I spent the last two weeks in Iceland with my family.
Back home, my team at Klaviyo was busy building return to work plans, creating new policies, working through promotion season, figuring out our back-to-work model, recruiting and hiring for over 100 open roles, and trying to build a truly best-in-class leadership and development program. In short, People Ops at Klaviyo is a busy place to work right now and it probably wasn’t the best time for the leader of the department to take a vacation. But I view my role as a Chief People Officer to set the tone for our organization. If I can’t take two weeks off, then who can? And if not now, when?
You’ve heard of the Great Resignation, where after a year of uncertainty during the pandemic, people are leaving employers in nearly every industry to find work that aligns with their need for flexibility or change. While many sectors are seeing wage sensitive workers leave to find better-paying careers, technology and healthcare are at the top of the list for burnout. Klaviyo’s a fast-paced tech company like so many others and I’m particularly sensitive to how vulnerable our workforce is to burnout due to the always-on nature of our work.
We’ve rolled out vacation minimums, implemented longer parental leave, added more company wide vacation days to the calendar, and introduced meeting-free days throughout every month. Every one of those benefits was put in place to ensure people are getting the time they need to rest, recharge, and really enjoy their loved ones. But those benefits are all just words on paper if our leadership team isn’t using them, too. So, I spent the last two weeks in Iceland with my family.
I came back to a lot more emails that I would have liked and a few important announcements to prioritize, but in reality, the world turned without me and my team made the decisions they needed to make while I hiked, photographed, ate, toured, and enjoyed the beautiful country of Iceland with the people I love most.
Where are you off to this year?