Break-Away or Break-Down!

As kids, me and my younger brother used to look forward to the evenings when we could have a match of cricket. We had a reasonably big courtyard in our old house and that used to transform into a cricket pitch as the sun became more sedate. And our father used to be one of our players. We used to tell him in the morning itself to be in back in time during the evening to be able to play with us and on most days then not he used to turn-up. We enjoyed having him because we could bowl him ‘out’ very easily and when he used to bowl we used to hit lusty ‘sixes’ (much to the annoyance of our neighbours). He was such a ‘useful’ player that way! And then we used to drag him into playing almost everything that we played – badminton, table-tennis etc. He actually got a carpenter to make a table-tennis table at home so that we didn’t have to play on the dining table. I think our father also enjoyed playing with us and despite the fact that he was a very devoted government employee, he always had time for us. I have never seen him suffer from any worry or stress and is the same happy-go-lucky man even today.


I do not think many of us can really dream of such breaks and quality time to just do anything today. All of us are busy and hardly find any time. No doubt stress-levels, blood pressures, heart-aliments hyper-tension have become common terminologies. Finding quality breaks away from work is so important to recharge the batteries. A new Swedish study has suggested that reducing work hours for exercise may increase employee’s productivity. The researchers Ulrica Von Thiele Schwarz and Henna Hasson of Karolinska Institute. Stockholm divided the employee in to three groups for their research. One group of employee participated in the mandatory exercise programme of 2.5 hours a week during regular work hours. The second group received the same reduction in work hours, but did not participate in an exercise programme. The third group worked regular hours with no exercise programme. The researchers found that employees assigned to the exercise programme showed significant increase in self-rated measures of productivity, felt more productive at work and a reduced rate of work absences due to illness. Their detailed findings are due to appear in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

There is another new trend catching-up in Sweden. Office-goers are heading to dance floors to unwind during their work breaks. More and more Lunch Beat Studios are coming-up and workers of all ages are flocking there during their lunch breaks to shake and jig a bit.

Others are letting their employees play a match of table tennis or a game of cards or may be jam-up some music between work-breaks.

The logic appears to be pretty simple - If you cannot shorten a long unending road, then plant more trees on the way. That will at least keep you sane and going. Engagement believes in sustainability. So break-away or break-down!