Breaks Must Be Planned – Otherwise They Won’t Happen

Experiences with break culture in practice at Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning

Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning’s core mission is to support families, children, and young people living with disabilities or psychiatric diagnoses. Their services range from outpatient programs to respite and residential care, and also include recruitment, supervision, and training of foster families, as well as supported and supervised visits.

This is a field characterised by high complexity and significant emotional demands. The work requires not only professional competence, but also judgement, overview, and the ability to take care of oneself continuously – both as an employee and as a leader. For this reason, working on the psychosocial work environment is a central focus at Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning.

As part of this effort, Center Manager Alice Eijgendaal participated in the Institute for Exposure Psychology’s Strain Psychology Occupational Health and Safety Training. The training provided a shared language and a clear framework for understanding work-related strain – and, importantly, for recognising where the organisation was already strong and where further strengthening was needed.

Leaders as role models for taking breaks

One of the areas that came into focus was breaks and recovery. Not as something new, but as something that could be more clearly framed and used consciously as part of the workday. But how do you make breaks and recovery legitimate in practice – throughout the entire organisation?

At Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning, it was clear that it had to start with the leaders themselves – or as Alice Eijgendaal puts it: “You have to put on your own life jacket before you can help others.” On that basis, the leadership team agreed on a few simple, shared action statements, which today serve as clear daily guidelines: stretch after complex tasks, step away before a weekend, and wind down before holidays – and plan the time afterwards. The aim was not to introduce new rules, but to create shared awareness of pace, transitions, and recovery in the leaders’ own workday.

The calendar as a prevention tool

A concrete approach to building a break culture at Døgn & Familiestøtte Herning is calendar management. Today, there is greater focus on ensuring that calendars not only reflect meetings, but also include time for preparation, task handling, and follow-up.

“Our experience was that when the calendar is planned with space for recovery, more time also emerges for urgent tasks,” says Alice.

Having flexibility in the calendar has proven to reduce stress, create adaptability, and make it easier to rearrange tasks rather than just add new ones. At the same time, this approach challenges the notion that a full calendar equals productivity.

“We have developed a shared awareness that you can be active and productive even with a semi-empty calendar. A calendar that isn’t full reflects that we are taking care of ourselves.”

Brain breaks and challenging unhelpful narratives

As part of the work on breaks, fixed brain breaks were introduced in meetings – typically five minutes – which are written directly into agendas to ensure they are actually taken.

A brain break is a short, deliberate pause that creates a shift in perspective – for example, through movement, conversation, creative activity, or listening to music. The breaks are brief and time-bound, often using a timer to keep the agenda on track.

Experience shows that brain breaks are especially helpful during transitions between tasks and meetings, making it easier to refocus and regain overview.

The work on leaders’ break culture has had a clear ripple effect. When leaders plan their workweek with defined transitions, take time to follow up, and leave the weekend more calmly, employees notice. The work has also highlighted the language used in everyday routines – especially unhelpful narratives around busyness:

“We’ve been focused on whether we are actually as busy as we say – or if sometimes we get busy simply by talking about being busy.”

It has become more legitimate to talk about pace, recovery, and the need for support – and to openly acknowledge that it is okay not to be busy all the time.