Annual leave & the nail professional – do you take enough?
By Chloe Randall | 22 June 2023 | Feature, Movers & Shakers
A recent analysis by Simply Business and Mental Health At Work, a programme curated by mental health charity Mind to support workplace mental health, revealed that 73% of SME owners take fewer than 20 days of annual leave per year. In addition, over half of SME owners (56%) say they have experienced poor mental health in the last 12 months, which sees a 124% increase compared to the national average.
To explore further, Scratch carried out a poll on Instagram and it was found that nail and beauty professionals are in the same position, with 62% of those who answered taking less than 20 days a year as annual leave, 34% taking more and 4% taking 20 days exactly.
The UK statutory annual leave entitlement is 28 days a year, meaning the majority of SME owners are taking less which is leading to a direct impact on their mental wellbeing. With almost one in six of those surveyed (15%) believing a lack of time off is directly impacting their mental health, 90% said that they believe the government is not currently doing enough to support the mental health of the self-employed.
Adelina Walker, owner of Hello Beautiful Nail Bar, Scratch Star’s Home Salon of the Year finalist 2023, agrees that taking time off leads to a greater working performance and is beneficial to mental health.
“I used to get 28 days off a year, or slightly more, with my corporate job prior to taking the plunge and becoming full time self-employed as of last September,” comments Adelina.
“At the moment, I’m looking to match that as much as possible as I do have a full schedule and no childcare for my five year old. I tried working without much of a break back in the day but I found that burning out makes for a lesser performance in general. I’m present in my daughter’s life, I get to unwind and start afresh for another busy season.”
However, for other small businesses like Larabella Beauty, taking time off proves to be too difficult.
“I can’t really afford to take many annual leave days. Not only is it hard to build up a safety net of cash to cover the days where I will be closed and losing money, but I also don’t have any cover to take the clients that would normally be booked in,” comments Larabella Beauty.
“I’m very fortunate that my clients are block booked, months in advance, but it also makes it hard to manoeuvre them to other slots if I do need to take a day off. It’s just easier to keep working and try and do any family plans on a Sunday.”
“I’ll only take annual leave if we’re physically going on holiday as a family,” adds home-based nail artist, Stacie of Nails by Stacie.
“The cost of living has impacted us as a whole, so I hate the thought of having unpaid time off work as a self-employed person. I also sometimes feel guilty being unable to accommodate my clients, so I only give myself annual leave when it’s 100% needed. Workload increases massively before and after a break from work, and trying to cram everyone in either side of a week or two is too stressful sometimes!”
In light of these findings, Simply Business has partnered with Mental Health at Work and donated £100,000 to support the mental health of the UK’s self-employed.