With summer now in full swing, it’s only natural that conversations abound as to when and where we’ll be taking our summer vacation. And yet, the findings of a number of recent studies reveal that while our thoughts might be on summer vacation, few of us are actually taking them. And if we do, we tend to bring work along with us.
In the American Management Association (AMA) article, “Vacation, No Vacation, or Work-ation?”, the results from a number of surveys on the issue of employees and vacation time are discussed, including:
- An Adweek/Harris Poll survey which found that only 40% of US employees took a summer vacation last year and half of this group admitted that they planned or did work during their vacation.
- A Harris Interactive poll for JetBlue which found that while more than 60% of employees believed they deserved their vacation time, 57% had unused vacation time by the end of 2011. This same survey found that 39% of employees expressed reservations about asking their boss about taking time off work for a vacation.
- Based on the results of Expedia’s 2011 Vacation Deprivation Survey, CNN/Money calculated that the amount of vacation time that goes unused by US employees is worth over $34 billion in benefits.
Perhaps the most interesting finding comes from a recent survey released last month by CareerBuilder which shows that while 81% of managers plan or have taken a vacation break this year, only 65% of full-time employees have plans to do the same.
Although it’s clear from this last finding that leaders at least appreciate the importance of taking a vacation for the health and future success of their organization, their employees unfortunately are opting instead to forgo this annual break from the work routine.
Indeed, according to the Expedia 2011 Vacation Deprivation Survey, US employees are beginning to “treat vacation as a luxury rather than a fact of life”.
Granted, today’s tough economy does make it hard to go on a vacation outside one’s region. However, we shouldn’t confuse the ability to take our family on a vacation trip with the importance of giving ourselves a break from our work.
In light of these findings, I’d like to share the following points of why leaders should encourage their employees to make time this summer for a vacation break from work.
1. Vacations allow your employees to renew their productivity and sense of purpose
By now, we’ve all read about how valuable it is to take time in your day for breaks to sustain your productivity as well as to nurture those much sought-after creative breaks. While this can keep us going on a daily or even weekly basis, they’re a poor substitution for giving yourself a chance to unplug from work to rest your body and mind.
A vacation is also a great way to allow your employees to better manage the stresses they put on themselves in the pursuit of a “work-life” balance. Being able to connect meaningfully with those in their personal life will have a big impact on their ability to remain connected with the shared purpose of your organization.
2. Vacations are not a luxury but a part of your employees’ remuneration
As mentioned above, there’s a growing perception that taking vacations is more of a luxury, no doubt in large part due to the increasing financial stresses most families are experiencing as a result of the current economic climate.
While it’s understandable in this light why many employees might choose to forgo taking time off work, it’s important for leaders to remind their employees that their vacation time is a part of their remuneration for the work they do. After all, I doubt any of us would willingly leave $34 billion on the table given how much we’re now expected to achieve within the same number of hours.
Also, considering the growing challenges most organizations face with retaining employees, it’s important for your bottom line that vacation periods don’t become viewed as being a “perk” akin to having a gym in your facility.
As most organizations can’t afford salary raises, it’s vital that leaders remind their employees that their vacation time is not a gift, but something that’s been hard-earned and deserved as a means to prevent attrition within their teams.
3. Vacations encourage employees to be less dependent on key players
One of the challenges all of us grapple with when we leave work for vacation is how will things operate while we’re gone? What kinds of problems or messes will we have to deal with because we took time away from work?
Invariably, these concerns end up being largely unfounded with the only headache being an overflowing inbox of emails to tackle (unless you’re one of the 35% of employees who check in while on vacation).
That doesn’t change the fact, though, that many of us like to think we’re indispensable and that any time spent away from work would introduce potential risks due to others not knowing how to manage things while you’re gone.
Given how 81% of managers are taking (or will take) time off work, at least the message of demonstrating to their team that they can manage without them is taking hold. Now, it’s important for leaders to share that message with those they lead so that individual team members understand that they can and must learn how to manage without the support of key players if their team is to remain competitive under any circumstance.
4. Vacations allow your employees to pursue other interests/needs
Consider how much is written about programs like the one at Google, where employees are given time during the work week to work on whatever project they want, the only condition being that after a given set of time, they present to the rest of the team what they’ve been working on. Discussions around these programs tend to focus on how it can stimulate your employees’ creativity and possibly even discover new solutions or opportunities for your organization.
And yet, if you think about it, the reason these programs succeed in engaging employees is not simply because it allows them to express their creativity. Rather, it’s because it shows employees that their leaders understand that they have needs and interests beyond those at work and consequently, try to find ways to give their employees opportunities to spend time working on them.
While most organizations might not be able to allocate time at work for employees to spend on outside projects/interests, they certainly can afford to provide opportunities for employees to take time off work to do just that.
As uncertainties continue to swirl around the state of today’s global economy – and the impact it has on our own country’s economy – it’s understandable that more and more employees will find themselves holding back from taking their vacation time in order to remain at their posts.
In light of this – and given the benefits to be gained both for your employees and your organization – it’s important that leaders make a stronger push to ensure their employees take advantage of this hard-earned opportunity to take a prolonged break from their daily grind. Both your employees and the rest of your team will thank you for it.
In most firms, unused vacation days are paid out in full or part upon termination of employment. I expect that in our current "jobless recovery," some percentage of workers hold back on vacation as a way to build a cash cushion should their job disappear.
Agreed on all of the above – it's crucial for us to take some downtime to recharge. Thanks for the good post.
Hi Marie,
You're right that in some organizations vacations can be paid out; however, I do know of several where there's the understanding that if you don't take your vacation, you can't bank it or cash it in.
The challenge for those who can bank it is that it's like playing a career russian roulette – while they might want to pay out their vacations to create a safety net should they be terminated, this unfortunately prolongs the amount of time they spend working on their job instead of taking time off to recharge.
And of course, wearing oneself out is a dangerous path to take if one is hoping to ensure those in charge continue to see the value you bring to the organization.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this Marie.
Nice post and so true. A break to get some perspective is essential for anyone…and missing vacation won't make you the hero (contrary to popular belief).
Absolutely; in fact, missing out on vacation can actually adversely impact your team by reducing your effectiveness, if not also creating friction within the team because some members do elect to take their vacation time, leaving you to cover them in their absense.
Good point, Patti. Thanks for adding it to the discussion.
Vacation is critical. When I turned 30, my boss at AT&T/Bell Labs told me I had to take 2 consecutive weeks off at a time. He felt that 1 week didn’t suffice because it took a few days to decompress and then you’d start tensing up as you approached the end of your vacation so 1 week basically was no vacation at all. I was allowed to check email once a day (he knew me well enough to know I couldn’t go cold turkey) but I wasn’t allowed to get on the intranet or call in – he forwarded my phone to my assistant & my cell phone was for personal use only.
He went further for us – we had unlimited vacation – as long as we got our work done and we worked out schedules with those who depended upon us, he didn't care – we could do 'workations' as much as we wanted (with the team's support) but we did have to take the 2 weeks-in-a-row no matter what.
By the way – this was the mid-late 1980’s! Needless to say, he was a fabulous mentor & 'boss'. And, I’ve never understood the concept of ‘vacation’ days 🙂
He sounds like a great boss, Deb, and certainly one we need to see more in today's organizations given this growing perception that a vacation is a luxury few of us can afford.
Even if we have to stay home, it still gives us a chance to take a break and shift our focus to other things that matter to us. As someone commented on Google+ about this piece, I doubt any of us are going to look back at our lives and wish we had spent more time at the office.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this, Deb. It's very encouraging to hear stories of leaders who understand how to care for those they lead and making sure they get time to themselves so they can bring their best game to their shared purpose.
As an entrepreneur I find that I'm taking more, short vacations. And most are a combination of vacation and business. With today's technology it is easy to take your work with you. However, I agree with you that a vacation is a time to rejuvenate and be with family and friends.
Now it is about scheduling time to 'turn off' everything and enjoy life rather than being connected.
I know exactly what you mean, Lynn. While I've taken vacations where I have completely unplugged (spent a week at a lakeside cottage with no Wi-Fi and only landline phone access), I've also had vacations where I did check in but only at the end of the day when my kids were asleep and my wife was relaxing with a good book.
Doing this allowed me to get some time to 'check in' while still being able to savour the opportunities my work provides me to be with my wife and kids, which as you can tell from my site design is one of my most important needs.
Thanks for your comment, Lynn and for sharing this piece in your Twitter stream.
Tanveer – kyl time of the year to make this point. Many people don't take their vacations because they are afraid of what will happen in their absence. They are fearful to leave their jobs. Fear based organisations are potentially very harmful to all involved and also not good for business!
I couldn't agree with you more, Dorothy. It seems the last decade or so, both businesses and governments have been operating on a basis of fear – using fear to either impede change or to enact measures meant to preserve the status quo.
And looking back at the past decade, there can be little doubt that it's been one rife with poor economic performance and low satisfaction on various quality of life metrics.
If organizations – and countries – are to do more than simply survive at base levels, we need to move past using instinctual fear mechanisms and come up with clear understandings of how we can help better serve those we're meant to lead.
The fact that so many are now beginning to view vacations as a luxury that few can take out of fear of losing their jobs is both troubling and sad.
At the end of the day, I think it's always up to us to carve out our own down time.
My best "ups" follow my greatest "downs" so I always make a point of taking time outs, and getting away from it all. It's how I recharge, rebuild, and renew and ultimately reinvent myself time and again.
Great post Tanveer! Good reminder to get outta Dodge once in awhile.
Thanks Danelle; glad you enjoyed it.
That photo for your post cracks me up! Love it.
It's also sad to think that this is all an American thing – other countries work a lot less and take more time off, but here in America we work ourselves to death and don't take much vacation. Something's wrong here.
But I can relate well to all of this – I can't really afford to go out and take a "real" vacation. I can take time off, but can't afford to go anywhere because my employer offers really crappy vacation benefits and so I don't get much time off, and I'm not paid for all of it. Vacation is looked as a perk at my company (at least the owners look at it that way), and so barely any of us take time off because we can't afford to.
I just hope this doesn't become a trend with other employers…
Hi Devan,
While it is becoming more difficult for people go away on a vacation, this shouldn't prevent us from taking time off from work, both to give ourselves a break and also to allow us to have the opportunity to work on our other interests/needs.
Perhaps what we'll see more of in the future is a reframing of what a vacation is – from being less about getting away in the physical sense and more about taking time away from work to focus on the life aspect of the work/life balance.
I totally agreed with what you said – leaders should encourage their employees to make time this summer for a vacation break from work, as last year we did not have any vacation; we really need that.
I understand why many people don't take their vacation, however I think we are more productive workers when we get a 'regular' break each year. We need time to have fun and actually enjoy life instead of working ourselves to death.
Sad. As a solo entrepreneur it is not easy for me to walk from my biz so I have made it a point to get outta of dodge as one individual commented and change my scenery for a month. Trust me I do not work that hard, plus I try and outsource as much as possible.
Nice thread of comments Tanveer. You definitely hit a chord here.
Hi Jim,
You bring up an important point that I think more people need to be aware of. In North America at least, there's still this ongoing love affair with one day becoming an entrepreneur because of those ideas of it bringing forth freedom and being your own boss.
As you point out, though, the opportunity to take a vacation break becomes even more challenging because there's few (or in the case of solopreneurs, no one) left at the office who can fill in for you while your away.
However, as you point out, it's still vital even for entrepreneurs to step away from their work every now and then, even if it's much more difficult to do.
Thanks for sharing your experience with this, Jim. This topic certainly has resonated with many people. I hope it also serves to remind people why skipping their vacation breaks doesn't serve their team or themselves.