Oliver Burkeman writes in The Guardian about a new study on the benefits of “collective restoration,” the benefits of group breaks and simultaneous vacations:

A team led by Terry Hartig, a health researcher at Uppsala University, found that when Swedes take time off, antidepressant prescriptions go down. Hardly surprising… but the interesting part involved the timing of those vacations: the more people holidayed at the same time, the greater the rate at which prescriptions decreased.

Synchronised time off – or what Hartig calls “collective restoration”, of which the fika [a Swedish version of a coffee break, though it seems to be more than that] is a small, daily example – made the whole country happier. It even influenced retirees, despite their not having jobs.

It’s not hard to guess why collective restoration is so powerful: it’s easier to nurture relationships with family and friends when they’re on leave, too; meanwhile, if the office is deserted while you’re trying to relax, you’re spared anxious thoughts about tasks piling up, inboxes filling, or scheming colleagues trying to steal your job.

The implication is that “to maximise happiness, we need what Hartig refers to as ‘social regulation of time’: strong traditions or laws about working hours and holidays, to make it more likely we’ll do the same thing at once.”

Of course, some people will object to the loss of flexibility, but I’m coming to believe that for individuals, “flexibility” brings more costs than benefits: that being reachable all the time means you’re never really away from work, and that being able to do conference calls at the playground short-changes both your colleagues and your kids.