I’ve heard it said that emotionally connected people perform better. People are so disconnected in the workplace today. All work and no play makes people bored, exhausted, overwhelmed and just plain stressed out. People need to connect more, step away from the cubical and stop working all the time.

When I was a supervisor in the military I used to have “off sites.” The purpose of the offsite was to get away from the office and connect. Of course we needed to do some training but that wasn’t the primary purpose. When I was stationed in England, I ran the “Systems” section. I was in charge of the mainframe computer system and all the computer assets as well as we ran all the reports on productivity etc. We had many deadlines to meet and the system crashed often and had it would take hours to reorganize (this was back in the day when a computer system filled an entire room and there were dummy terminals on each desk). Sometimes we would be there from 6am until midnight or even well into the wee hours of the morning. We worked extremely hard to keep the systems going and ensure the rest of the unit could do their part of the mission. It was often times long hours for no extra pay.

For the offsite. We would meet at the local pub (great Mexican food by the way) or club on base, have a meeting, have some training, then just hang out. During the hang out time, we connected, talked about our lives and our families. We shared personal details about each other. We laughed and had a good time. When we returned to work we were refreshed and ready to engage in our mission. We were the most well oiled productive machine in the unit because we took time to connect and detach from work. One person reported us to the commander because every time they came into our section we were laughing and they assumed we weren’t working. The commander basically dismissed their report and told us to keep up the good work.

Take time to connect with other people and not focus on work all the time. Emotionally connected people not only perform better but are happier, healthier and have more fun.