Is "vacation" now a dirty word?

For the first time in three years, I am going on vacation for longer than a week. While packing my suitcases, I wondered why I had let so much time pass since my last long vacation.

After all the whining about how exhausted I get, why was I not taking more of the vacation available to me? Unlike when I was in college, I can afford a nice vacation every so often.

According to a survey conducted by Harris Interactive, US employees only use 51% of their paid vacation. According to another study by the US Travel association, 41% of American workers did not plan to use all their paid time off in 2014. All told, US workers left 169 million vacation days on the table. Only a few countries like Japan, India, Australia and South Korea do worse.

Clearly, I have company in not taking enough vacation. If all of us non-vacationers ever met, we’d form a group bigger than several cults. We could even start our own religion. But I digress.

How did “vacation” become a dirty word?

First, taking vacation is not always an option for many of us. The US is one of the few countries where paid vacation is not required by law.

FIGURE 1: PAID VACATION TIME (SOURCE)

US employers can be frugal with vacation, The Center for Economic Policy and Research states in its report “No-Vacation Nation Revisited”:

• US workers get an average of 16 days total of paid vacation plus holidays. The minimum required by law in other comparable rich countries is 19.
• Only 69% of workers employed by small businesses have any paid vacation and only 49% of low-wage workers have paid vacation. Part-time workers have it even worse with only 35% eligible for paid vacations.
• About 30% of workers feel their employers make it hard for them to take PTO either due to heavy workloads or de-emphasizing time off
• Additionally, a lot of startups don’t offer vacation, but you’re free to take as much as you can on the “honor” system. Given the special culture, fast-changing landscape, long hours and constrained economics that govern startups, many find it hard to take time off.

Employers are not the sole actors in this sorry scenario. This dysfunctional system is the offspring of many parents -- and workers have played their part in conceiving it.

The aforementioned study by the US Travel Association lists how workers often choose to forego vacation time. I am certain many of us have fallen into the following categories at some point:

• 40% of Americans dread the work that will have stacked up when they return from vacation.
• 35% of Americans believe that if they take vacation, no one else can make up for their absence. The Washington Post calls these folks “work martyrs.” These folks would do well to remember that the graveyards are full of folks once deemed indispensable. They might then take some time off before exhaustion takes them to their grave prematurely.
• 28% of Americans think that by not taking vacation, they will have demonstrated just how dedicated they are to their jobs. Clearly, in some circles burnout is a badge of honor.
• 33% of Americans feel insecure about taking time off lest their job is cut in what is perhaps the most poignant byproduct of the tough economic cycles of recent years.
• Increased job-hopping means Americans accrue less vacation and don’t get the benefits of increased vacation time typically earned once you stay at a job for a while.

There are still other causes behind our vanished wanderlust.

Unlike when our parents and grandparents worked, our lives defy compartmentalization. At least as I remember it, daytime was for work and evening was time off from work.

Today, work and life have combined into a homogenous concoction where it is impossible to separate the ingredients.

• Our workdays are no longer confined to 9-5 and our workweek no longer ends on Friday. With ubiquitous email access and teleconferencing, work is closer than your workplace. Being away from work seems weird and unnatural. Cutting off and getting away from it all has become the new abnormal. It is a long way from working extra hours to leaving vacation on the table, but we all start somewhere.
• Folks are just as likely to use Facebook or Spotify to space out at work as they are to work extra hours at home while also watching TV.
• According to the New York Times, the American workday is a mix of work, socializing and meetings. Germans, by contrast, follow a “get in, get it done, get out” model that is light on meetings and makes for a shorter workday. Given how well the German economy is doing across all sectors, the link between long hours and productivity seems tenuous at best.
• According to the Washington Post, 50% of managers respond to emails while on vacation, 30% return work calls and just 37% fully disconnect from work while on vacation. This sends a not so subtle message to others - you must be out of your mind to be out of sight.

Finally, some of us live by the “je suis my work” mantra. A former colleague who is nearing retirement misses the rush already. At work, he is the expert and is looked up to. He has been working for 40+ years and does not remember a life without a briefcase and a routine. Working for a living made possible his material possessions, being able to support his family and earning dignity in society. For him, work is no longer about financial need, but about feeling needed. It is likely that he and others are among those who leave vacation on the table.

Not taking enough vacation has obvious downsides. Workers feel fatigued and there will almost certainly be a drop in the quality of their output. There are economic implications too. Unused vacation in the US amounts to lost revenue worth $67 billion for the travel industry. That number explains why the US Travel Association conducted the research that this article so liberally uses.

Luckily, there are some positive changes afoot to ensure that work is not the means to an endless workday.

The Japanese government is debating a bill whereby employers would have to ensure that workers avail of their vacation. This is significant since the Japanese work long hours just like Americans do. The Japanese even have a word for death by overwork - karoshi.

Companies in the US have also begun to emphasize the salubrious effects of vacation. A Denver-based high-tech company called FullContact is paying its employees extra to not stay in contact during their vacation. Based on personal experience, the CEO offers employees $7,500 to become disconnected totally from work during their vacation.

Evernote offers its employees $1,000 to take a one-week vacation. Companies like HubSpot and the Economist are also making paid vacations mandatory.

Maybe the cult of vacation-avoiders will get smaller as time goes on.