This CNBC story caused quite a bit of discussion on my Facebook wall this week. In short, Americans don’t take all the time off they can, and many don’t even take any.
I didn’t used to take much, either – but have since changed my view on the matter.
There seem to be a variety of issues at play in this discussion; some of the highlights of the thread:
“what if Americans enjoy their jobs more than anyone else, and so don’t want to take more breaks?” –CF
“what if Americans are more scared of losing their jobs while being on vacation, and instead work more tired, more stressed, and less effectively than their counterparts in other parts of the developed world” –me
“You don’t realize that you’re “working for something” if you don’t get to have time to enjoy that for which you’ve worked.” –MS
So what think ye?
In my experience, either there is no formal vacation policy, in which case there is no “all” to use, or they’re accrue, and have to be paid out when you leave. In that instance, I like to let the accrual grow as close to the cap as humanly possible, and have that nice bigger paycheck when I leave a job. Plus, my plan has always been that when I start flirting with the cap to start taking a lot of frequent 3-day weekends just because.
Also, “what you’re working” should be something you can enjoy all year long, not just a few weeks of the year. A good work-life balance is probably a lot more important than vacation time. If it’s done well, with generous paid holidays (basically stacking up holidays on days when most people would likely be out of the office anyways), I don’t many Americans would need a lot of vacation time.