Attention Managers: Your Employees Need a Vacation

Studies show that job stress stretches the bottom line. Lack of quality vacation time is part of the problem.

(PRWEB) July 5, 2005

The United States is the most productive country in the developed world. Unfortunately, this productivity comes at a cost. According to a recent survey by Integra Realty Resources, one in eight workers in the United States had called in sick because of workplace stress and one in five had quit a job because of it. This cost of job stress to businesses is estimated at $200 billion per year.

Lack of quality vacation time is part of the problem. According to a report on ABCNews.com, the average American worker takes 10.2 vacation days per year, compared with 25 to 35 days in Sweden, 25 days in Australia and 17.5 days in Japan. Twelve percent of American workers don't take a vacation at all; many workers gave back $21 billion in untaken vacation time to their employers in 2004, according to Expedia.com.

“We have a cultural hang-up about taking vacations, and it's costing American businesses dearly,” says Jim Jenkins of Creative Visions Consulting. “Today's workers not only have too much to do; many are made to feel guilty if they take time off. Managers are hurting profits when the do not allow employees to take quality time away from the job, which is essential for employees to rest and re-enter the workplace with a better attitude and more energy.”

According to Jenkins, managers contribute to our “vacationless” culture by insisting that employees interrupt vacations for “urgent” matters at the office. “In subtle ways, they discourage team members from using their vacation time, perhaps by never going on a vacation themselves. The problem is exacerbated by the emergence of devices like BlackBerries and Palm Pilots that keep employees plugged into the job twenty four hours a day.”

Here are a few simple rules employees should follow to have a real vacation:

-Give your laptop a rest and leave it at home.

-Use your email client's “out of office assistant” to declare that you are away from the office and will not have access to email. Include alternative contacts in case of an urgent matter.

-Leave a similar message on your voice mail.

-Do not give out your cell phone number to call “in case of emergency”

-Plan your vacation well in advance, and make it very clear to all that any meetings requiring your presence must be scheduled around your vacation.

-Consider taking a vacation to a place where contact with the outside world is minimized. International travel and cruises are good in this respect.

-If at all possible, try to take a vacation that is longer than one week. This can be very difficult, but people often are just getting into the vacation groove when a one-week vacation comes to an end.

If you manage others, you owe it to your team to respect their vacation time. Set a positive example by valuing your own time away, and not apologizing for being human and needing an opportunity to rest, refresh and re-engage. The rest of the world seems to have figured this out, so now's your turn to truly unplug, unwind and relax!

This press release is adapted from the article, "How to Take a Vacation," by Jim Jenkins. To read the entire article, go to http://tinyurl.com/dop7f

Jim Jenkins, founder and president of Creative Visions Consulting, is a veteran of over 20 years in the corporate world at such companies as AT&T, Nortel Networks and ProLink Services. Jim helps clients refocus and experience new ways of seeing, thinking and doing. Creative Visions Consulting offers programs that include coaching, team building, change management consulting and assessment programs. For more information, please visit http://www.cvc-inc.com.

###