Workaholic Americans disdain time off
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Posts: 5,889
C'mon people! Take some days off... Your pile of crap to get done will be on your desk whether you take days off or not 
Workaholic Americans disdain time off
By McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Sunday, February 17, 2008
438 million.
That's the estimated number of vacation days Americans failed to take in 2007. Psychologists, demographers and others say we pass over time off for many reasons -- everything from an entrenched Puritan work ethic, to fear of being seen as reckless slackers relaxing while the economy burns, to simply squirreling away time for days when we're stuck at home awaiting repair calls.
The figure for time left behind comes from Harris Interactive, the polling and research group, which for seven years has examined trends in unused vacation days for Expedia.com, the Internet travel booker. Expedia, along with just about every other travel-related business, overlays the findings onto the bottom line: If people aren't taking vacation days, they're not taking vacations.
Others keep an eye on unused vacation. It's an issue for human resources managers, responsible for overseeing employee time off -- especially in companies where workers can roll days over to a new year or bank them for a windfall on leaving the firm. Researchers on work-life issues, psychologists and labor lawyers deal in the subject. And, of course, employers grapple with it, even as they fail to take their own time off.
"I ask people at meetings all over the United States how many have had unused vacation time in the last year. Generally about a third of the hands will go up," Judy Randall says. Her North Carolina-based Randall Travel Marketing tracks and forecasts trends, and she takes her vacation, frequently in Philadelphia to visit a daughter.
"I think it's an epidemic. We take less of the pitiful amount of vacation time we have than anybody else on the planet. We are genuine to-the-bone workaholics, and even if it's killing us, we're still doing it."
The 438 million days are worth about $60 billion, Harris Interactive says, using average hourly wages for the tabulation. As with many extrapolations, you can argue with the figure -- the Harris/Expedia poll says that 35 percent of all American workers, or about 51 million people, are the people who scrap vacation days, on average three per person. By that accounting, the total number of unused days would be about 153 million.
The study then multiplies the entire American work force by three unused days, arriving at 438 million and change, and some time-management experts say they believe that's closer to reality. Even at the lower 153 million figure, we bypass enough time to fill more than 5,500 lifetimes of 75 years each.
At least we're doing better than in 2006, when the figure was four unused days per worker. The Harris/Expedia research last spring, among a nationwide cross-section of more than 4,000 American workers, asked about vacation plans for the year.
Averaging the number of days left behind per worker would be meaningful if everyone who works in the United States actually got vacations. But we don't. About 75 percent of the work force gets paid vacation -- an average of 14 days, plus whatever holidays employers grant under labor agreements or by fiat.
Not only do we regularly give up days we've often bargained hard to get, we get few compared with the rest of the industrialized world. In fact, the United States is singular when it comes to vacation days: We are the only advanced economy in the world without a minute of government-mandated time off.
In order to be a member of the European Union, a nation's employers must offer workers a minimum of 20 days off a year. Several mandate more. According to "No-Vacation Nation," a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research about the United States' unique place in the balance between work and lifestyle, France requires the most vacation: 30 days, plus a paid holiday. Overall, though, the French are beaten by Austria and Portugal, which require employers to give 22 vacation days off, plus 13 holidays, for a total of 35 days off -- amounting to seven weeks a year.
Among the richest countries, Canada and Japan mandate the fewest days off, not counting the U.S. total of zero. The Japanese, who have a word -- karoshi -- for dying from overwork, get a minimum of 10 days and no nationally mandated holidays. Canadians have the same minimum, but get an additional eight paid holidays.
According to people who research employee benefits, workers in those countries also leave time behind. The Harris/Expedia survey says the French also give up three days, the Spanish, two, and the Germans, one -- but they all have more time off, and an incentive to use it because it's more of a cultural mandate.
Workaholism. The Puritan ethic. Feeling guilty about taking earned days. The fear of being overrun by competition. People frequently cite these reasons for junking their vacation days.
Others, often at the worker-bee level, save vacation days for family emergencies or appointments that crop up. "If the cable guy is going to come by the house, a lot of people have to take a vacation to be there, for instance," says John Schmitt, coauthor of the "No-Vacation Nation" study. Or, says Bernard N. Katz, of the employment law firm Meranze & Katz in Philadelphia, "people will try to save vacation days for supplemental sick leave, for when they can't work."
And clearly, a number of people who fail to take their time off really like their work. After cramming in more than a week of unused vacation time at the last minute, Christiana Brenner, a senior account executive with a Chicago firm, ended 2007 with 11 unused vacation days. Brenner, 26, says she's "fortunate to have a job I truly enjoy" and even considers fun.
Last year, Cassandra Oryl didn't give up any of her 10 vacation days and three holidays, but the year before, she traveled for fun to Portugal, and still left days behind at Braithwaite Communications, a Rittenhouse Square public relations firm. "Because we're an agency, we ultimately have to answer to clients," she says. "So some years, there just isn't much time for vacation."
No time for vacation -- it's a running American theme despite much research that trumpets the restorative benefits of time off. These include the well-respected Framingham Heart Study, which found over two decades that workers who take annual vacations are less likely to die of heart attacks.
"The whole workplace is worse off than we probably know," says Joe Robinson, founder of the Work to Live Campaign, seeking a minimum number of government-mandated paid vacation days in the United States. Robinson works with Take Back Your Time, another group stumping for legislation. "People are preoccupied with defining their identities by their jobs," he says. "All the economic and job issues just exacerbate it."
Robinson, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and takes all his vacation, offers an antidote: the Cook Islands, sun-drenched in the South Pacific. He took time off there. "No stress," he says. "In the middle of nowhere. I highly recommend it."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_552806.html
Workaholic Americans disdain time off
By McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Sunday, February 17, 2008
438 million.
That's the estimated number of vacation days Americans failed to take in 2007. Psychologists, demographers and others say we pass over time off for many reasons -- everything from an entrenched Puritan work ethic, to fear of being seen as reckless slackers relaxing while the economy burns, to simply squirreling away time for days when we're stuck at home awaiting repair calls.
The figure for time left behind comes from Harris Interactive, the polling and research group, which for seven years has examined trends in unused vacation days for Expedia.com, the Internet travel booker. Expedia, along with just about every other travel-related business, overlays the findings onto the bottom line: If people aren't taking vacation days, they're not taking vacations.
Others keep an eye on unused vacation. It's an issue for human resources managers, responsible for overseeing employee time off -- especially in companies where workers can roll days over to a new year or bank them for a windfall on leaving the firm. Researchers on work-life issues, psychologists and labor lawyers deal in the subject. And, of course, employers grapple with it, even as they fail to take their own time off.
"I ask people at meetings all over the United States how many have had unused vacation time in the last year. Generally about a third of the hands will go up," Judy Randall says. Her North Carolina-based Randall Travel Marketing tracks and forecasts trends, and she takes her vacation, frequently in Philadelphia to visit a daughter.
"I think it's an epidemic. We take less of the pitiful amount of vacation time we have than anybody else on the planet. We are genuine to-the-bone workaholics, and even if it's killing us, we're still doing it."
The 438 million days are worth about $60 billion, Harris Interactive says, using average hourly wages for the tabulation. As with many extrapolations, you can argue with the figure -- the Harris/Expedia poll says that 35 percent of all American workers, or about 51 million people, are the people who scrap vacation days, on average three per person. By that accounting, the total number of unused days would be about 153 million.
The study then multiplies the entire American work force by three unused days, arriving at 438 million and change, and some time-management experts say they believe that's closer to reality. Even at the lower 153 million figure, we bypass enough time to fill more than 5,500 lifetimes of 75 years each.
At least we're doing better than in 2006, when the figure was four unused days per worker. The Harris/Expedia research last spring, among a nationwide cross-section of more than 4,000 American workers, asked about vacation plans for the year.
Averaging the number of days left behind per worker would be meaningful if everyone who works in the United States actually got vacations. But we don't. About 75 percent of the work force gets paid vacation -- an average of 14 days, plus whatever holidays employers grant under labor agreements or by fiat.
Not only do we regularly give up days we've often bargained hard to get, we get few compared with the rest of the industrialized world. In fact, the United States is singular when it comes to vacation days: We are the only advanced economy in the world without a minute of government-mandated time off.
In order to be a member of the European Union, a nation's employers must offer workers a minimum of 20 days off a year. Several mandate more. According to "No-Vacation Nation," a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research about the United States' unique place in the balance between work and lifestyle, France requires the most vacation: 30 days, plus a paid holiday. Overall, though, the French are beaten by Austria and Portugal, which require employers to give 22 vacation days off, plus 13 holidays, for a total of 35 days off -- amounting to seven weeks a year.
Among the richest countries, Canada and Japan mandate the fewest days off, not counting the U.S. total of zero. The Japanese, who have a word -- karoshi -- for dying from overwork, get a minimum of 10 days and no nationally mandated holidays. Canadians have the same minimum, but get an additional eight paid holidays.
According to people who research employee benefits, workers in those countries also leave time behind. The Harris/Expedia survey says the French also give up three days, the Spanish, two, and the Germans, one -- but they all have more time off, and an incentive to use it because it's more of a cultural mandate.
Workaholism. The Puritan ethic. Feeling guilty about taking earned days. The fear of being overrun by competition. People frequently cite these reasons for junking their vacation days.
Others, often at the worker-bee level, save vacation days for family emergencies or appointments that crop up. "If the cable guy is going to come by the house, a lot of people have to take a vacation to be there, for instance," says John Schmitt, coauthor of the "No-Vacation Nation" study. Or, says Bernard N. Katz, of the employment law firm Meranze & Katz in Philadelphia, "people will try to save vacation days for supplemental sick leave, for when they can't work."
And clearly, a number of people who fail to take their time off really like their work. After cramming in more than a week of unused vacation time at the last minute, Christiana Brenner, a senior account executive with a Chicago firm, ended 2007 with 11 unused vacation days. Brenner, 26, says she's "fortunate to have a job I truly enjoy" and even considers fun.
Last year, Cassandra Oryl didn't give up any of her 10 vacation days and three holidays, but the year before, she traveled for fun to Portugal, and still left days behind at Braithwaite Communications, a Rittenhouse Square public relations firm. "Because we're an agency, we ultimately have to answer to clients," she says. "So some years, there just isn't much time for vacation."
No time for vacation -- it's a running American theme despite much research that trumpets the restorative benefits of time off. These include the well-respected Framingham Heart Study, which found over two decades that workers who take annual vacations are less likely to die of heart attacks.
"The whole workplace is worse off than we probably know," says Joe Robinson, founder of the Work to Live Campaign, seeking a minimum number of government-mandated paid vacation days in the United States. Robinson works with Take Back Your Time, another group stumping for legislation. "People are preoccupied with defining their identities by their jobs," he says. "All the economic and job issues just exacerbate it."
Robinson, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., and takes all his vacation, offers an antidote: the Cook Islands, sun-drenched in the South Pacific. He took time off there. "No stress," he says. "In the middle of nowhere. I highly recommend it."
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/mostread/s_552806.html
My whole life
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
was like a picture
of a sunny day
“We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.”
― Abraham Lincoln
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Comments
I currently have 8 weeks of vacation saved up. I earn 4.5 weeks per year at this point and once I get to 12 weeks total, I start losing the accrued days. So...eventually, I am going to have to take them because I do not want to lose them.
Prior to last year, the company would pay you for the unused vacation time above 5 weeks at the end of the year, so that was a nice bonus.
Oh yeah - I'm currently also maxed out at 12 weeks of sick time, so I've been losing the additional days for almost a year.
...are those who've helped us.
Right 'round the corner could be bigger than ourselves.
America must have began with Saturn's return, muahaha.
2) Going away anywhere is too expensive!
Bingo. That's why I don't take long stretches of vacation time - can't afford to go anywhere. I got a mortgage. A couple of years ago, I used savings money to go diving in Cozumel for a week at an all-inclusive resort (including the flight), it was close to $2000.
I do take days off from time to time, like if I'm going to a concert in St. Louis or Kansas City on a weeknight I'll take the whole day off.
"I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions." - George Carlin
But as far as the workaholic thing goes. Some people (for good reason) fear taking the time off, because they might not have a job when they come back. I've seen it happen.
I used to work with a gal who went on "vacation". But, she did so much work while she was there (laptop on the beach) she ended up accruing comp time.
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"We've laid the groundwork. It's like planting the seeds. And next year, it's spring." - Nader
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Prepare for tending to your garden, America.
I use them all up Baby !!
Actually I keep some sick days we can carry over sick days but cannot have anymore then 16
The ONLY thing better than a glass of beer is tea with Miss McGill
A protuberance of flesh above the waistband of a tight pair of trousers
yeah like I want my next trip to be to iceland, but I can't afford it! I'll take off a day here or there for a long weekend or something, but for an actual "vacation" it takes years to save up!