Vacation Time: Just What the Doctor Ordered
By Karyl Carmignani
You’ve been scrimping and saving all year. You’ve been researching prices on the Internet. You’ve coordinated schedules with every member of your family. You’ve found a pet nanny and cancelled newspaper delivery. As your departure day draws near, the whole family is excited, dreaming of the fresh ocean air. Then it happens: your boss calls you in for a private meeting and explains that the company just cannot afford to let you take your vacation right now, but maybe in a few months when things slow down...
This scenario may sound like grounds for a career change, but in an already-downsized corporate climate, this can happen all too often, leaving employees resentful and depressed. In a study last fall for Oxford Health Plans, in Trumbull, Conn., of 632 workers nationwide, one in six were too burdened at work to take all their vacation time. Employers beware! A growing body of research links long-term vacation habits and worker’s health.
A vacation may be just what the doctor ordered, according to a 14-year study of 12,866 men, published in last year in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine. The report found that annual vacations sharply reduced the risk of death among middle aged men. Similarly, a 20-year study of 749 middle-aged women by the Centers for Disease Control found a link between a lack of vacations and higher risk of heart attack and death.
Nixing vacations in the name of productivity can be much more costly for companies in the long run due to increased health-care, according to another recent study by the Health Enhancement Research Organization in Birmingham, Ala. Forfeiting employee “down time” increases depression, heavy stress and other risk factors among workers. In short, a prescription for vacation time is excellent preventative medicine! FYI: A new survey commissioned by Expedia.com finds that with an average of 1.8 unused vacation days per employee each year, Americans are giving more than $19.3 billion back to their employers in unused vacation time.
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