Why Working During Your Leave is Selfish as a Humanitarian and International Development Leader

Have you ever considered that working during your leave might be doing more harm than good—not just to you, but to your team and the culture you’re trying to build?

In the demanding world of humanitarian and development work, leaders often feel pressure to stay connected, even on vacation. But what if this habit is silently undermining team morale, productivity, and the very culture of wellbeing you want to foster?

In this 10 minute episode you'll discover:

• How working during your leave can negatively impact your team and yourself.
• Learn how setting the right example as a leader can help create a thriving culture of wellbeing.
• How you have more power than you think in creating the culture you want to see

Press play now to uncover the surprising reasons why working on leave is selfish—and how you can lead by example to build a healthier, more balanced workplace.

WHAT IS YOUR LEADERSHIP STYLE? QUIZ

Want to know how to lead better? It starts by understanding your leadership style. To find out yours, take my free quiz “What Is Your Leadership Style” - you’ll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.  Just click on the link fill out your quiz and click submit.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

On today's episode discover why it's selfish to work while you're on your leave as a humanitarian and development leader.

Welcome to The Modern Humanitarian and Development Leader podcast, the podcast, helping humanitarian and development supervisors make a greater impact by taking control of your time, leading more inclusively and empowering your team all the while avoiding stress, burnout, and overwhelm. I'm your host, leadership coach and former aid worker, Torrey Peace.

Are you ready? Let's get started.

Hello, my aspiring modern humanitarian and development leader. I hope you're having a wonderful week. And in today's episode, you're going to discover why it's selfish to work while you're on your leave, what it takes to create a culture of wellbeing and your role as a leader in creating this culture. So let's get started.

So, first of all, a culture of wellbeing to me means one where everyone is thriving, both inside and outside of work. And that there's a healthy disconnect when we are not working. That we are not thinking about work, that we are not drawn to our phones or to our laptops to do work. And that we are able to fully focus and be present for the time outside of work.

And of course, in this case, I'm talking about leave or vacation time, which I know many of you are going to be taking in a few weeks.

Why is it selfish to work while you're on your leave? Well, I was thinking about this. Because I think a lot of us think that when we work when we're on our leave, that we're actually being helpful in some way. That we're helping our team to keep things going. That we're making sure nothing falls through the cracks. That we are doing our part to be a team player and keep things running while we're gone.

However, I think that what we don't often think about is the reason behind why many times we are doing those things. One is because we see our role as important and that we want to be important and that we want to contribute. Which is great that you want to contribute. However, when we are working while we are on our leave, when we are checking in with people and making sure things are going or whatever, we are also sending certain signals.

One is that we might not trust things are running effectively without our presence. Which to me is a kind of selfish point of view that we are so important or significant that we have to be there, or we have to check in to make sure things are running in order for them to be okay. And another reason that I think leaders check-in or work on their leave is because they see the same example being set a higher level.

So I remember, I like this example, I've given it before. But when I was in a certain country program where it was a danger post. And so we didn't have a whole lot to do outside of our work. However, there were things that you could find to do, like watching romcoms or, you know, hanging out at the river or whatever.

So I remember that one particular leader who happened to be very high up, a very senior leader in the office would always go to the office on Saturdays. And so everyone assumed that he was working for that full day. And he would spend the whole day there on Saturdays. And so we would all go to the office thinking that if he's there, he's setting this example, he also expects us to be there. But what I found out a few months into working there. Is that he wasn't working at all.

He was actually watching movies and listening to music because the internet was better in the office than where we lived on our compound. So that's just an example of how we can see the leader doing a certain thing, but it doesn't mean that we need to copy it or that even that they are doing the thing that we think they are, which in this case was working.

And the reason I think that, working on leave is also selfish in this sense is because we are setting a certain example. If our team members see that we are constantly checking in with them, that we are still working and sending emails and doing reports while we are on leave and this is avoidable. Then they are also going to feel that same pressure to do the same thing when they take their leave. And, I have a lot of leaders say, well, I always tell them that they don't have to follow my example, but it doesn't matter what you tell them.

It's what you do. They're going to follow what you do. And so these are some of the reasons that even though we think that we're trying to help and be a team player and support our team. And stepping in while we are on leave and just checking in or doing things. It can actually be something that is somewhat selfish and sense of our own self-importance and our role and things in the office that without us things won't keep going, but also being selfish because we're setting this example to others that they will need to do the same thing when they take their leave. And so they won't be able to fully disconnect.

And so if we are serious about creating a culture of wellbeing, that I think a modern humanitarian and development leader does is to model the example of the culture change that they want to create. So it doesn't matter what your role is, how high up you are in the organization.

Even if you supervise only one person you influence both yourself and the people that you oversee. And so you can do your small role in creating that change that you want to see in the culture. And when we talk about wellbeing, part of that is disconnecting while on vacation or while on leave. And this is also why it's so important. Because our role as a leader and changing culture is to do just that. Because we are part of the culture. We cannot wait for our organization to come and tell us and give us permission to not work while we are on leave. I promise that will probably never happen.

And so you just need to decide what type of leader do you want to be? What type of culture do you want to create? And by doing that, then setting the example for others to be able to do the same.

So the modern humanitarian and development leader understands that as leaders, no matter where we are in the organization, we have tremendous power. And that people are looking to us as examples. And when we go against the cultural norm, but we're creating what the organization says it wants, which is a culture change toward wellbeing by disconnecting from our work while we're on leave. No matter how big your team is walking your talk or taking the action and modeling that behavior can be very, very powerful. Do not underestimate your role.

Okay. Until next time, keep evolving. Bye for now.

Are you the type of leader that tells others what to do? Or do you let them figure it out for themselves? Understanding your leadership style is the first step to deciding what's working for you and what's not. To find out your leadership style, take my free quiz "what is your leadership style?" You'll immediately find out your default style, how it may be impacting your team, and a few practical ways to become an even better leader.

Just click on the link in the show notes, www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz fill out your quiz and click submit. So what are you waiting for? Go to www.aidforaidworkers.com/quiz and discover your leadership style now. Your team will thank you for it!