Holidays: No Guilt!
“Today as always, men fall into two groups: slaves and free men. Whoever does not have two-thirds of his day for himself, is a slave, whatever he may be: a statesman, a businessman, an official, or a scholar”, wrote Nietzsche in Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits. This was in 1878, but what about almost a century and a half later?
According to “An Assessment of Paid Time Off in the U.S.” commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, and completed by Oxford Economics, in 2013 more than forty percent of American workers and almost a third of UK workers who received paid time off did not take all of their allotted time. The main reason for not using their full holiday entitlement is that there is too much work to do, and workers fear that taking holidays could harm their careers. Also, a lot of employers don’t encourage their staff to take their full holiday entitlement. This is indicative of a rising culture that neglects work-life balance.
Underutilized time off not only is a missed opportunity for workers and their families, but also for employers and the economy at large.
Free time is the secret to increased productivity and performance. It is fuel for energy, creativity and focus that leads to success. Productivity is not about spending an amount of time working each day, it depends on how focused and organized the brain is. Mental fatigue leads to stress, burnout and poor performance. Also, stress makes it hard to concentrate, plan and make good decisions because it constricts the brain to a narrow focus.
Giving our brains a chance to relax helps to think “outside the box” and come up with creative solutions to problems. Cognitive neuroscience studies show that the brain’s frontal lobe, which is responsible for planning and decision making, works more creatively when the brain is not actively tackling a task. When the brain is quiet, it connects random ideas with previous knowledge and turns these into new concepts, thus boosting creativity. This is why the best ideas for work come when workers are on holidays or immediately upon their return.
According to the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), among OECD countries, France is the most generous when it comes to annual leaves. The average French worker can expect 30 days a year of paid vacation, compared with 28 days in the UK, 25 in Denmark and Sweden, 20 in Germany and only 10 in Japan. The only industrialised country where employers are not required to provide paid vacations is the US, but most American workers receive an average of 15 days off a year as part of their compensation package.
Some American companies have begun offering workers paid days off to spend on themselves. Qlik Technologies, a software maker, has launched the “24-For-U”, a day dedicated to learning and self-improvement. The employees can spend time studying documentary films, improving their skills in digital marketing or foreign languages, taking cooking courses, learning yoga, going to the gym or getting a massage.
Other American companies have followed suit. The travel company G Adventures has introduced not only the “Me Day”, but also the “Day for us” (with colleagues), the “Birthday”, the “Bonus Day” and the “Volunteering Day”. The message is clear: tightening the links between manager and employees. Companies seem to say: “We care for you, and we want you to enrich your knowledge”.
The “Me Day” has been popular with employees: 42% of the 1,800 workers of G Adventures have decided to take this opportunity.
However, it has also generated strong criticism. For some sceptics, the “24-For-U” does not replace holidays, and it appears to be more a public relations tool for the company than the indicator of a real awareness of workers’ needs.
A more profound change of mentalities has to happen in order to develop a new approach to holidays and its myriad benefits. Let’s do away with the guilt!
