The majority of Australian knowledge-based employees feel that they are expected to work through Christmas holiday period, despite managers encouraging them to take time out, according to new research from digital HQ provider, Slack. Its findings reveal worryingly mixed messages from management about their expectations around time off during Christmas holiday period.

The study, “Holiday Season Survey”, of over 2,000 Australian office workers explores employees’ ability to switch off for the upcoming holiday season and the impact on workers and businesses.

Survey respondents reveal that the majority (84%) of managers say they will actively encourage employees to switch off during the holiday season, with a similar number (78%) being concerned that the pressure to be constantly available for work could lead to burnout among their employees. At the same time, 73% of Aussie bosses say there is at least some expectation for employees to be available over the holidays.

As a result, 67% of Aussie employees plan to be online during the festive season and 44% say they will be checking their work-related messages even when they have time off. These mixed messages mean that more Aussies are planning to take a ‘work-cation’ this year over the Christmas period potentially not getting the switch off time that they need. However, the survey highlights how those leaning into a flexible approach to work, supported by collaborative platforms are better placed to help staff unwind and stay productive.

Nicole Woodley, Country Manager, Australia and New Zealand, Slack said, “Many of us are still feeling the effects of the pandemic, and calendars are still being stacked full of meetings, meaning work is being pushed to early mornings and late into the night. People need a break and in today’s modern workplace, digital tools, like Slack, can help tame the overload by helping automate work and enabling better practices that managers can adopt.

“Executives need to lead by example when it comes to setting boundaries, and not respond to Slack messages and email, enabling workers to do the same when they take vacations, or even when we’re taking the kids to school. Otherwise, employees will likely vote with their feet and look for employers where they don’t just feel like a commodity, or move into quiet quitting mode, both of which have a clear impact on productivity.”

Medical practitioner and board-certified lifestyle medicine physician, Dr Jenny Brockis, said, “We know tired brains don’t think or operate well, which is why taking proper time off is a necessity not a nice to have, especially if we’re to get serious about reducing and preventing the modern workplace maladies of stress-related illness, physical illness including high blood pressure and heart disease, mental health challenges and burnout.

“As humans, we are more productive, more creative, and effective and let’s face it, nicer to be around when not struggling with overwork, chronic fatigue or stretched to beyond capacity, and this can only be achieved through having sufficient downtime to rest, relax, and restore. That’s why time off needs to be honoured, not diluted with justifications around needing to tie up loose ends, play catch up or to meet the expectation of others. It’s time to stop kidding ourselves that we don’t need a break over the holiday season. Everyone does.”

Naughty: Everyone wants to avoid burnout but nobody is doing enough to prevent it

Looking back to last Christmas, despite being off, over half of Aussie employees were contacted by their manager (52%), a colleague (55%) or a customer (52%) during their break. But who is to blame?

Despite good intentions, only one in four managers has no expectation of their employees to be available during their booked vacation and 7 in 10 managers (71%) of managers are expecting employees to check work-related messages during their holidays. The key reasons given for expecting staff availability are that customers expect it (64%), there are important tasks/projects that need driving forward (64%), that their employer expects it (62%) and that the manager themselves will be available and expects it (61%). 

While office workers did give similar answers to managers as to why they would be available, not all of the impetus comes from their employers. Over three quarters (78%) say that it is due to their own drive or that it is important to them personally to work, that they will be able to work with fewer distractions (75%), that they are saving their holiday allowance for a different time of the year (73%), they have too much work to do (69%), they find it hard to switch off (69%), they’ve used all of their holiday allowance (61%) or they feel guilty seeing others working (61%).

However, helping employees to establish clear boundaries is critical, especially as almost a third (30%) of employees says it takes them more than three days to switch off during the holidays.

Many colleagues are worried that the pressure of being constantly available will lead to burnout (56%), seeing  73% of supportive colleagues encouraging coworkers to switch off during the holidays.

Nice: Leaning into technology and flexibility reaps rewards

When it comes to looking for a new role, the survey also revealed that three quarters of Australian employees are prioritising digital infrastructure and vacation policies that allow them to work how and when they want over other factors.

According to the findings, 78% of Aussie employees believe having good digital infrastructure is key to balancing work and private life, with 77% saying that it makes it easier to show managers, co-workers and customers that they’re on holiday and not to be disturbed. Notifications and statuses are two reasons for this; the majority (65%) of employees plans to keep their notifications on, while 64% plan to use a status to set expectations about their availability to work.

The research also found differences between those employees with flexible working arrangements and full-time office workers – while about half (55%) of workers with a hybrid work model say they will be available to work, this number rises to nearly three quarters (72%) for those who normally work full time in the office. And more office-based workers (70%) plan to keep their notifications on compared to those with a flexible approach to work (53%).  Perhaps as a result, 61% of predominantly office-based workers shared that they are feeling more stressed about being available at all times, compared to those that work in a hybrid manner (46%).

Research Methodology

The survey was conducted among 2,001 office workers in Australia. The interviews were conducted by YouGov between 17th – 24th November, 2022, via an email with a link.

• Leadership and the war for talent (Australia, November 2022)
• Executives feel the strain of leading in the ‘new normal’Future Forum Pulse (Global, October 2022)
• Desire for flexibility intensifies among knowledge workers–and they’re willing to walk to get it Future Forum Pulse (Global, July 2022)
• The Reinvention of Work (Australia, October 2021)

Australia’s retail and hospitality businesses are set for their biggest Christmas on record, with shoppers expected to splurge nearly $64 billion over the pre-holiday period, according to a recent report by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA). 

While increased sales may bring relief to small business owners who have dealt with months of low Consumer Confidence and rising costs, the rise in foot traffic could bring with it more risk, warns small business expert Jane Mason.

“The holiday season is the busiest time of the year for many small businesses. As people flood through their doors, it’s easy for small business owners to become overwhelmed and miss critical risks – especially for those still dealing with chronic labour shortages,” says Mason.

While the labour crisis has impacted nearly every sector in Australia, shortages have been most acute in hospitality and retail, with each sector needing 102,000 and 46,000 workers, respectively.

As Christmas fast approaches, small business owners are left with a Catch-22 situation: they desperately need skilled workers to keep up with the anticipated demand, but the available pool could be a liability in the workplace.

“Untrained employees can be a drag on a small business at the best of times, affecting productivity and the safety of customers… but many don’t have a choice,” says Mason.

“While it may be tough right now, there is one thing you can do – ensure your business is protected from the risks it faces this festive season and the new year ahead.”

What are the risks?

Small business owners will have to contend with an influx of customers this holiday period.

For hospitality businesses, that means hosting Christmas parties, family get-togethers and end-of-year work functions, while retailers will need to prepare for hordes of customers picking out gifts.

Both situations, combined with untrained employees, invite the possibility of an increase in accidents.

Small business owners have a legal responsibility to ensure their staff and members of the public are safe.

“Imagine if a customer tripped over some new Christmas merchandise and was hurt in your store. Do you have a plan in place to protect your business from the consequences of that situation?” says Mason.

“Don’t let an unfortunate accident damage your business’ finances and reputation. Now is the time to ensure your Public Liability insurance is up to date.”

Australians are also increasingly jumping online for their Christmas shopping, with one-third indicating they bought gifts online last year, according to a Savvy survey.

The ARA is expecting a similar theme this Christmas, while Australia Post is ramping up its efforts after delivering a record 52 million parcels between Black Friday and Christmas Day last year.

Mason says If your business is sending out a large number of orders during Christmas time, you should also consider insurance for goods in transit.

“Loss or damage caused by collision, natural disaster, or theft in some defined events is typically included,” she says. “You can’t always prevent things from going wrong, but you can make sure you are covered.”

“Accidents are often an inevitable part of life and can still happen no matter how much you prepare for them,” says Mason. “Protect your business today to avoid potential pain later down the road.”

Australian milk price’s rapid rise – based on the national Consumer Price Index (CPI) data – with milk prices having risen at the fastest rate since records began, according to a new report by agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank. 

In its Global Dairy Quarterly Q4 2022 – Walking the Tightrope into 2023, Rabobank says while the Australian consumer has shown resilience in the face of cost-of-living pressures, signs of dairy demand weakness are emerging as a willingness and ability to spend on discretionary items softens.

“Households are trading down to private label offerings, with volume declines in grocery and foodservice channels being more evident – it looks set to be a tough year ahead for Australian consumers,” report co-author Michael Harvey, senior analyst for Dairy and Consumer Foods at Rabobank, said.

“For Australia’s dairy producers, farmgate margins remain positive and are supported by the record milk prices,” Mr Harvey said. “Average farmgate milk prices across Australia’s Southern Export regions range between AUD 9.50-10.00/kgMS.

“The high milk prices have mostly offset major cost headwinds – fertiliser, fuel and feed – for dairy farmers. While labour availability remains a major challenge for dairy farming businesses.”

Mr Harvey said Rabobank is not expecting further major lifts in milk prices as the season draws to a close.

Production

Rabobank is revising its milk production forecast downward for 2022/23, with the impact of production constraints, the result of flooding and excessive rainfall, becoming visible in the peak production months – October and November. The report said as of October, Australian milk production is down 6.6 per cent for the season to date, with widespread decreases across all states/regions.

“A wet summer is in play across much of eastern Australia– driven by the La Nina in the tropical Pacific Ocean and a negative Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD),” Mr Harvey said. “And many dairy production regions on Australia’s east coast have been dealing with excessive rainfall and flooding.

“There has been significant feed and fodder losses as a result of the rain and flooding – it is one of the key challenges faced by impacted farms. Some supply chain/logistics issues have been reported as a result of the wet weather – including some dumping of milk – but not to the point of having a material impact on milk processing,” he said.

Dairy farmers can look forward to access to plenty of supplementary feed in the months ahead. Rabobank is expecting a large winter wheat crop, with harvest now underway – albeit somewhat delayed by rain and flooding.

Exports

Australia’s dairy exports continue to grow despite falling milk supply. Mr Harvey said this is supported by improvements in global freight markets and normalising consumer behaviour – post COVID – across export markets in Asia.

“Australia’s total dairy export volumes (tonnage) were four per cent higher in the first two months of 2022/23 season. However, it was a mixed bag – liquid milk exports are running strong, but it has been a slow start for cheese and whey,” he said.

Global outlook

Weaker global dairy markets remain a key theme as 2022 comes to a close, the report says.  But there is clear divergence between regions and dairy products.

The Rabobank report says cheese and butter prices in the US and EU have performed the best, while Oceania Global Dairy Trade (GDT) powder and butter prices have been on the decline. Oceania skim milk powder (SMP) prices led the way, dropping 14 per cent on average from Q3 2022 end prices and plummeting 34 per cent since the peak in early Q2 2022.

The second half of 2022 has tested dairy’s affordability for importing countries. “China remains conspicuously quiet on the buying front compared to last year as it digests local inventories and imported stock,” the report said. “The US dollar lifted by six per cent on a broad dollar index basis at its peak during Q3, before eroding much of the gains by mid-November. Yet, weaker US dollar-priced dairy commodities have incentivised tier two and tier three buyers to return to the market, taking the opportunity to refill inventory pipelines as tourism returns and hospitality recovers.”

Rabobank expect the global milk supply ‘recession’ experienced for the past five consecutive quarters to end, with production having progressively declined over that period. “Q4 2022 brought another period of weather-disrupted production to Oceania. But traces of life from the global export engines are sprouting, driven by Europe and the US. Rabobank expects milk supply will gain modest momentum in 2023 from most regions apart from Australia” it said.

Milk production from the big seven dairy exporting regions – New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, EU, US and Australia – is anticipated to grow by one per cent year-on-year, enough to offset the 0.8 per cent decrease in 2022 and remain on par with 2021’s production, the report said.

Meanwhile, consumption growth in some export regions is becoming more challenging as consumers juggle significant price increases in the dairy cabinet. “Dairy demand in the US has remained defiant in the face of cost-of-living challenges, while European consumers are now feeling the pinch at the retail level. Some resilience in Southeast Asia is evident, but smaller sales volumes and downstream margin pressure illustrate the headwinds,” the report said.

Rabobank analysts say all eyes remain fixed on China, “Buying patterns will remain subdued across 1H 2023 if rolling lockdowns remain a feature, milk production continues to be set on growth mode, and consumption wavers as challenging economic conditions take hold. China is likely to re-enter markets in Q2 with a bigger presence from Q3 2023 onward,” the report said.

As we move into the silly season and plan our next holidays, many business owners are under increasing pressure to plan and prepare for the swath of people that rush to their businesses over the warmer months. To assist with this we will look at 5 strategies to be more profitable.

With the rise of discretional spending across the economy, more people are travelling domestically than ever before and have a record level of savings built up from the pandemic, and as such,  this year will no doubt be another busy year for Australian small businesses working in the hospitality, tourism and entertainment sectors as holidaymakers rush to cafes, drink at their local watering holes and try to entertain their kids.

Although this time can be extremely busy, the cash made during this period will typically fund the business year-round and is used to hire employees, maintain inventory and services, amp up marketing efforts and ensure there is enough cash in the bank to get them to the end and prepare for the following year. As a result, many seasonal businesses will fail to take advantage of the opportunity, being temporarily cash rich, but failing to grow due to a lack of consistent cash flow.

But what if it didn’t have to be this way?

Taking advantage of the opportunity on offer takes considered planning, preparation and awareness of the options available to each business. Here are a few things businesses can do to make the most of the silly season and ensure they’re growing their businesses to meet demand during peak periods.

Five strategies to be more profitable:

Understand and manage cashflow

As a business owner, you always need to understand and manage your cash flow and expenses, but this is especially important for seasonal businesses. Once you understand your offseason costs and fluctuations, look for ways to minimise or cut business expenses by restructuring working capital, streamlining accounts and financing the purchase of equipment that will be profitable to your business through loans. Every dollar saved in quieter periods can be used to invest in new equipment and staff that can help make the most of the opportunity in busier periods.

Ensure you have the right cashflow solution for your business to meet growing demand, purchase stock / inventory and hire new employees. As a starting point, look into invoice financing, working capital loans, trade and asset finance.

Use the quiet time to plan for the busy season

Using quieter periods to strategise for the year ahead is a key exercise that most business owners and management should partake in. You can start by evaluating the previous peak season data and surveying staff, seeing what improvements could be made to streamline service and product delivery such as planning for new upgrades, maintenance and new processes to improve efficiency.

Diversify income streams

When diversifying your income stream, you want to choose a venture that you can utilise using the same people and equipment you have for your core business, reducing overhead costs and making it easy to leverage your current customer base to market to. This will save you time and money when starting, which is important for cashflow. Additionally, look for ideas that offset off-seasons and build upon our current offering to better serve your customers to build a consistent and more reliable revenue stream. This will create new income sources to fuel the lulls throughout the off-season.

Plan staffing and employee training in advance for your busier periods

Business owners already have a plethora of tasks to do and sometimes delegating can be the hardest task of them all. Training staff is a crucial process to taking the stress off owners during busy periods and planning out these activities will make your business more autonomous during busy periods. This might include calculating the ideal number of customers to retain, adjusting the training process to meet new processes, ordering new equipment or investing in automation of tasks to reduce headcount which can quickly pay itself off within a matter of years. If taking this approach, start a week earlier as a trial run so you can smooth out new processes and maximise efficiencies.

Customer Relations

In slower times it is a great opportunity to maintain contact with your customers. Strengthening relationships with repeat customers can help ensure they return to your business using loyalty offerings, marketing activities to lure them in the off-season and targeting them during shoulder season or in the lead up to peak periods. It is also the perfect time to focus on prospective customers in preparation for your peak season.

So, if you’re a small business owner worried about the upcoming rush, use some of the tips above to plan out the next couple of months. It could be a profitable exercise!

Written by Rael Ross, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Butn

A lot has changed over the last few years–while gatherings were prohibited and remote work and office policies in flux, company holiday parties moved to the back burner. However, the Christmas Party is back and arguably, more important than ever.

With the shift to hybrid and remote work, the Corporate Christmas Party may be one of few opportunities to get the entire team together in person, and to celebrate twelve months’ worth of hard work. While it’s recommended to start planning early, Peerspace has compiled a Corporate Christmas Party guide to help the nominated party planners at every small business achieve a well organised and ‘morale-boosting’ celebration, even in you’re late to the planning party, so to speak.

Picking the perfect venue

Budget and location – which came first, the chicken or the egg? While it may seem best to pick a location close to the office, your best bet is to determine your budget first. Whether you’re working with $500 or $5,000, your budget is going to steer the ship for every element of your party, including venue, theme, decorations, and activities.

Once a budget is set, move on to selecting the venue. The location may not be everything, but the atmosphere is. The venue sets the stage for your event in a big way, and the Corporate Christmas Party is a great time to branch out from a standard, plain event space that merely meets expectations.

A unique space with dynamic lighting, structure or views helps create an extra special experience. Why not opt for more unexpected spaces such as a rooftop, creative loft, or a stunning home to delight guests?There are plenty of options to suit all budgets – they can also be rented by the hour, so you aren’t forking out for unused time.

After finding the perfect venue, be sure to check the venue policies to see whether it is suitable for medium-large scale events, food and drinks.

Incorporating a theme into the venue

White Christmas. Oh, Christmas tree. Favourite Christmas character. Ugliest Christmas jumper (or Christmas shirt, considering it’s the middle of summer for Australia).

While selecting a theme for a party can be an uphill battle with all of your colleagues weighing in, the holiday season is the perfect time to deck the halls with next level decorations.

A theme contributes to the entire appeal of the party and encourages colleagues to get into the holiday spirit, so starting with table décor and lighting is a budget-friendly approach. Be sure to see what the standard decor is on the space and look at any add-ons from the host, so you can create the look and style you want without blowing the budget.

Keeping employees engaged in the venue

Incorporating an activity into your Christmas party can be the perfect way to keep everyone engaged. Secret Santa is a great option to kick off the event and make sure everyone is included. 

Music is a must at any celebration, but you need to select the right music for the corporate Christmas party. Live music always evokes more energy, so consider hiring a local band and dance the night away to live music.

If hiring a venue with a bar, enjoy a fun cocktail hour with Christmas themed drinks! Make sure you have options for everyone’s preferences – sending out a team or company survey beforehand can help ensure you have options for everyone.

If you’re looking for a more relaxed gathering, look for a venue with large dining and seating areas. These spaces are ideal for sit-down conversations and casual dining, making your annual Secret Santa gift exchange a breeze!

No matter what you’re planning, be sure to check the venue’s guidelines, Peerspace’s social event policy and community guidelines, and share all of the details with the host to ensure your event is the right fit for their space.

Story By Zachary Hill, Marketing Manager at Peerspace

Epson has launched its new EH-TW6250 4K PRO-UHD home theatre projector with superior image quality and gaming capabilities. Ideal for film enthusiasts, sports fans and gamers looking for an immersive big screen experience, the new projector brings a range of high specifications and an excellent viewing experience.

Epson’s patented 4K PRO-UHD technology enables the TW6250 projector to produce incredible brightness, enhanced colour and superb image detail.

The smarts don’t stop there as the EH-TW6250’s dedicated 4K pixel-shift processor – Epson’s advanced pixel-shifting resolution-enhancement technology – results in an exceptional 4K¹ visual experience which, combined with its dedicated HDR processor and resulting full 10-bit HDR colour processing uses 100% of the HDR source information.

Boasting an advanced 3LCD projector design and true 3-chip technology the EH-TW6250 offers an amazing 2,800 lumens colour brightness³ and 2,800 lumens white brightness.

It also can project a huge image size of up to 500 inches on virtually any wall or screen so viewers and gamers can and will be fully immersed in their entertainment.

A low input lag under 20ms², high contrast ratio up to 35,000:1, and frame interpolation for smoother, sharper and more realistic action scenes combined with captivating sound from a built-in 10 W stereo speaker all truly heighten every type of TV, movie and gaming content.

 
A smart media player (SMP) is also included so you can watch your favourite content from a wide choice of apps and on the practical side, lens shift enables installation flexibility with a range of up to ±60% on the vertical axis.

The EH-TW6250 with its sleek new curved design at an affordable price means users can enjoy the latest movies, sporting events and gaming releases anywhere in the home making them ideal for film fanatics and gamers looking for resolution of up to 4K PRO-UHD picture quality.

For TV and movie viewers looking for a flexible easy to use solution which can be moved and gamers who want to take their gaming to a new immersive level or are even considering a replacement for a TV, the EH-TW6250 ticks all the boxes.

The EH-TW6250 is comes with a two-year projector warranty for peace of mind and is available now from Epson Australia (RRP AUD$2099) and all authorised Epson retailers and resellers.

Key features of the EH-TW6250 include:

· Amazing colour brightness³ – 2,800 lumens colour brightness and 2,800 lumens white brightness
· Large image size – project up to 500” on virtually any wall or screen and be fully immersed in your entertainment
· Dedicated 4K pixel-shift processor¹ – Epson’s advanced pixel-shifting resolution-enhancement technology results in an exceptional 4K visual experience
· Lens shift – lens shift enables installation flexibility with a range of up to ±60% on the vertical axis
· Low input lag – heighten your gaming experience with an input lag of under 20ms²
· Smart capabilities – a smart media player (SMP) is included so you can watch your favourite content from a wide choice of apps
· Detail enhancement – enhance standard definition content to make your entertainment come alive
· Frame interpolation – for smoother, sharper, and more realistic action scenes
· Captivating sound – a built-in 10 W stereo speaker for lifelike sound

Are you super stressed at work before holidays? Burnout and overwork can sometimes feel synonymous with the leadup to the holiday season time of year. But how can you (and your work) go about reducing this?

December arguably, should be the most wonderful time of the year.   

This is particularly true when you are lucky enough to live in Australia and the annual festivities of Christmas (as well as both the Gregorian and Orthodox New Year’s, Hanukkah and Lunar New Year later in January to name a few), line up with what is often stunning summer weather. (At least, when La Niña is not visiting Down Under.)  

Time off is vital for resting, recharging, gaining new inspirations and experiences, spending time with our friends and family and undertaking other activities that contribute to our overall wellness. Yet when it comes to watching that clock for your clock-off at work, it can sometimes feel like time is both speeding up and slowing for work that needs to be done to ‘cover’ the fact you are going on annual leave, to do so.  

Given that companies often ask employees to take annual leave over this time period, it can seem like an odd arrangement when the amount of hard work you feel you need to do sometimes feels like you need to ‘make up’ for this.  

Dr Andrew Dhaenens, Lecturer at UNSW Business School’s School of Management and Governance says this can sometimes be because of individual’s ‘drive’ to ‘finish up’ for the end of the year and celebrate that achievement.  

“End-of-year celebrations and similar rituals are reflective of that. In short, being able to shake off the events you would like to leave behind and celebrate what you have done well as a team.”  

“When workplaces have positive cultures, everyone understands the rhythms of the business and shares in the celebrations and challenges together,” explains Dr Dhaenens.  

But what happens when your to-do list at work is as long as your holiday shopping list, and the longer hours mean you feeling more burnt out than celebratory? Dr Dhaenens explains.  

What is holiday burnout and why do we experience it?  

The Black Dog Institute defines burnout as ‘a form of emotional exhaustion that can occur in response to persistent and unrelenting stress’.  

If you feel ‘exhausted, unable to concentrate and want to withdraw and disconnect from the world and those around you’ it could mean you are heading for burnout.  

According to Dr Dhaenens, while the holidays away from work is recognised as a valuable time to practice self-care, the lead-up can trigger people to experience these feelings of burn out. He says this is because, in part, people naturally compartmentalise our identities between ‘work’ and ‘life.’  

“The rush we put ourselves through before the holidays is our way of making sure that we have the space to rest, recharge, and detach” he explains.  

“People spend time on holidays working on their mental health with rest, relaxation, and reflection alongside their hobbies and travels, and they don’t want any leftover work to interfere with this.”  

Dr Dhaenens also points out that often work pace can match up with pace of the industry you have chosen to work in.   

“The reason behind these rushes is the nature of our work,” he says. “Different industries will have different deadlines and expectations around dates in the calendar. For education, it is around the school year, whereas for finance it might be separate fiscal year.”  

What should I do about holiday burnout?  

Dr Andrew Dhaenens says when it comes to solving the issue of feeling overworked in the lead-up to the ‘silly season,’ it is definitely a problem to be solved by both employees and managers working together to figure out clear goals and define end-of-year deadlines.  

“If you feel like your work rush is not sustainable, you should talk about expectations with your supervisors and co-workers in your developmental network,” he says.  

“Busy seasons and holidays are really a product of our relationships at work and our reactions to these can be impacted, improved or even worsened, by conversations with others.”   

As he explains, holidays provide natural distance to rest and recharge: “In closing off stretches of work, everyone is forced to determine which tasks are most important. Upon reflection, it may be a product of poor planning or limited resources. The relationships we maintain are key to our own support and success.”  

“Take the opportunity with holidays to sit down and have these conversations, about what you can and cannot do now and into the future,” he suggests.  

And it is not just for employees. If you are a manager, Dr Dhaenens also advises taking the opportunity to debrief, discuss non-negotiables and celebrate accomplishments with your team through social activities and more, in order to mitigate employee burnout during this time. 

How has hybrid work impacted holiday stress?  

With working from home and hybrid work set to continue for many of this, how will it continue to impact stress levels when we sabotage our own set boundaries? Many can relate to wanting to quickly check ‘just one work email,’ or respond to that notification, before disrupting our much-needed downtime.  

“When it comes to tools such as electronic calendars and IM platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, it does suggest limited options for conveying (and signalling) where we are and how we are working (or not).”  

“‘Busy’ does not always mean Busy,’ and ‘Out of Office’ is our only real signal that we are away on holidays or annual leave, as therapeutic as the ‘pink and plaid’ may be,” says Dr Dhaenens  

“While there has been lots of discussion around flexibility in workplaces, this can reflect a real issue as people work in different places at different times.”  

“Considering the “everything, everywhere, all at once” sort of year we have all had, it can be very tempting to fall back into work cycles. Yet, there is so much evidence on benefits of taking time away on our wellbeing.”  

But Dr Dhaenens – who has co-founded the Hybrid Work Leadership research and knowledge centre, which operates out of UNSW Business School – says balancing considerations around work arrangement preferences is an issue companies continue to be concerned with alongside turnover.  

It’s one of the reasons he and co-founder Professor Karin Sanders, UNSW Business School are continuing to work with industry to research the area, such as the impact of micromanagers on workers in a hybrid workplace.  

“Our ongoing research continues to show that your perceptions of wellbeing at work – for example how much support you think your manager is giving you, and how much learning and connection you feel is occurring, is a major factor in creating work-life balance and liking your workplace,” says Dr Dhaenens.  

“From the manager down, your team should know the rhythms of work, the rest and reward after the busy times needs to be there. Take the opportunity to connect and celebrate together.”  

“Remember, 2023 will be a challenging, but exciting year, as managers and organisations really think about who they are, and who they want to be for employees.”  

At the end of the day, you don’t always have to stick around  

“Work is obviously a big portion of our lives but is not everything,” says Dr Dhaenens.   

“If your workplace leader takes the time to know their reports, and their challenges, and work together to make their life better inside and outside work, everyone is going to get better results.”  

If not (and if you have the flexibility), it might be worth seeking employment elsewhere.   

“While it is important to balance the fact that sometimes you need to ‘do the tough work,’ not only to climb your career ladder, but to learn and grow, if the rewards are not there, it is simply not something that will be sustainable,” he says.   

“Sometimes you get through to the other side of the holidays, and it really is a dusting off with a ‘Phew! Glad it is done.’ Other times, it may be an ‘I’ll never do that again.’”  

“Because at the end of the day, taking time for annual leave gives us space to consider what is important. And sometimes, when you go on leave, that might mean you begin to reconsider if that environment is the right one for you to continue in.”  

Shared storage environments are critical to the successful operation of all modern-day education institutions. At the top of that tree are some of Australia’s oldest and most prestigious universities, including the University of Sydney and the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), both of whom use EditShare storage solutions supplied by Digistor.

The University of Sydney’s Manager, Media Production, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Strategy and Services, Tom Cavdarovski, explained, “Our media team has grown over the last few years and our postproduction workflow has changed to meet the growing demands. We use EditShare systems and find them particularly suitable for a growing production slate.”

UTS’ Client Computing Manager Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Simon Prowse, agreed saying, “The Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) runs courses in communications including journalism and production. These courses include sound production, film and animation. In the past FASS used a different shared storage solution but decided to move to a more open environment for production workflows. UTS has now been using an EditShare solution for around 9 years has recently acquired new EFS storage and FLOW licences for student off site usage for editing.”

For the University of Sydney, the requirements were centred around a secured, robust, 4K editing storage solution with Cavdarovski adding, “We have huge amounts of 4K data that needs to be accessed across multiple editors. Our content is captured on country with drones, C300 and DSLR cameras. We also produce multicamera live stream events, so having a post-production system workflow that integrates with creating pre-packaged content, is an important part of our workflow.”

In UTS’ case the university required a sizeable amount of storage capacity and bandwidth to handle up to 60 concurrent connections for editing from personal and group project spaces on the server.

Prowse said, “This time around we chose 10GB Ethernet with 20GB link aggregation to a 10GB switch. Since COVID there is more need for flexibility and a need for more students to work remotely. We also have students studying remotely overseas so the need for working from the server remotely was important. As most of the editing is done with Adobe, the Premier plugin was desirable.”

It’s clear for both universities that the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments are a vital part of their courses and day-to-day operations as Cavdarovski explained, “The EditShare system Digistor installed has RAID redundancy, integrates with existing university infrastructure and allows our editors to work in various 4K resolutions seamlessly.”

Prowse echoed this sentiment saying, “It’s a flexible arrangement for constantly changing circumstances. Openness and flexibility of the solution is important and EditShare meets this perfectly. Courses and requirements change and we can easily add capacity, bandwidth or capabilities with plugins.”

The University of Sydney uses a 98TB EFS 300 system with 8 clients PC connections. These are both Mac and Windows computers, all connected via 10Gb network ethernet connections and all editors are able to open Adobe Creative Cloud projects at any time.

EditShare’s cloud platform EditShare FLEX has evolved to a suite of turnkey, ready-to-go solutions for remote collaborative workflows and video editing in the cloud. Users of EditShare FLEX choose the modules they need – including edit in the cloud and multi-premises synchronisation – and implement them in their own cloud account. This gives users an easy opportunity to implement cloud solutions which education institutions often consider the best way to utilise a combination of on-premise and cloud storage and editing. 

There are many on premises and cloud solutions at UTS. They run an animation render farm for the faculty that is on server blades in the data centre and processing of jobs is distributed to around 300 lab computers. UTS also has an HPC environment as well an Isilon which is widely used across the university. The faculty EditShare EFS can backup to Isilon which represents a cost saving to leverage other products in the EditShare solution.

Workflows are obviously at the core of these solutions as Cavdarovski explained, “We have a mix of projects throughout the year, some are quick turnaround with a single producer and editor, while others are 12 months in post and up 50 individual videos with shared resources across multiple editors.”

Prowse added, “We keep our workflows reasonably basic. EditShare is the file server for students’ media work. The workflows involve group spaces for group projects and these have a set folder structure. Students also have personal scratch space with quotas. Class materials are in spaces accessible to students from either the lab and suite facilities or on their BYO devices accessible from home via the client and VPN or on campus.”
 
A UTS shared storage workflow may also involve students borrowing faculty sound, lighting and video equipment and doing a shoot. They will then upload content to EditShare via a lab or studio computer.

It’s clear that both Cavdarovski and Prowse are big fans of the EditShare solutions for education shared storage environments they purchase from Digistor as Cavdarovski highlighted, “We have used smaller storage solutions in the past, but found they are very limited and lacked performance beyond one or two concurrent users compared to the EditShare solution we now have. We really like the FLOW application that we purchased as part of the EditShare package. It allows the team of editors to log content easily, accurately and create proxies for working offline and working flexibly. FLOW helps to ensure that we can always store, retrieve and broadcast the appropriate content.”

Whilst Prowse said, “We feel that EditShare has a flexible and futureproofed product that is not proprietary or rigid. It’s modular so we are not paying for capabilities that we do not need now but have the option to add capability, licences or services going forward. Lots of storage capacity in the EditShare solution is important and being on premise, we can leverage the fast network for connections, transfers and backup.”

When asked to explain what edge using the EditShare solutions Digistor provided gives their university Tom Cavdarovski concluded, “The EditShare system enables our team to work more efficiently, reducing menial tasks and streamlining complex workflows. This frees the team up to work in more creative and innovative space, which in this industry, is a what customers and partners want from content producers. Our experience with Digistor has always been very professional, I have been purchasing postproduction systems for over 20 years and they understand how to work with clients who work in large complex organisations, like a university.”

Whilst Simon Prowse concluded, “We have had excellent experiences with both EditShare and Digistor. This is our third renewal of hardware over 9 years and the sales and project process has been smooth each time. Any support issues are dealt with promptly and professionally too. My IT team has to be across a huge amount of knowledge to effectively manage all of the moving parts in this complex university environment.  Hence, we need to rely on good support for specialised solutions, applications and facilities. Thus, the great confidence we have in Digistor and EditShare is a very important factor for us.”

The lead up to the Christmas break is a particularly challenging time for many employees, as they feel their bosses are pushing them to their limit in order to meet business targets and end-of-year financial goals. In what should be a happy and fun season, many people are getting Christmas burnout that is going into Christmas feeling more stressed, anxious, and burnt out than ever.

Michael Bunting, a globally renowned leadership expert, believes that greater authenticity and self-awareness can resolves this issue.

Michael says, “A huge part of this problem is ‘image management.’ Image management refers to the time we waste or things like denial, saving face or masking our weaknesses. All too often, image management stops people from speaking up when they feel overwhelmed at work, out of fear that they will be perceived as being unable to do their jobs. By developing our self-awareness, we’re able to let go of the self-defeating patterns that are holding us back, allowing us to become our most authentic self at work and learn to speak up when it’s necessary.”

Heading into this Christmas season, Michael encourages people to do these 5 things to ensure they’re not feeling burnt out:

5 ways to beat the Christmas burnout

1. Develop real self-awareness by letting go of any self-defeating patterns
2. Practice radical candour with your bosses and co-workers
3. Set healthy boundaries
4. Prioritise rest
5. Make your values a daily habit

Michael is also the author of Vertical Growth: How Self-Awareness Transforms Leaders and Organisations, published by Wiley.