be released in a few weeks as part of our #FulfilmentAtWork series — keep your eyes out for it). Ruth Dobson, one of the guests on the podcast, discussed how the natural world moves in cycles of energy. Animals hibernate in the winter, plants and flora explode in the spring. There are periods when these organisms flower and flourish, and other periods in the year when they retreat in order to regenerate.
Humans have pulled ourselves out of these natural cycles. The professional world is a relentless one. Everything is go, go, go; more, more, more; now, now, now. Even when we attempt to go on holiday, we cannot fully extricate ourselves from the travellator, for fear of being judged by our colleagues who might think we are not committed enough if we actually were to ‘stop’. Perhaps sometimes though, the fear is a bigger, more underlying concern: if I were to stop and reflect, would I realise that there’s actually no point to what I’m doing?
Those big existential questions are a bit scary. Some of us might actively choose to avoid giving ourselves the time to even contemplate them, for fear of realising that we’re unhappy or unfulfilled or un-purposeful.
The UK is experiencing a productivity crisis. Blueprint believes that it’s not due to our lack of presentee-ism; in fact, anything but. Our productivity crisis is a result of people lacking purpose. We’re all sitting at our desks for longer and longer, but we’re not enthused or engaged by what we’re doing. We don’t understand how our efforts are contributing towards the company’s success, or helping to make the world a better place to be.
Taking some real time away from our desks, switching off our emails, taking time to reflect and rejuvenate is really important. Not only will it allow us to feel more refreshed upon our return, (having restored our energy through hibernation or exhilaration); but it will have given us the headspace to think differently. To think about whether what we’re doing actually IS important in the grand scheme of things, or if we’re just getting wrapped up and stressed out in our own little echo chambers.
Asking ourselves profound questions shouldn’t be something we shy away from: it can help to remind us that there is a world outside of the bubble of big business. If we start acting like there is such, then creating organisations which genuinely serve society might not be such a big ask after all.
