Posted on 06/28/2003 1:31:11 AM PDT by txzman
Vacation Deprivation
Americans Get Short-Changed When It Comes to Holiday Time
By Catherine Valenti
June 25 — If it feels like you're stuck behind your desk on a sunny summer day while the rest of the world is on vacation, that's because you are and it is.
Few other industrialized countries have as little vacation time as America, where there aren't even legal guarantees of vacation time.
Just ask Matthew Mortellaro. Working in his first job out of college, the 23-year-old New York City-based publicist is already disillusioned with the world of work. The reason? He only gets five paid vacation days a year.
Mortellaro's company, which he declined to name, grants five vacation days to its employees after they've been working at the job more than six months. A year later, they get a total of 10 vacation days.
But for the St. Louis native, who often uses his vacation time to go home to visit his family, the short amount of time off has become a sore subject, especially when friends in Europe enjoy a month of vacation each year in their first jobs out of school.
"It kind of annoys me and makes me feel unfulfilled," says Mortellaro. "Is that all my life is about — working? What's the point of working all the time when all you do is work? I want to be able to appreciate it, too."
Mortellaro's experience is typical of many Americans, most of whom get very little vacation time when compared to workers in other industrialized nations. U.S. workers aren't guaranteed any vacation time by law and take an average of 10.2 vacation days a year after three years on the job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
In contrast, workers in the United Kingdom are guaranteed 20 paid vacation days by law and take an average of 25 days off a year. Even in notoriously hard-working Japan, workers have a legal right to 10 days off and take an average of almost 18 vacation days a year.
Vacation Time Shrinking
Now there are signs many Americans are taking even less vacation. With the U.S. unemployment rate continuing to tick upwards, many recruiters and work-life experts say they're noticing workers are becoming more reluctant to take time off.
Nearly half of 730 executives recently surveyed, for instance, said they would not use all of the vacation time they were entitled to this year, according to Cleveland-based search and recruitment firm Management Recruiters International, known as MRI. Of those executives, 58 percent said their workloads were responsible for the decision.
"At the very senior level, you're seeing a complete burnout of vacation time — [executives] are just not taking it," says Patrick Sylvester, chief executive of Banister International, MRI's Philadelphia-based global job placement division. "They're stretched, there's a lot less of them and they're under a lot of pressure to deliver."
Living to Work: How the U.S. Stacks Up
COUNTRY / DAYS BY LAW / AVERAGE
Sweden / 25 / 25-35
Austria / 25 / 30
Denmark / 25 / 30
Germany / 24 / 30
Italy / 20 / 30
Norway / 21 / 30
Spain / 25 / 30
France / 25 / 25-30
Switzerland / 20 / 25-30
Ireland / 20 / 28**
Australia / 20 / 25
Finland / 24 / 25
Netherlands / 20 / 25
Portugal / 22 / 25**
UK / 20 / 25
Belgium / 20 / 24**
Greece / 20 / 23
Japan / 10 / 17.5
China / 15 / 15
U.S. / 0 / 10.2*
Sources: European Industrial Relations Observatory, World Tourism Organization; Los Angeles Times; * Bureau of Labor Statistics, paid-leave after three years;
** Economic Policy Institute
And with many companies possibly looking to further cut their employee headcount, many workers are hesitant to leave the office for long periods of time lest they be perceived as slacking off — and expendable.
"That's part of the American workplace culture, devotion as demonstrated through longer days and longer years," says Lonnie Golden, associate professor of economics at Penn State University in Abington, Pa. "When times are good they think it lends itself to promotion, when times are bad they think it gives them security."
Taking Off But Plugging In
Workplace experts say they are also noticing another trend — people going on vacation but not really leaving the office, using some of their time off to check in with the office and clients.
Charly Rok, a 38-year-old New York City-based public relations executive, is one example. Rok sometimes goes away on vacation for a few days at a time, but rarely takes a full week off. And even on the short trips that she does manage to take, she checks her work e-mails and returns phone calls so she doesn't miss any important work.
"It's hard in this industry and in this economy. You need to deliver, you need to be accessible and you need to multi-task," she says.
That kind of vacation can be both good and bad, say experts. While checking into the office does offer advantages — workers won't be returning to a pile of unanswered calls and e-mails for one — it does rob them of valuable time to unplug from their day-to-day routine.
"Vacation should be really defined as a time when we can really turn off those tech work savers and just relax and have fun," says Robert R. Butterworth, psychologist with International Trauma Associates in Los Angeles, who counsels patients with stress-related disorders.
Unfortunately, the mounting workloads of many U.S. employees has made some view a vacation as just a quick break before the inevitable daily grind sets back in.
"It's not really vacation," says Golden. "I call it postponement. You're working like a dog before it, then when you come home [work] is all stocked up."
Grassroots Campaign
Vacation shrinkage has prompted one author, Joe Robinson, to start a grassroots campaign to combat a society moving more and more toward overwork. The aim: To establish a law providing three weeks of vacation for any U.S. worker who has worked at a job for one year, and four weeks after three years.
"The idea is to make a slight shift in how vacations are perceived; that is by making them legal," says Robinson, who started his "Work to Live" campaign two years ago, lobbying for the law with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Henry Waxman in Washington D.C.
The war in Iraq had put the issue on the back burner, says Robinson. But now, with a recently-published book, Work to Live: The Guide to Getting a Life, he has renewed his push for a minimum-leave law. Robinson says he's gotten 50,000 signatures for the campaign so far.
"There's nothing wrong with having a strong work ethic," he says. "But it's an overwork ethic that's taken hold in the past 10 years or so."
Productive or Just Burnt Out?
Some argue Americans' strong hyper work ethic is what keeps the country's economy going at full throttle.
To be sure, American productivity has been steadily improving in recent years. But some economists say the long hours that U.S. workers are putting in haven't necessarily lead to productivity gains in all segments of the economy.
For example, manufacturing output per hour actually declined 0.4 percent in the United States in 2001, while countries like Italy, France and the United Kingdom, whose workers routinely take four to five weeks off a year, saw increases, according to the latest figures from the Labor Department.
"It really boils down to how you're measuring productivity," says Penn State's Golden. "If you look over the course of the year or in productivity per hour, Europeans are right there with Americans, if not ahead."
A Heavy Toll
Work experts add that working too much can also take a psychological or health toll on workers, leading to increased absenteeism, poor motivation and, ultimately, burnout.
Some 34 percent of 632 men and women surveyed by health insurer Oxford Health Plans said they have no down time at work. Another 32 percent work and eat lunch at the same time, while 32 percent never leave the building once they arrive at work. Nineteen percent of the workers said their job made them feel older than they are and 17 percent say work causes them to lose sleep at home.
"If you have a job that's very creative and you don't take time off you hit a wall and you need a change," says Butterworth. "The break will allow you to refresh your brain cells."
Alfred Portale, chef and owner of Gotham Bar & Grill in New York, heeds that advice. He routinely takes Friday afternoons off to spend long weekends with his two children before returning to work on Mondays. He also gives his workers at least two or three weeks vacation a year and tries to allow for flexibility if they need time off.
His philosophy: Workers who are happy are loyal and productive.
"Being away from work too much is counterproductive, but being there all the time and getting overworked breeds a lot of [negative] things," he says.
Welcome to the real world Jack, try 7 day weeks, no weekends and no holidays. Ok I get compensated for them and have 5 weeks vacation but that's after 25 years of work.
"The idea is to make a slight shift in how vacations are perceived; that is by making them legal," says Robinson, who started his "Work to Live" campaign two years ago, lobbying for the law with Sen. Ted Kennedy and Rep. Henry Waxman in Washington D.C.
Now there are a couple of people who will make you want
to jump right into their cause.
Just knowing that, I'll do everything I can to fight against this whole idea.....
Sounds like a good deal to me. The last job I held in the US when I worked there, one had to amass 5 years before one had 2 weeks off. If this fellow wants a better deal- join the military. One month paid the first year. Interesting on the job travel as well.
They get by since everyone else is doing the same, except for us. Of course, that makes it a sore spot for them but oh well. OTOH, the article makes valid points and I doubt our competitive advantage lies here, but rather in our tax structure instead.
Looking at the Netherlands, last I checked, they had a lower unemployment rate than we do, and they get 30 days per year from what I can see. Not to mention, Phillips can make Sonicare toothbrushes in the US and expensive electric shavers in Holland, and give those guys 30 days off but our companies have to run to China and India or else they can't compete. Hell, we don't even have a direct competitor to Phillips.
I don't see how they can do it but its kind of embarrassing.
On vacation at a nice place, we returned to our room, only to see my bed was covered with Faxes. A manager had hunted me down and sent work to me.
When I got back I went ballistic. I invoiced the company for two days of the room, for turning it into an office. They paid and credited me two days vacation time.
The manager was transferred.
Several years later, I got a call while on vacation. "Since you are in Florida, and it is almost there, could you get a plane for Houston tomorrow?"
Response: "I DON'T NEED THIS JOB!!!!!"
Some of this stuff is merely posturing or testing an employee's limits, like a five-year-old does. There was really no pressing need for the Houston trip at all, and a phone call resolved the entire issue. They knew it, I knew it.
Now, I lie about where I am going on vacation.
For the stingy amount of time I have for vacation, to have it trashed and tampered with by a mid-level Nobody with no real authority or need to do so, is beyond an insult.
We can use tax dollars to pay the employee for the time they are off work, and we can compensate them employer a little too so they get a little something in the bargain also..
What? You say it's socialism?
BAH! After the prescription drug benefit, I thought we weren't concerned with little things like socialism, morality and Conservatism.
Heck, make it two months paid.. Think of all the votes that would buy!
I work for myself now.
Two weeks after 5 years on the job sounds too much in the Crack the Whip category,
Well, the way I looked on it, no man has a right to a job in the first place. If I were living like a caveman- survival would be a 365 day a year occupation. I don't think anybody has a right to a vacation. A job is for survival. If you can find a job where they offer to pay you a week or more every year for doing nothing- this is a plus. But like this communist in the article wants to do with mandatory three weeks- that'll lead you down the road to totalitarianism.
If I own a company, I am the only entity that has the right to set wages and vacation time- the gov't needs to stay out of it.
We get less than China or Japan? Sickening.
Personally, I find the amount of mandated vacation in Europe sickening. They wonder why their economies are floundering. No such thing as a free ride. If you're on a paid vacation, somebody is paying for it.
Out of curiosity, why do you have to tell 'em in the first place where you're going?
I used to tell my boss, "What I do after I punch that clock is none of your affair".
Think of all the votes we could buy with it!
Why, we could "win" for the next 5 elections with a concept like this. Then "Conservatives" would be in charge..
Wouldn't that be great?
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