Vacations—or the lack of them
by Miki Saxon
Do you work hard? Did you, or will you, take a vacation this year? A real live vacation during which you actually disconnect from your office/business/work. If your answer is no, you have a lot of company. The attitude/action even has a name, it’s called “shrinking-vacation syndrome” and it’s prevalent.
Smart bosses know that people need to get away, not just to recharge their batteries and creativity, but to reduce stress and rebuild coping skills—and that taking along the office defeats the purpose.
Smart people know that cramming everything possible into the available time (especially when kids are involved) leaves them more frazzled than they were.
But if you’re not PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has taken to shutting down its entire national operation twice a year to ensure that people stop working, what can you do? Several things…
If your company offers paid vacations insist that your employees use them. Not by taking them away when not used, but by including “staff taking vacations” as a line item in every manager’s review.
If you’re a small biz that can’t offer paid vacations consider allowing your employees to trade paid holidays for different days they want, e.g., working July Fourth and Thanksgiving in trade for a Friday and the following Monday off.
Small biz owners should also consider closing one Friday with pay at least once, preferably twice, a year, e.g., the Friday after Thanksgiving (or a similar day). Consider it an investment as the ROI in increased productivity and retention will surprise you.
If you’re one of the many managers, found at all levels and in all sizes of companies, who don’t believe in vacations and intimidate your people so that they won’t take one, or insist that they “deal with stuff” while gone, I sincerely hope you have few personal expectations and excellent hiring skills, since you can look forward to low productivity, high turnover, and poor reviews no matter where you work!
