AcuRite and our parent company (The Primex Family of Companies) offices will officially be closed Tuesday, Dec. 24, 2019, through Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2020. During this time, we encourage all of our employees to unplug and log off entirely.
Closing our offices and giving our employees those days to focus on their personal lives and needs embodies our core values, specifically around work-life balance. Our employees are our No. 1 asset, and we believe we should work to live, not live to work.
We realize this mentality doesn’t align with the workplace culture of many other businesses, where employees are given time off but aren’t encouraged to use it. In fact, we are very much the exception. Last year’s “State of the American Vacation,” an annual survey of U.S. workers conducted by Project: Time Off, found two-thirds of employees said they don’t get much communication about using their vacation time from their companies. In an interview with the Society for Human Resource Management, Senior Director and Lead Researcher for Project: Time Off said, “That silence creates a vacuum, and we fill that vacuum with our anxieties and assumptions about what our bosses and colleagues could think about our vacation time.”
At Primex, we believe an initiative like closing over the holidays communicates loud and clear just how much we value our employees taking personal time. And these initiatives render major benefits for our company and all of the individuals who make up Primex.
In a piece for Psychology Today, Dr. Emma Seppala, the science director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, wrote, “Ironically, while Americans may pride themselves on their hard work and dedication, research suggests that we will actually work harder, perform better, and have greater health, stamina, and enthusiasm for our work if we take time off.”
We could cite many other researchers and studies. The science is there. But, of course, the decision to close our offices isn’t just about productivity: We know our employees work hard year-round. We also know they’re more than their function and responsibilities. We hope this extended, company-wide closure over the holidays gives them time to be with their loved ones, do activities they enjoy, relax, and ultimately start 2020 off on a great note.
Happy holidays from the Primex Family of Companies!
To read more about the Primex Family of Companies’ values, visit our website: thepfoc.com.