Vacations benefit both worker and boss

Friday, October 28, 2005

YOUR BUSINESS: Barbara Babkirk

LifeWorks

Barbara Babkirk has heard thousands of stories of people's challenges to find work that fits their personalities, skills and values. A licensed counselor with more than 20 years in career counseling, Barbara owns Heart at Work in Yarmouth. She is a frequent public speaker on work and life balance and practices what she teaches by offering an annual women's retreat and individual sabbaticals in the South of France. Latest entry:

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If your employees didn't take that long, relaxing, re-energizing vacation this summer, they might be shortchanging themselves and you. And, if you didn't take that vacation either, read on.

Whether you're the employee or the employer, time away from work is critical. Indeed, scientific evidence suggests that vacations, a majority of which are taken during the summer, are good for everyone - no matter on which side of the managerial desk you sit.

Vacations, say researchers, can lift your spirits, improve your health and well-being and, ultimately, allow you to perform better on the job.

Furthermore, they say, not just any kind of vacation - for instance, "long weekends" - will do. They're talking a serious (read: two-week) vacation.

University of Alabama researchers found that subjects' DNA repair capacity, a process central to maintaining a normal cell cycle, slowed to a healthier rate only after a three-week vacation.

In another study, the physical health, mood and quality of sleep of nurses improved after a two-week break. Again, the health benefits were evident only after at least two weeks away from work.

Unfortunately, if a two-week vacation is necessary for benefits to kick in, most Americans are in trouble.

Only 14 percent of workers take two consecutive weeks or more annual leave. On average, Americans take only four consecutive days to rest, renew and have a good time - woefully inadequate considering most need at least three days to unwind from work.

The impact of time off affects the employee and the employer in significant ways. But both will reap the benefits.

For employers, annual vacations can affect health costs, employee productivity and performance. With employees experiencing less burnout and more overall satisfaction, there is potentially significant savings from not having to treat depression and stress-related illnesses, which comprise 70 percent to 80 percent of doctor visits.

Indeed, it's common for people to return from vacations with renewed job interest, leading to increased efficiency and performance.

Employees also have much to gain - starting with increased life expectancy. One study found that men who took annual vacations were 21 percent less likely to die over a period of nine years than those who never took a vacation.

On a less dramatic note, without adequate time off, a person is vulnerable to burnout, which includes symptoms that might start with irritability and frustration and lead to depression and emotional withdrawal. A person experiencing burnout is typically not able to clearly discern what is wrong and may opt to make dramatic changes in their career path when a long period of rest could be a cure.

In my own practice, clients often say they want to change careers. It's always a tip-off to me to listen for symptoms of burnout when teachers, lawyers or executives talk dreamily about working in a florist shop or bakery as a way out of their current job.

While we hear that Americans desire a better balance between work and life, surveys indicate we're not making changes in our work behaviors.

Expedia.com's annual "Vacation Deprivation Survey" found that seven out of 10 Americans don't feel they have a healthy balance between work and personal life. Nine out of 10 say vacations make them better employees and 75 percent report being "more productive" afterward.

Nonetheless, they hand back to their employers $21 billion in unused vacation days each year. It's estimated that they will take 10 percent less vacation time this year than last; that one in five feel guilty about taking a vacation; and that 12 percent say they won't even take one.

Why such a discrepancy between what Americans say they want and need and what they actually do? The answer lies in two places: in the workplace where the standard for taking time off is set and in our minds where we conjure up fearsome scenarios about why taking the time would put our work in jeopardy.

While a company's vacation policy may indicate the days allowed, it doesn't ensure they will actually be used.

In addition, today's marketplace lacks job security. Economic pressures are creating unhealthy dependencies on jobs to the point where people ignore their needs and vacation benefits for fear of losing their job.

There's also work overload. I've had many clients who hesitated to take more than three- or four-day weekends as vacation time because of the enormous amount of work they would face upon return.

Employers need to create backup systems for employees on vacation as well as encourage their managers to model healthy work and life balance.

With both of these conditions in place, employees will truly have permission to renew their energy and motivation by taking an extended vacation, and companies will no longer develop employees who lose their edge and motivation, become ill or leave.

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