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Compensation & Benefits

Published May 2008

Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take

 

  Daniel Margolis

Take a vacation" is advice commonly given, particularly for those who seem stressed. For talent managers, however, dispensing this advice isn't quite so simple. For a variety of reasons, employees, particularly in the U.S., are reluctant to take a vacation. Avoiding vacation time may mean avoiding productivity interruptions, but can have long-term effects that are detrimental to an organization's goals.

Expedia's 2007 International Vacation Deprivation Survey found 35 percent of employed U.S. adults do not take all the vacation days they receive each year. Thirteen percent of these respondents indicated the need to schedule vacation time in advance is a barrier to full use of vacation days. Twelve percent indicated being paid for unused vacation days led them not to use them. And 10 percent said it's just too hard to get away from work.

Part of the problem may be that vacation time is not as generously given in America as it is in other countries. Expedia's survey charted the average number of vacation days earned per year by country. In the U.S., workers earn 14 days a year. In the U.K., they earn 24 days; Germany, 26 days; Spain, 30 days; and France, 36 days a year. The same survey also charted how many days workers are likely not to use. The U.S., U.K. and France all leave three days unused per year. Spain leaves just two days, and Germany just one day unused.

U.S. employees already earn less vacation time than their international counterparts, but their unwillingness to use the time they have may be an expression of American culture.

"It's not the employer's fault; part of it is really cultural," said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health, a nonprofit research organization. "There's always been a strong work ethic [in the U.S.]; that's one of the things we're known for. [Here], you have a society in which the emphasis is put on working hard and succeeding. People want more and more things, so they work harder and harder and have longer and longer commutes so they can have bigger houses and furniture, and more everything."

Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.com, echoed this, calling the phenomenon the classic, "Americans don't know when to quit." But Haefner also spoke to how vacation deprivation can be driven from an employer perspective. A high-pressure company culture may inadvertently suggest to employees that taking a vacation is a bad idea.

"There are some organizations that are really under the gun, or culturally go-go-go, so they have a hard time encouraging or supporting people to really disconnect, to really take the time," Haefner said. "You could definitely find workers who would say that, without a doubt, 'I want to make sure that I have visibility. If something good happens when I'm on vacation, would I get credit for it?'"

Encouraging employees to engender a support system that will allow them to fully enjoy their vacations may only serve to needle this paranoia.