Why You NEED a Vacation

Ah, no project reports out here!

Face it: You need a break.
A new survey conducted by Harris Interactive for JetBlue Airways reveals that 57 percent of Americans will end the year with unused vacation days left on the table. Of those, most people will let 11 days go to waste—75 percent of the vacation they earned.
But with the economy in the dumps and the national unemployment rate still above nine percent, it’s not hard to understand why we’re reluctant to skip off to the Caribbean or flock to the hills of Aspen for a week. In fact, 39 percent of survey respondents said they’re afraid to ask their bosses for time off.

“People force themselves to keep working because of either fear of eventually losing their job, dedication to their job, or because they’ll get too far behind if they leave,” says Gary Johns, Ph.D., a management professor at Concordia University. Johns recently published a study on “presenteeism,” which is the phenomenon of people coming to work sick when they should stay home. As it turns out, the root causes of presenteeism are the same as not going on vacation, Johns says.
But skipping out on paid time off can have a detrimental effect on both your career and your health. “Research has shown that for every dollar of vacation benefits that employers provide, they get three dollars worth of productivity back,” says management psychologist Paul Powers, Ph.D., the author of Love Your Job. What’s more, a study of more than 12,000 men at the University of Pittsburgh found that taking one week of vacation a year reduced the men’s risk of death from a heart attack or stroke by 29 percent.

With that in mind, here’s how to make sure you use every last hour of the time off you’ve earned.
Your boss won’t let you go: Try to find out the reason why the big guy is canceling your contractually guaranteed leave. “They might be trying to protect you from a round of layoffs or an upcoming merger,” says Powers. If that’s the case—knock on wood—you might only have to postpone your trip until pink slip season has passed. Otherwise, the move could be a violation of his power, in which case HR should then step in.

You’ll fall behind in your work: First, you’ll need to plan well in advance. Volunteer to take on other people’s extra work when they’re away throughout the year. There’s two benefits here: You’ll have an opportunity to cross-train in a variety of roles around the office, which makes you more promotable, Powers says. Plus, they’ll owe you big when it’s your time to kick back and relax.
You can’t bear to leave your desk: Log a few extra hours at the office for a couple weeks before your vacation—and we mean actual work, not YouTube work. Then a week before you leave, sit down with your boss to talk about your recent accomplishments and ongoing projects, and how your department will handle your absence. “That gives you and your boss peace of mind that the projects won’t stall while you’re away,” says Powers.