Look how relaxed Michelle Obama looks. Maybe more of us should be taking a page from her vacation bonanza.
There’s been all this outrage over the First Lady’s lavish trip to Spain. Yes, it was a dumb idea given the bad economy.
But I’m more outraged at another piece of vacation news that got little attention this week — a poll showing a huge number of Americans deciding not to take vacation this summer.
This is a really dumb idea and it won’t help you find a job faster or keep your existing one.
The job site Monster.com did a poll in July to find out if the economy was impacting vacation plans among workers and they found:
* 70 percent of respondents are so focused on their job search, that they will not take any time off for vacation.
* 18 percent are planning a trip
* 12 percent are taking time off, but staying at home, otherwise known as a “staycation.”
The worse part is the survey also found these folks really need some serious R&R:
When asked, “Do you get paid for working overtime?”, 60 percent of the nearly 3000 respondents said they were actually putting in extra hours without receiving any additional pay.
“While it’s surprising to see how many people are not planning any time off this year, either due to guilt or fear of losing their jobs, it’s really interesting when you factor in the extra amount of time Americans are working, without any added compensation,” said Jeff Quinn, senior director of research, Monster Worldwide. “With many workers spending additional unpaid time in the office, employers also need to consider quality of life implications, and the subsequent effects on work quality. And as the economy begins to turn around, retention could be a real concern for some employers.”
And what about your mental health guys, not to mention the damage no vacations does to your career?
Some workers have a perverted view that not taking time off and keeping their nose to the grindstone will advance their career, or keep their jobs from ending up on the chopping block.
But in fact, it could lead to burnout, emotional and physical illness, and end up jeopardizing their careers, their lives.
So take vacation, people!
“Taking a vacation is not a luxury — it’s a necessity,” says Kathleen Hall, founder of The Stress Institute in Atlanta. “If you don’t have the opportunity to relax and reflect you get stressed, and chronic stress is the driver of most diseases — heart disease, obesity, insomnia.”
“We’ve become a nation of workaholics,” says Jeff Pfeffer, Stanford University professor and the author of “What They Were Thinking: Unconventional Wisdom about Management.” “Part of it is a macho culture of ‘I can work more than you can. I don’t need sleep or rest.’ ”
Indeed, the United States is one of the only industrialized nations that does not require employers to provide their workers with vacation or sick time.
Ask yourself, he says, why pro football players play when they’re hurt, even though evidence shows it can shorten their careers. “It’s all this think-tough attitude. That you’re more loyal or dedicated if you forgo vacation.”
“Given how screwed up the American workplace is today, giving up your earned time might get you kudos from some managers,” he acknowledges. But it won’t help workers in the long run, he adds.
If your productivity declines, you won’t get raises or promotions, and you could end up losing your job. This becomes even more critical when your job involves creative or critical thought, experts says.
A good rest may even bring career advancement.
“Your vacation just might be the key to identifying the new product or strategy you’ve been struggling with for months,” says Noah Blumenthal, a consultant and author of “You’re Addicted to You: Why It’s So Hard to Change and What You Can Do About It.”
For those who do pack their bags, a long weekend won’t really cut it.
“It is important for people to take their vacations — meaning vacations of a week or two long. Taking a day or two doesn’t do as much good,” explains Wallace Huffman, economics professor at Iowa State University. “Productivity could increase by up to 60 percent for employees in the month or two following a good vacation.”
And that doesn’t mean taking along a suitcase full of electronic gadgets that keep you connected to the office or plant. You have to disconnect in order to unwind. Minimize the use of cell phones, laptops and PDAs if you want all the benefits of relaxation, Huffman adds.
The is all even harder for someone who is out of work. First off, you probably don’t have the money to spend on a big vacation, and you don’t want to miss a second from your job search.
Well, you don’t have to go somewhere fancy. Forget Spain. Sorry Michelle. You can visit a friend, or go to a cheap hotel by the shore for a few days. Given the economy, there are deals to be had.
And for those of you worried about missing that one opportunity for the perfect job, the summer is never the best time to look for work anyway. Most hiring managers will seriously have their heads in the hiring game come September, so you need to reinvigorate yourselves right now.
We need to start thinking as a nation that leisure time is why we all work in the first place. No?
August 11th, 2010 at 9:35 am
In my opinion the change to PPT (personal paid time) in many workplaces, rather than separate “sick” and “vacation” time, has added to the issues of people not wanting to take time off. My employer has a PPT plan. I always feel like I need to hold back a set number of days just in case I get sick or am injured. My family and I have had only one away-from-home vacation (during the week, not long weekends) in the past eight years. We’ve about given up on the idea of family vacations (something that were an annual event when I as growing up).
When I took my current position, knowing that they offered less time off than my former employer, I arranged to be able to take up to two weeks off each year without pay. I figured that, by ditching my daily commute, we’d be able to save enough each year to cover that extra time off. Of course, with medical costs rising and the realities of a high-deductibe medical plan ($4000/year for the family) settling in, we began to realize I’d never be able to take off those weeks without pay.
[I started mid-year. By year-end, we met the deductibe. We met the deductable again during the first three months of the following year, and had not paid everything off before the current year rolled in, and we just met the deductable again in July. We’ve had $12,000 in medical deductables in the past 26 months.]
So despite the fact that I know that long weekends are no true substitute for a real, week-long (or longer) vacation, that’s all that is available to me right now, and even those are few and far between. I’m taking a half PPT day today to bring my wife home from the hospital, and to make sure she gets some rest once she’s home, so that’s one less half-day available for family recreation.
Aside from vacation, the other concept we’ve largely lost as a society is the keeping of a day of rest. We may have “weekends” on the calendar, but even those of us fortunate enough not to be scheduled to work on those days tend to fill them up with all of the household business we didn’t have time or energy to address during the week (e.g., shopping, mowing, household maintenance), or scheduled activities that must be atttended. We’ve forgotten what it really means to be able to kick back, one day a week, and realize that the world won’t stop turning and our homes won’t fall apart while we take time to recover.
Ugh…this is just such a hot-button topic for me right now. My father worked hard as a tradesman, but managed to take our family on vacation one (and sometimes twice) a year. Now I, working in a technical/professional field, find myself unable to provide such vacations for my family. [In my situation, I realize it is, in part, due to the fact that we chose to have a larger family than did my father, but it is still frustrating.] I had dreams of taking my kids back to the camp where we vacationed for a week at a time. The kids have their own dreams too (as did I, when a child) of seeing the Grand Canyon, Williamsburg, and the ocean among many others, but my life and career have made it unlikely that we will ever travel together to see such places…
I’m going to stop writing now, because the topic is just too depressing.
Just a final note to anyone thinking about changing jobs. If you were at an employer with generous benefits and a good vacation allowance, think twice before jumping ship to another employer who gives less time off. Losing my access to time off is the only real regret I have regarding the move I made to my current position. Had I stayed where I was, I would have kept a three hour (routnd trip) daily commute, but also would have had four weeks of vacation (with an option to “buy” a fifth) plus 64 hours of sick time per year. The exchange cost of working close to home (giving up the commute) was a drop back to two weeks of PPT (combined sick and vacation time), with no increase until I enter my sixth year of service.
:-(
August 11th, 2010 at 11:36 am
Wow HIkingStick, you really make a good case for figuring out exactly what you’re trading away when you come up with different work arrangements with a new, or even existing employer.
And a week vaca isn’t necessary to refuel, according to most of the experts I’ve talked to. Even a long weekend, can do the trick.
Someday you’ll all get to Grand Canyon and the rest. Think positively.
I want to go to Spain someday. Maybe Michelle will take me next time.
August 14th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
My husband and I took a week and a half. I didn’t get paid for the time I was off, but it was WORTH IT! Thankfully my husband got paid for the time off! It’s hard for some people to, b/c they unfortunately don’t have the option to leave without pay. My bosses were stressed most of the time I was gone and I think happier to see me back at work. Guess it shows them just how easily available I was. With or without pay, we make it a goal to take at least two nice vacations a year. We went to Maryland to visit friends and spent the rest of the time at home working on our house. Who knows where we’ll go next
August 26th, 2010 at 11:32 am
Vacation? What’s that?
After too many years of unemployment, temp work (aka “how to go broke while working”), businesses shutting down or moving out of town, I sure don’t have any money for vacations. I’m working now, but the cost of living is high (including vet bills for my dogs), and my employeer, too, offers PTO (Paid Time Off) and 2 weeks of vacation time. This time is to be used for doctor/dentist/chiropractor appointments, sick days, ice-storm days (that usually eats 2-3 days every year around here), car breakdowns, time waiting for the plumber to show up, etc. Between the lack of $$ and the lack of time, I’m lucky to get in a couple of long weekends for R&R. I haven’t been home to see my family in over 2 years, and I don’t see the situation changing any time soon.
Vacation? Bah - HUMBUG!