Vacations are theoretical concepts that exist today only on paper. That's according to Joe Robinson, work-life balance speaker, trainer and author of "Don't Miss Your Life." His statistics are dire:
Some 25 percent of Americans and 31 percent of low-wage earners get no vacation at all anymore, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. This is because, unlike in 138 other countries around the world, you're not entitled to a vacation longer than the current news cycle. You happen to live in a country that, along with the esteemed likes of Myanmar, the Guyanas and North Korea, has no minimum paid leave law to make vacations statutorily legit.
Now maybe it's because I have been self-employed for most of my working life -- and the few jobs I have held I didn't accrue enough time for a validated vacation -- but for every day I have taken off, I have had to make up those hours either before I left or after I returned. This creates added stress either on the front end or the back end of this so-called "relaxing." I have no recollection of a vacation in which I left everything on my desk as is, only to pick up after my return.
Does anybody really do that?
According to Jones, U.S. employers would be wise to enforce vacations. These days off don't subtract from the bottom line, they add to it -- especially what used to be the standard two weeks off. Robinson writes in his Huffington Post blog:
Performance increases after a vacation, with reaction times going up 40 percent. Vacations cure burnout, the last stage of chronic stress and something very difficult to shake. Burned-out employees are a major liability to effective performance. They may be at the office physically, but output is next to nothing when cognitive, physical and emotional resources have been depleted. Vacations regather crashed resources and restore productive capacity. But it takes two weeks for the recuperative process to occur. Only 14 percent of Americans take more than one week of vacation at a time these days, according to a Harris poll....Performance increases with recharging and refueling, all the studies show.
Plenty of psychological studies attest to the benefits of vacation. Robinson mentions the one by Princeton's Alan Krueger and Nobel-prize-winning researcher Daniel Kahneman found that, of all the things on the planet (ants, elephants and maybe plants) human beings derive the most enjoyment from leisure and are happiest when they are involved in engaging leisure experiences.
Vacations are stress busters too, of course. In fact, annual vacations cut the risk of heart attacks in men by 30 percent and by 50 percent in women. Leisure and rest build resiliency, and, as my doctor has told me plenty of times, it's much easier to keep a person well, with less medication, than it is to improve a depressive state.
It's true that most of us don't get any assistance or incentive from our employers to take days off. However, I believe that, on some level, we are also afraid to change our environments and unplug for a bit. Because, as Richard Moss explains in his new book, "Inside-Out Healing," allowing some down time in our lives isn't always easy, even if we have accrued months of legitimate vacation time. He writes:
Taking a vacation can be notorious for stirring up the dark, as if something inside knows that the familiar daily busyness has been keeping you too distracted in ego-driven activity to attend to your soul's calling. For the sake of essential regeneration and rebirth, you must go down into the abyss for awhile.Perhaps this is why few people, especially in the U.S., never allow themselves a real time of letting go. Instead they have a "vacation" (often restricted to a week) with a tight, demanding travel schedule where they have to see all the sights, try out all the best restaurants and shop until they drop. Unstructured open time is too dangerous: The "monsters" from the deep that have been held at bay by compulsive or near compulsive activity might rear their ugly heads. The tragic truth of modern life is that it hardly leaves room for the necessary descent into the underworld that opens the heart, enriches humanity and often rejuvenates the body.
I must confess; I totally get that. I think that's one reason why I haven't attempted a retreat since college. They sort of scare me. I'm afraid I'm going to discover a really bad character defect that I'll need to change, or another inner demon that I must add to the list. I'm uncomfortable with stillness.
I think most people are.
And yet, it's in the stillness -- in the quiet, unstructured space -- that we are healed and made resilient to handle the bustling of our daily lives.
So if I can conjure up the courage, I just may try it this summer.
Originally published on Psych Central.
Follow Therese Borchard on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thereseborchard
The Rise of Shrinking-Vacation Syndrome - New York Times
The Incredible Shrinking American Vacation | World of Psychology
Take a vacation, for your health's sake - The New York Times
Also, the idea that people cannot relax while staying close to home (staycation) is equally foolish.
Lack of vacation time in America is a serious problem and articles that dance around the real issues, like this one, just add to the problem.
The American political system is owned by big business. The reason Americans cannot get vacation is because our corrupt government is only interested in money, provided by businesses who would rather their employees "grind" than get a break.
After a year of full time employment every employee should get one month of PTO. Grinding for 11 months of the year is plenty.
I do not care if all I have money for is to sit at home and do nothing - Money is worthless, printed paper. Time is valuable, each second that passes is lost forever.
I've seen many articles that claim Americans do not want to take their vacations. That is complete BS. Normal, healthy people want to take vacations but American businesses have been given the ability to make taking a vacation difficult for a base employee. If you want to see American take vacations, as they should, than you need to force businesses to deal with it, as they should.
All, IMHO.
Workers who do receive vacation benefits still have to come up with enough money to take the actual vacation, not just the days. In this economy, not a lot of people can. That leaves staying near home, which for some is simply not relaxing.
Vacation days may also have been chewed up already by use as sick days when the real ones ran out, or the need to pick up a child from school after a biting incident, or because the VP needs that PowerPoint Monday even though he was supposed to have had the materials ready Wednesday and you’ll have to cancel your weekend plans--and no, you’re not getting comp time because you’re on salary and the law says we can do Absolutely Anything We Want To You, Including Not Pay You If Payroll Gets Tough. (Yes, that's true. Over a certain non-hourly income, you’re not protected. Call your department of labor.)
If corporations cared about employee burnout, employees would be more likely to take vacations.
However, corporations don't. They also don’t care about efficiency. They claim to, but what that really means is a sort of 50% running average with plausible ass-covering, so middle management doesn’t look bad to the VP. Yeah, vacations. Wouldn’t it be nice.
Now I do contract works so I do not get any vacation days. Every hour I take off it's money out of my pockets. So I rarely take any days, forget a week, off these days.
Also vacations are expensive, sometimes it causes more stress to see my bank account dwindle to pay for it than not to take one at all.
Finally the last 4 day vacation I took (and the weekend was 2 of the 4 days), I was laid off so ever since then I'm afraid to take more than a couple days off at a time, sad but true. I feel as if they functioned without me for a week then in their heads they really don't need me, so the pink slip will be coming shortly after I get back.
what a clueless and insensitive article.
perhaps "maybe it's because I have been self-employed for most of my working life..." is the reason you don't understand the perspective of the average employee.
because when you're not self employed, you're at the mercy of your employer. if they're generous, maybe you get decent pay and "PTO". but employer generosity is passe.
because for the last decade, it's become an "employer's market". now employees are desperate and scared of losing any job, even bad ones.
so to enlighten you, here's some reasons why the average employee isn't taking vacation:
1. CAN'T AFFORD IT
2. SCARED TO LOSE THEIR JOB
3. SCARED TO FALL BEHIND IN PERFORMANCE (AND LOSE JOB)
4. ALREADY JOBLESS
notice on the list, there's nothing about "fear of personal monsters". the average employee today has no time to think about trivial crapola like that.
it must be nice to be so detached from the crises of today's economic nightmare that the corporate elite have created for us.
but the rest of us are struggling over how to keep a roof over our heads, feed our kids, keep the creditors away, and not get sick in ANY way. we're not skipping vacation because we're afraid to find ourselves.
thanx for the virtual crotch-kick though. it feels awesome when you're already down.
I've experienced exactly what you're saying, and I strongly agree with you. My old employers would threaten to fire me if I tried to call in sick, for one day, with a replacement arranged for my shift and a doctor's excuse. Gay guy, in a small town with an already bad economy. They directly threatened to blackball me from every other business in the area even if I even tried to -look- for something else.
Thankfully, we moved. But, yeah. I equate the average employer to be on par with with the Christian idea of Satan.
Friended and favorite'd.
Getting away and blowing off steam sometimes makes us realize the rut that we have gotten into and that we need to make changes in our life.
I get looks from friends when I come back from camping alone. for me being in the outdoors is my needed re-charge.