Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Welcome to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. Each week we talk about heart rate variability and how it can be used to improve your overall health and wellness. Please consider the information in this podcast for your informational use and not medical advice. Please see your medical provider to apply any of the strategies outlined in this episode. Heart Rate Variability podcast is a production of optimal L L C and optimal HR-v. Check us out at optimal hr-v dot com. Please enjoy the show.
Speaker 1 00:00:32 Welcome to the Heart Rate Variability podcast. I am Matt here just for a quick introduction of chapter four in the series that we're doing, covering the book, the Heartbeat of Business. Um, so, uh, we are several episodes in, uh, obviously hitting chapter four. So if you're new to the podcast, welcome. Uh, we have labeled these, uh, just by episodes, so I would highly encourage you go back to episode one of the series, uh, catch up. Uh, you'll really feel like you're jumping in a little bit mainstream here. Um, uh, so, uh, for those of you who have been going through this series with us, I thank you for taking this journey with us. Uh, chapter four, we really talk about addressing distress inherent to work. How do we structure jobs? How do we approach work in a way that helps to minimize stress and improve heart rate variability?
Speaker 1 00:01:23 Uh, some of the things that we've done historically have been miserable failures, uh, leading to burnout and lower, uh, you know, job outcomes. And so we really wanna take a look about how do we structure the work in ways that are shown to reduce the distress inherent to the work. There's just some things that if we get it right from the start, it's gonna be much easier to get into engagement and avoid burnout. If we structure them wrong, then we set folks up, teammates, the people we supervise to experience more distress, which makes the likelihood for burnout more. And as we talked about with the job demands and resources model, more likely to lead to declining health and then lower outcomes. So we wanna look at this discussion today, look at some really concrete things about how we can look at the work, uh, how we can look at, uh, how we structure jobs, how we hire for jobs, how we evaluate jobs that we know help to minimize that distress. So I hope you enjoy chapter four. Again, we're gonna be back next week, uh, with Ina and Dave to talk about this process, this, uh, and, uh, hope you enjoy, uh, this episode. If you're li watching me on YouTube right now, just a thing obviously in audiobook, not a great visual. Uh, so just sit back, relax. Uh, hopefully, uh, you'll enjoy a good listen, so I'll talk to you soon. See you next week.
Speaker 2 00:02:53 Chapter four approaches to minimize distress from job demands. The battle against burnout starts with strategies to limit the distress resulting from job demands, how leaders set up people's jobs and the work environment will determine the impact of distress on people and their performance. In this chapter, we will begin with a set of crucial strategies that set people up for success. If leaders effectively manage job demands, they elicit eustress and motivation, which promote engagement and positive outcomes. Those who fail to address the distress from job demands and burnout will decrease H R V and people will lack the energy to focus on positive results. This chapter will also examine basic work strategies that if mismanaged result in higher rates of burnout. Minimizing distress by effectively structuring work in the work environment allows the leader to focus more energy on promoting engagement and less on offsetting the frustration when the work environment becomes a source of distress and burnout. Effective management of the job demands should manifest in higher H R V scores. These strategies help eliminate some distress from going into the person's cup, provide energy for tasks that improve outcomes and keep people in their window of tolerance.
Speaker 2 00:04:18 Shared expectations when creating shared expectations. The crucial question for leaders is, do people know how to work and what activities will produce desired business outcomes? Research shows that most people cannot state their job expectations, nor do they ask for clarification. The vast majority of people exist in a state of ambiguity with everyone trying to figure out their jobs in isolation. Absent any proper direction, many leaders and human resource professionals fall back on the job description to prove they established shared expectations. However, the final bullet point on most job descriptions reads something like all other duties assigned. In other words, pretty much any task the leader asks them to do is technically part of their job description as long as job descriptions include this last bullet point. Leaders must realize that these descriptions fail to provide clear and concrete guidance. The excellent news about shared expectations is that they are easy to test.
Speaker 2 00:05:26 Ask people, what do you think I expect from you in your job? We encourage leaders to share the research findings just described and ensure the question comes from curiosity and the desire to correct any conflicts due to lack of communication. On the business's side, this task is not just to identify the discrepancy. It is to create an opportunity to get on the same page. Shared expectations help people feel safe and keep them in their ventral, vagal, and prefrontal cortex. Distress levels decrease when people use shared experiences to guide their behavior, problem solving and decision making. If expectations constantly shift without clarification, it robs them of a sense of confidence and conviction. As any decision could get questioned by leadership. This lack of confidence often leads to inaction or hesitation as the person searches for the safest action that will minimize that chance of getting punished.
Speaker 2 00:06:24 When expectations fail to adapt to changes in the environment, it disrupts homeostasis and increases allostatic load, and people expend energy to figure out these shifting expectations instead of performing at their best. This struggle leads to irritation, anger, frustration, depression, despair, and even a decline. In physical health. The mix of confusion and frustration leads to more mistakes in accidents and lower performance. Leaders who set clear expectations get enormous payoffs for their work. People know where to focus their energy and become more productive while turnover and accidents decrease. Creativity also increases when people focus on critical tasks. It improves the level of creativity given to those tasks by helping people narrow their focus. Leaders free up energy and creativity. When it comes to expectation. In H R V, the vital thing to remember is that a clear set of expectations limits distress, and improves focus. Shared expectations do not mean that a job is not dynamic and will not change over time. The leadership task is to ensure the expectations around the changing job are communicated and understood.
Speaker 2 00:07:44 Fit FIT entails finding people with the skills, talents, and motivation to thrive within a job's shared expectations. In his study of transformative leaders, Jim Collins found that executives who ignited the transformations from good to great first got the right people into positions where their skills and talents set them up for success. They also removed or reassigned people who were not in roles that matched their passion and talents. Only with the right people on board did they collectively figure out a shared vision for the future. It might seem counterintuitive to focus on people first and not the destination because one might logically assume that an exciting vision would attract the right people. However, these transformational leaders found that focusing on fit first gave the business the energy for the journey toward excellence. People who enjoy and feel confident in their jobs create their own motivation and focus, freeing up the leader's time and attention to focus this energy toward activities that lead to engagement and maximizing outcomes.
Speaker 2 00:08:52 On the other hand, accomplishing great things with people who do not possess the traits to succeed at their work is nearly impossible. Positive outcomes are more dependent on having excellent people than on any other single factor. A good leader can easily lead the right people to a great future, but even the best leaders in the world will not get far with a business populated with people who do not possess a good fit with their jobs. Unfortunately, according to Roth and Harder, only 20% of people strongly stated that they liked what they do each day. It is hard to engage people in work that does not bring them some level of joy and satisfaction. No one loves everything about all their job duties. However, if someone dislikes their job, their motivation will lag and distress will likely quickly lead to burnout. Putting people in positions that engage their cognitive interest and ignite their passion creates resiliency against distress and burnout and improves performance.
Speaker 2 00:09:54 As we saw in the J D R model and we'll cover in detail later, engagement is crucial to positive outcomes. Getting people in the right positions increases engagement by 33%. As engagement increases, leaders start to see positive trends from fit. Studies show that sales increase by 15% and profits by 20% absences decrease 24%, which indicates a healthier workforce. Turnover rates drop as low as 13%. What happens when the leader identifies that someone is in the wrong position in the business? Maybe they do not have the passion necessary to move toward excellence or give everything they have so the quality of their work cannot keep up with rising expectations regardless of the underlying reason. At some point in time, every leader confronts the fact that one or more of their people are not a good match for the seat they occupy. Research demonstrates that the effort of a group is disproportionately affected by low performers.
Speaker 2 00:10:59 Let's use a scale of one to 10, where 10 is the best employee and one is the worst employee ever. If on a team of six people, five of them rank at an eight on performance and one is a five, instead of the high performers pulling the low performer up, the one low performer will pull the eights down. Few things Ill elicit more distress and frustration. Then when someone feels they experience unfair treatment, the eights will start to see that they are working harder without more pay or recognition and will lower their performance to regain a sense of equity with their lower performing coworker. The eights might not end up at a five, but they will slowly lower to a seven and probably even a six. Leaders have a formidable responsibility because poor performers do not only deliver poor performance, they also lower the collective outcomes of their coworkers.
Speaker 2 00:11:55 There is one more piece of bad news about low performers. Let's say the five does everything they can to meet expectations, shows up early, leaves late, and works weekends if necessary to meet all their job expectations. Despite all this effort, their work is still inferior compared to their teammates. In this scenario, the coworkers will struggle less with fairness, but their performance will still decrease. It probably won't go all the way down to a six, but it will likely still decrease down to a seven and stay there. Poor performers, whether due to ability or effort function like a computer virus and a team's dynamics, they slow things down. Operations do not run as smoothly, and if left unaddressed, they negatively impact the business's outcomes. Underperformers hurt businesses and teams by increasing the distress level of those around them. This distress decreases efficiency and effectiveness in the team, costs the business money and makes mistakes that expose the business to a range of risks.
Speaker 2 00:13:01 While fit entails hiring, training, and retraining great people, it also means relocating or removing those who cannot meet shared expectations. While removing people from their positions is difficult, there are often win-win options if the leader is creative and treats people with dignity and respect. Here are some key things to consider when thinking about fit. First, the leader should open an honest dialogue about their perceptions of their performance. Second, the leader should realize that the person might be suitable for the business but wrong for their position. Just because they struggle in one place does not mean they will not thrive in another. If this is not the case or an option, the leader can discuss what job outside the business interests them and how the leader could support them in moving into a position where they can succeed. A final word about the challenges of fit. FIT does not excuse leaders and businesses from a focus on diversity. A diverse range of backgrounds, races, sexual orientations, gender identities and neurological talents will increase the strength of the business and its culture. People of diverse backgrounds and experiences bring unique skills, talents, and motivations to the job.
Speaker 2 00:14:23 Hyper efficiency sprints, the brain operates similarly to a muscle. The more a person works it, the stronger it gets. However, like a muscle, it also needs rest and recovery or it becomes weaker and less effective. Think of someone doing bicep curls with weights at the gym. They start strong for the first several reps, but the last few reps become more of a struggle. The brain is the same way and requires similar rest and recovery to function at its best if not allowed to recover. The brain tires and H R V plummets Hyper efficiency Sprints can set up a work environment that uses neurobiology and H R V to maximize performance and quality. The first component of hyper efficiency sprints challenges leaders to support a workflow that breaks up work into sprints and rest. The brain can only operate at its maximum effectiveness for 120 minutes.
Speaker 2 00:15:24 Setting up a healthy and high performing workplace challenges every leader to structure the workday around the 120 rule of hyper efficiency. When someone does not take a break, it is like skipping the rest between sets of curls, the person will fail to perform at their best and experience a crash in performance and productivity. This fatigue results in dramatic, decreases in creativity and cognitive flexibility and leads to more accidents, mistakes and inefficiency. Research in this area supports the traditional manufacturing schedule as ideal for neurobiology, work two hours, take a 15 minute break, work another two hours, take a more extended lunch break, work two hours, take a 15 minute break. Work two more hours and end the day for those working all to typical nine, 10, or even longer hour days. Extending this pattern of hyper efficiency sprints helps maintain high HR-V scores throughout these longer days.
Speaker 2 00:16:28 Take two people. One does not take any breaks and answers emails all through lunch. Another takes breaks throughout the day paying attention to the 120 minute rule. They're both at their workplace. From 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM the person taking breaks will get more work done. Also, the quality of their work will be much higher than the person with a tired brain who didn't take any breaks. Recent studies showed that longer breaks such as 60 minute lunch breaks help H R V scores recover to pre-work levels. That is right. Supporting an extended break during the day provides a significant recovery from distress and creates an ideal state to maximize performance for the rest of the day. Let's use the cup analogy to apply the H R V Research to work structure. Someone starts the workday with a moderate allostatic load in their cup and well within their window of tolerance.
Speaker 2 00:17:28 On the typical day of any job distress increases throughout the morning and their cup fills a break. After a two hour hyper efficiency sprint allows a pause in the rising distress. A short HR-V biofeedback training session or a walk around the block helps get some of the distress out of the cup and lowers allostatic load. The first break helps set the person up for another two hour hyper efficiency sprint. After their second sprint, they take a 60 minute lunch break, which would ideally include healthy food selections discussed in later chapters. The leader should also support additional short wellness strategies over the lunch break. These might involve connecting socially with peers, walking outside, getting a quick workout, and practicing some H R V biofeedback or mindfulness. A healthy lunch break will help the person disconnect from work distress and recover from the first part of their day.
Speaker 2 00:18:24 As H R V recovers, they possess the capacity for two more work sprints in the afternoon with a short break in between. An effective break requires the person to change their energy for a period of time, so if their work requires time at a computer, their break needs to be something other than checking social media or personal email. On the other hand, if their work is highly social, a quiet moment of solitude and some mindful breathing can help reset their energy. The key here is to do something different. H R V helps leaders support people in finding the correct type of break. When people take H R V readings before and after work, they can track changes in H R V scores as they implement different strategies on their breaks. Taking readings throughout the day quantifies the positive benefits of longer lunch breaks and shorter breaks.
Speaker 2 00:19:18 Pre and post break readings can further help identify the best strategies for the specific individual. The second component of hyper efficiency sprints challenges people to maintain a type of focus that creates states that bring out their cognitive potential. The brain functions best when focusing on one thing at a time. To maximize productivity and outcomes, leaders need to create environments that minimize distractions and allow people to focus and get work done during their hyper efficiency sprints. Every time someone changes focus to another task, they activate different brain structures needed to succeed. On the second task. This act of shifting attention takes a great deal of energy. Then when they move back to the original task, they use more energy to refocus. Studies show that interrupting a person's work reduces H R V and lowers their cognitive ability by 10 IQ points, which is equal to the psychological and cognitive effects of missing a night's sleep.
Speaker 2 00:20:20 Studies demonstrate that the average worker focuses on a task for only 11 minutes before getting interrupted by a distraction. It then takes the person 25 minutes to return to this task. Over a day, distractions eat up an average of 2.1 hours. Constant distractions build allostatic, load, and increase activation of the sympathetic nervous system. In response, heart rate increases and H R V drops reflecting a decrease in the executive function that most people need to perform at their best. While distractions are a natural part of most work environments, many people strategically increase the distractions with multitasking thinking it improves their performance. Multitasking is a burnout monster. It drains people's energy, lowers H R V and increases distress. The human brain is not actually capable of effectively multitasking without a crash and quality and efficiency. It can only focus on one cognitive activity at a time. What appears to be multitasking is actually the brain switching from one activity to the other.
Speaker 2 00:21:30 People who consider themselves good multitaskers have brains that make this switch quickly, making it seem as if two activities are happening at the same time. In reality, the brain just keeps switching back and forth. People who are not good multitaskers have brains that are slower in making the switch, creating a more obvious lag. The switching back and forth between different activities and constantly refocusing on the main one significantly drains the available resources. People feel more tired and end up being much less effective in their work when trying to multitask. The myth that multitasking improves productivity perpetuates popular thinking with technology that ensures the need for it. Email and social media notifications, instant messages, phone calls, and numerous other distractions. In modern work environments destroy productivity and increase distress and burnout. Leaders must warn people about the dangers of multitasking and fight the misinformation that increases productivity.
Speaker 2 00:22:32 This includes nurturing a work environment that discourages multitasking, does not expect instant answers on various message platforms and helps people identify and minimize distractions. Setting team rules and shared expectations about distractions will help everyone get on the same page. Here are some options to consider set up ways for people to signal that they are in a hyper-efficient sprint and should not be disturbed. Barring an emergency, this signal might be a closed office door and a do not disturb sign in, an open or cubicle setting, noise canceling headphones, earplugs, and a do not disturb sign can be helpful when appropriate. Encourage employees to minimize sources of distraction during their focused activity times, including silencing phones, email, and message notifications. Setting up this behavior as a shared expectation will help employees follow through. Encourage employees to set up dedicated times for answering emails and messages and returning phone calls.
Speaker 2 00:23:37 This way, employees will be able to attend to important communication without compromising time and hyper-efficient sprints Strategically setting aside communication time before and after breaks or hyper-efficient sprints helps people shift energy in the most efficient way and feel less guilt about taking breaks or setting aside. Do not disturb time, treating emails and phone calls as separate tasks instead of a constant demand. Improves efficiency. Discuss situations that truly qualify as urgent and justify disturbing someone in a highly focused state. At the same time, discuss situations that are justified as do not disturb in order to balance giving people the ability to focus with allowing coworkers to have access to each other for help, collaboration and socialization. Encourage employees to send non-critical questions and information via email without an expectation for an immediate response. Rather than instant messaging someone or physically coming into their space, model this behavior for employees.
Speaker 2 00:24:44 Let people know when something is truly urgent and needs immediate attention while specifically stating when non-urgent matters can be resolved later in the day, the next day, et cetera. The goal of minimizing social disruptions is not to reduce social interaction. Time with teammates improves mental and emotional health, lowers levels of illness and absenteeism, increases job performance, fosters a greater sense of purpose, lowers distress, and promotes faster recovery from setbacks. Not surprisingly, higher H R V scores and expanded intellectual capacity increase with healthy team dynamics. The crucial task for the leader is to provide people with time to engage in sprints while also encouraging social interactions on breaks during meals and in meetings. Sometimes the work environment creates additional distractions, irregular and low frequency noises, poor lighting, air pollution, strong smells, and hot or cold temperatures distract attention and focus from work. Research also shows that these distractions lower H R V and productivity.
Speaker 2 00:25:54 The leader should work with people and teams to identify distractions inherent to their job expectations. Many positions require people to answer phone calls or emails right away. Some jobs involve constant interruptions. The key to is acknowledge that aspect of their job and identify times, even if it is just for 10 or 20 minutes at a time, to eliminate distractions to get other work completed. While work sprints can extend to two hours shorter hyper efficiency sprints still allow people to maximize their available time. The great thing about hyper efficiency sprints and the accompanying changes discussed here is that it does not take long for people to realize the benefits. Most people who integrate Sprints experience an immediate jump in productivity. They also report that emails and similar communications stop dominating their workday. As these tasks become more manageable, increased productivity will give people more hours of time in the work week to feel more productive and less overwhelmed. Leaders should check in with people during this transition and encourage them to utilize this additional time for breaks and to take on projects that motivate them.
Speaker 2 00:27:09 Recovery. Recovery times are as crucial to work productivity as undisturbed high efficiency Sprints. H R V transformed athletic training by clearly demonstrating the need to focus on recovery. Many athletes use H R V to measure the stress of strenuous activity and track their recovery. A healthy recovery maximizes the benefits of the subsequent challenging workout, helps optimize performance at events, games, and competitions, and minimizes the chance of injury and illness. HR V challenges businesses to begin to prioritize recovery similarly to athletes, too many businesses constantly fill people's cups with the challenges and distress of work without thinking about supporting recovery necessary to achieve peak performance. This lack of focus on recovery leads to burnout, lower productivity, and poor outcomes for the business. Few would encourage an athlete to do a brutal workout before a game, yet many leaders constantly push people beyond their limits without supporting the recovery necessary to manage allostatic load and keep people in their window of tolerance.
Speaker 2 00:28:22 Not all the fault lies in leadership. Technology brings all work communication and information to people's fingertips when they log into their laptops, phones and tablets. The ability to work anywhere at any time carries many benefits. However, more and more people feel that the ability to stay connected 24 7 means they should work around the clock. The leadership challenge in the modern business world is not to get people to work longer. Leaders need to support recovery to maximize productivity and performance, especially when it is most important. An intention to improve recovery times might mean eliminating expectations for emails to be answered in the evenings or early mornings, eliminating late evening meetings and phone calls, and discussing the importance of sleep and time off daily recovery. Let's return to the cup analogy to understand the importance of disconnecting and recovery again. Ideally, someone begins the workday with a manageable level of distress in their cups and well within their window of tolerance.
Speaker 2 00:29:31 As the day progresses, they accumulate additional distress as they work to meet the demands of the typical day. Most people leave the typical workday with greater allostatic load in their cups and a lower H R V than when they started their day. As they leave the workday, they shift from performing to recovery. Recovery entails two components. First, they stop adding additional work distress to their cup. Second, they apply the strategies throughout this audiobook to help their mind and nervous system recover, lowering the allostatic load of the day and getting distress out of their cup. After a healthy meal, a long walk or jog time with friends or family and H R V biofeedback session and a good night's sleep, they recover and come back the next day ready to perform at their best. If a leader values performance, productivity, and quality, they must support this type of recovery.
Speaker 2 00:30:31 Too many people's work habits never allow for adequate recovery. After leaving work, they might disconnect for an hour or two. Then they pull out their phone and start reconnecting with work, emails, tasks, and other communications. This habit disrupts both aspects of their recovery. By connecting back to work, people stop their recovery. Not only do they counteract the positive effects of wellness strategies, but they also add more distress to their cups. At that moment, their allostatic load needs to decrease to ensure maximum productivity the next day. Instead, they increase it by engaging in communications and work related tasks. It is one thing to take work home occasionally to meet a deadline on a crucial project. Most jobs will require this additional work from time to time. It is the consistent expectation of working overtime that creates a problem. The lack of ability to disconnect creates a sympathetic anxiety response.
Speaker 2 00:31:31 People are always anticipating and reacting to the next piece of communication existing, and an always on state is a sure route to burnout and decreased productivity. It falls on leaders to stop this insanity or suffer the consequences of people without the mental, cognitive, and relational brain power to perform at the high levels necessary for success, leaders must educate their people on the importance of recovery and then be role models for a healthier approach to working. It is also crucial to create shared expectations around communication and work outside the traditional workday. Setting specific expectations allows people to feel comfortable focusing on recovery. It also helps them understand when it is appropriate to work longer hours and which issues rise to the importance of staying connected to work communication beyond the typical workday. There are always exceptions in every business. Shared expectations will help people identify these exceptions.
Speaker 2 00:32:35 As people get more work done, distress should decrease, and longer H R V trends will improve. As people implement hyper efficiency sprints, leaders should encourage them to take readings throughout the day. The goal is for everyone to find their ideal workflow to maximize productivity. This chapter provides a structure of best practices. H R V helps customize these around an individual's traits and job structure. Leaders need to understand that long hours, important projects and tough deadlines require more intense recovery periods to prevent the distress of these stretches from negatively impacting performance. Like running sprints, hyper efficiency sprints allow the person to cover a lot of ground quickly. Longer breaks help people's mental and cognitive energy recover, allowing them to reenter work ready to maximize potential and productivity. The following section focuses on these longer recoveries, time off, paid time off. Long. Weekends and vacations are crucial.
Speaker 2 00:33:44 Job resources the business provides to offset job demands. However, these resources need support by leaders to ensure that people think about the recovery in a way that promotes productivity and health. As mentioned above, time off supports recovery time off that maintains continued work related. Communication is not truly recovery time and is likely to produce only minor benefits. Leaders must establish a culture where using time off is celebrated. When people hit the guilt, shame, and doubt stage of burnout, their guilt will prevent them from utilizing time off for recovery. Many business cultures celebrate behaviors that lead to burnout while sending negative messages to those focused on wellness. Hopefully, the science of H R V will reverse this dangerous and unproductive mindset. Another challenge leaders must address is the distress people experience when they start thinking of returning from vacation. The positive recovery benefits from time off quickly disappear when someone returns to thousands of emails and other tasks for many H R V starts to decrease and cortisol levels increase when someone hits the final few days of a vacation.
Speaker 2 00:35:01 When thoughts of the nightmare of returning to work start to dominate their thinking. With all the benefits of recovery, leadership provide a half or full day after vacation for people to get back on top of the work they missed. This strategy allows for more significant recovery, a less stressful end to the vacation, and a healthy transition back into the work environment. It also prevents them from feeling overwhelmed by all the tasks they missed and need to catch up on while still managing the distress of the regular weekly workload. Often vacations include things that decrease H R V, including changing time zones, air travel, disrupting sleep schedules, eating out, consuming more drugs and alcohol, and dramatically increased physical exertion associated with ski trips or beach activities. Educating people on how certain activities promote healthy recovery and improve H R V can help them plan a vacation that benefits both them and the business.
Speaker 2 00:36:02 With this information, people can plan a mix of fun and restorative activities that promote overall recovery. The research helps show the power of vacations. Those who do not take regular vacations are twice as likely to have a heart attack, have a 20 to 35% higher risk of stroke and have a higher risk of dying of any cause over nine years compared to people who do take regular vacations. Plus, and hopefully not surprisingly at this point, burnout rates associated with poor outcomes are much higher for those not taking regular vacations. Besides avoiding negative consequences, encouraging people to take vacations will pay off for businesses and leaders. People who take regular vacations are half as likely to experience depression, have improved overall wellbeing and sleep better. Those who take regular vacations become more productive, sustain higher levels of performance, possess greater cognitive flexibility, and become better problem solvers. These benefits can just spike after a vacation, but if leaders help their people effectively reenter the workflow, they can continue to occur long after the vacation is over.
