Published May 28, 2006

On a Vacation? Go for You

by Patricia Poist, Sunday News Staff Writer,

The only employee in an administrative department at a Lancaster County health care provider, she has been on the job for nearly 15 years and has earned several weeks vacation.

But she feels she can only take a few days off here and there and can't leave for any extended period of time.

"I can't, because I don't know what kind of mess I would come back to,'' said the woman, in her late 40s, who requested anonymity.

She said she suffers from migraine headaches from time to time, which she believes is due to stress.

The woman's dilemma is one of many that Lancaster workplace expert Ira Wolfe has encountered in his job, helping employers with their work force issues.

Indeed, he said, Americans have a poor record of taking vacation time and one of the reasons is that the work force is more specialized; workers are doing more specific jobs that make it difficult for others to fill in.

In addition, more and more companies have cut back and are making their employees do more with less staff. And the American culture is such that employees, particularly professionals and executives, don't want to risk looking disloyal or getting behind in their work.

"I think part of it is the competitive environment,'' said Wolfe, president of Success Performance Solutions. "People fear losing their jobs or what will happen when they are gone.

"There is a mindset that it is almost not worth it to go away because of the crush before you go and the crush of catching up when you come back.''

The end result: a stressed-out and burned-out work force, he and other experts say.

"There is only so much people can take; they need to get away,'' Wolfe said.

According to Expedia.com, the world's leading online travel service (which, of course, has an interest in getting people to take vacations), Americans fall far behind other countries when it comes to taking vacations.

In its most recent annual "vacation deprivation'' study conducted by an independent polling company and released this past week, Expedia found that Americans this year are expected to give back more than 574 million vacation days, 150 million more than they did last year .

A third of Americans, reported they do not always take all of their vacation days. That is despite the fact that 36 percent said they are rested, feel better about their jobs and are more productive when they return to work, according to the survey of 2,327 adult Americans.

"Vacation deprivation in America is at an all-time high,'' said Sally McKenzie, vice president and general manager for Expedia.com, in a statement Tuesday.

The company also surveyed workers in other countries, including Canada, France, Germany and Australia, who all fared better in getting and taking vacation.

U.S. workers received the least amount of vacation days (14 on average) and were most likely to work over 40 hours a week (38 percent).

This paints a very bleak picture that should inspire Americans to take more vacation time, which translates into "incredible health and wellness benefits.

"This trend of overworked and vacation-deprived workers in America is both unfortunate and, in many ways, unsustainable,'' McKenzie said.

Workers in France enjoy the longest stretch of vacation with the average employee receiving 39 days and with two in five taking a three- to four-week vacation during the summer holidays. That compares with the measly one-week getaway that two in five Americans take.

"Americans should take a cue from their foreign counterparts and relish the vacation they earn,'' McKenzie said.

Millersville University sociology professor Scott Schaffer said that when Americans fall behind on taking vacations it hurts productivity in the long run.

He recalled a job doing research on Holocaust victims in Los Angeles. It was intense and painful and it took two shifts of people to do the work.

The first shift was very regimented. People arrived promptly at 8 a.m., took breaks and lunchtime at very specific times and left promptly at 4:30 p.m.

The second shift was very different. People arrived at 5-ish but they took time to order bagels, later ordered dinner; some even napped and, sometimes, at night they would hold soccer matches out in the parking lot.

Guess what? The second shift was 50 percent more productive than the first shift, said Schaffer.

His point: a more relaxed employee is a better employee. And a key to relaxation is taking adequate vacation time.

"People are simply afraid of losing their jobs and they are afraid people who are still working will be more productive than they are,'' he said. As a result, people are taking shorter vacation times and often, even when they are on vacation, they remain connected via computer or cell phone.

In addition, Americans still have a strong Protestant work ethic, which praises hard work and frowns on idleness.

"With a combination of those two, people feel they have to work harder to keep afloat, let alone get ahead in their professions,'' Schaffer said.

Another factor, he said is the decline of the labor movement over the past two decades. With unions diminished, there are fewer protections for workers, he said.

The end result, he noted, will be a less productive work force.

"We end up angrier, more bitter with a less sense of doing anything meaningful and, ultimately, become a disgruntled country,'' Schaffer said.

Wolfe said companies should require their employees to take vacation. It benefits employers in that they can have some type of measure when that employee is gone to determine his or her productivity.

"We are a bunch of workaholics,'' he said. "There is a fine line between being a workaholic and being dedicated. When do you cross the line? A lot of it has to do with your personal perceptions and what the employer values."

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