Summer can often cause stress in the world of work.  It’s typically caused by the stress of fewer people working on any given day, thereby creating a crunch of work for those putting in the hours. For those traveling and unable to share work with another team member, it creates extra work before and after travel. Either situation is likely to cause irritation, frustration, and a heaviness in our feelings about work. But some of the struggle is a product of your mindset.

I wrote a prior article with some ideas for mitigating that heaviness and stress, and below I go a step further offering you ways to capitalize on the absences as well as some reasons to be joyful that some people are out of the office/not working. It is possible!

Reasons to be Joyful:

1. Fewer people in work mode means fewer emails, calls, texts, etc. distracting you from focused work. You may even get your work done more quickly!
2. The change in energy brought about when you are interacting with fewer or different staff members can be invigorating.
3. You have an opportunity to stretch and prove yourself and your value.

Ways to Capitalize on the Absences:

1. With fewer staff working, and hopefully fewer needs or complaints to address, you can step back and examine the big picture. Are goals still appropriate? Where is professional development needed?
2. This is an opportunity to evaluate the flow of work, identify bottlenecks, and uncover strengths and issues with productivity.
3. You can more clearly see where the strengths, and gaps, lie among your team when staff are stretched to perform in new roles or to otherwise bolster their efforts.

Summertime changes to workflow can be a cause for celebration, rather than concern. Shift your mindset and make the choice to embrace your opportunities!