As a leader, we naturally value efficiency, achievement of objectives, mobilization continues. However, some French companies have made a counter-intuitive bet: to introduce pause times imposed in the agendas, without production objective, without a meeting, without task to be accomplished. Not to reduce the mental load punctually, but to improve long -term performance. These so -called “active rest” days are neither leave nor disguised RTT. They are part of a global strategy for managing creativity and concentration.
Give back to the brain
At Shine, the French neobank intended for the self -employed, each employee benefits from one day per month without meetings or requests, called “Focus Day”. Officially, nothing is required: reading, walking, drawing, sleeping or simply bored. The idea is not “Produce differently”but not to produce at all. This approach is based on a neuroscientific conviction: creativity often arises in moments of apparent inactivity. Several studies relayed by firms such as Cog’x or the Center for Studies on Human Stress have shown that the non -stimulated rest phases allow the mind to consolidate learning and generate new ideas.
Managers like Nicolas Brusson, co -founder of Blablacar, insist on the importance of alternating intense concentration phases and periods of total relaxation. During the structuring of the internationalization of the company, certain major decisions emerged not in the meeting room, but at the end of team pensions surrounded by nature, without predefined program. For him, it is more profitable to let the brains disconnect one day a month than maintaining a tight productivity that exhausts mental resources. This respiratory rate offers a solid base for strategic decision -making. It is not only a question of sparing people, but of creating the concrete conditions of a lasting discernment.
Break the emergency cycle
One of the most damaging consequences for continuous work is the illusion of emergency. In many structures, everyday life becomes a series of interruptions, emails and immediate requests, leaving little room for substantive reflection. The Parisian communication agency Muxu. Muxu introduced a day of “Strategic emptiness” Every first Friday of the month. No customer is contacted, no deliverables are expected. The objective is clear: to recreate a breathing time in the organization, capable of breaking the pace imposed by the emergencies.
This practice was born from an observation: operational overload kills the perspective. The founders of the agency observed that after these days of organized calm, the teams returned not only more available, but also more relevant in their proposals. Since the implementation of this monthly rhythm, several projects have experienced an unexpected strategic inflection, made possible only by this voluntary withdrawal of the usual tumult. This moment of collective silence acts as a reset to zero cognitive, essential in the sectors where creativity is a central resource. It thus becomes a tool for management of time and lucidity.
Visible effects on engagement
The HRDs of SMEs bear witness to a direct benefit on motivation and commitment. At Back Market, the HR team experienced a monthly “intentional disconnection” day, where everyone – included – was to be absent from the internal canals. The test, initiated during the period of strong growth, aimed to prevent the depletion of key talents. Result: drop in turnover and net increase in internal assessments in terms of quality of life at work.
This type of initiative is not only based on a logic of well-being. It is also an attraction strategy. In a job market where qualified candidates are increasingly selective, offering an organizational model incorporating structured vacuum can become a competitive advantage. The Iliad group, a mother’s mother’s house, launched internally a reflection on the integration of “white bubbles” in the weekly time jobs of its tech teams, by observing a correlation between these preserved times and the peaks of innovation. The hybrid performance model, alternating rigor and withdrawal, also seems to seduce senior profiles and young graduates tired of constantly connected environments.
Create the conditions of collective intelligence
One of the most unexpected profits of these days to “do nothing” is their effect on the quality of exchanges between employees. When individual performance is temporarily put in parentheses, collective dynamics change. Companies like Makesense, which support impact projects, use these active break times to organize “free zones” where employees can think about transversal projects, without pressure of result.
It is often these disconnected moments that allow the most daring ideas to arise. And this, because they escape the usual constraints of a production framework. When introduced a monthly day without an explicit objective, there is paradoxically a fertile space for collective intelligence, released from hierarchies and short -term imperatives. These moments of suspension then become places of convergence for scattered intuitions, a kind of strategic recomposition airlock.
A still marginal but promising practice
French companies that have institutionalized these breaks are still a minority, but their number increases. Some, like Alan or Payfit, observe a rise in internal requests to formalize these breathing spaces more. It is not a temporary trend but a paradigm shift in human and intellectual resources management.
At a time when we speak of cognitive exhaustion, infobesity and mental overload, offering a structured vacuum time becomes an enlightened steering act. For leaders who have adopted this practice, it is a way of granting their teams-and themselves-the right to slow down to better move forward. An assumed, but deeply productive form of time.
