The average American employee gets two weeks of vacation time per year. Three if they’re lucky. In the good ol’ USA, there’s no law that says employers have to offer their employees any paid vacation time at all. That in and of itself is a problem — especially when many nations around the world give employees 4 or 5 weeks of paid time off, if not more, and are still functioning just fine. But there’s an even bigger problem in our society if employees who have paid time off can’t even use it.
A recent piece I read on Matador titled “Why Americans need to slow down and make travel a priority” really spoke to me. Whether you enjoy traveling or not isn’t the issue if you’re not even able to take a real vacation.
Read on!
The problem with Americans not using vacation days
Prime vacation season is upon us and many of us are looking forward to a week (2 or 3 if you’re French) somewhere nice this summer to relax and recharge with family and friends. We cherish our vacation time and do our best to use it, but even when on vacation, sometimes it’s impossible to fully unwind. Or worse, sometimes we can’t even find the time to take vacation due to our demanding work schedules and employers’ expectations.
The Matador piece I referenced above writes, “We don’t take time off because we feel too busy to leave our lives and because we fear falling behind with our workload. We are a culture that measures success based on productivity, output, and hustle.”
I don’t know if that’s a good thing or bad thing (probably bad), but how we deal with these cultural norms can absolutely be positive or negative.
Do we sacrifice other areas of our lives to prioritize work? Do we take time to unwind and do things for ourselves and not the corporation? Do we have a life outside of work? Are we able to actually use our vacation days each year? And if not, why not? Is that OK?
My experience in Corporate America
Right after graduating from college, I worked in sales for a little over a year. While I had vacation days, I often felt anxious about taking more than a few days off in a row. Why? Because not being in the office made it harder to hit my sales goals that month. If we didn’t hit our goals, management would make our lives miserable. So the pressure to not use vacation was there even if I had days I could technically use. Coworkers felt the same way.
Later, I left that position and started at a new firm in a different role. I had 23 days of PTO to use each year which looked great on paper, but my bank of days included all paid time off grouping sick and personal days in with the vacation. So if you caught the flu and had to use 3 days, you’d deduct those 3 from the total bank of PTO. Have a doctor’s appointment? Deduct those hours. If you never got sick or took a personal day, you could use all 23 for vacation but most people didn’t have that luxury.
It certainly says something about American culture when many of us can’t even use our small allotment of vacation days.
Busting our butts at work is something many of us do because it’s what is expected of us and what we’re used to. But it’s so important to take time for ourselves.
American work culture makes it so incredibly difficult in some cases.
The article goes on to explain, “Breaking our routines to travel improves everything from our productivity and our attitudes to our social lives and physical health.”
Just unplugging and forgetting all about work can do a body and mind good. If you want to use your time off to travel, keep in mind the travel doesn’t have to be exotic or expensive. A quick weekend trip to a nearby destination can be just as beneficial as somewhere far away.
What happens when we don’t take vacation? And what makes a life complete?
We hear of people experiencing burnout and being unhappy in their careers. Would more vacation time fix any of this? Maybe a little?
Work sometimes has a funny way of ruling our lives even though most of us consider what we do outside of work to be more important.
One part of the Matador piece that stuck with me was this:
“Why shouldn’t leading a complete and present human life be considered a successful and fulfilling use of our time on this earth?”
For some of us maybe we’d like to look back on our lives and say we were really good at our jobs and that our work was something that fulfilled us. But others don’t want an all-consuming career and would rather spend tons of time with their families and friends and have experiences with memories that will last a lifetime.
Can’t we have both?
Why don’t we use our paid time off?
We say we’re too busy. But we make things a priority when we feel they need to be a priority.
Or maybe we feel we need to save our days in case something happens because our vacation time is lumped together with our sick time and personal days. Or we work in an industry where the norm is NOT to use many vacation days at all because doing so would indicate you’re not a team player or not committed enough to the job.
Maybe our company doesn’t make it easy for employees to go on vacation because there are no backup plans in place to cover the work in our absence. Maybe our boss doesn’t even take vacation herself, setting a poor example for others.
So is vacation not important to Americans? Is being a good employee more important?
In the US, at-will employment is the norm and work contracts are not. This means the employer can terminate the employee at any time for any reason (without having to establish “just cause” for termination) and without prior notice.
To foreigners (and even Americans), this concept is absolutely insane. No work contracts? No protection? “How do banks give Americans mortgages without any type of guarantee they’ll have income coming in?” Tom asked me a few years ago, completely baffled.
American work culture is baffling. And infuriating.
Did you know the US is the only country with an advanced economy that does not legally guarantee paid vacation time? A Bureau of Labor Statistics report noted that almost a quarter of American private-sector employees, about 26 million workers, do not get a single day of paid vacation. That’s sick.
And in France?
French people have no problem using all of their vacation days — a minimum of 5 weeks per year guaranteed by law. There’s even a special word for people who vacation in August which shows us just how much vacation is intertwined with French culture.
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What’s funny is even with 5-6 weeks vacation time, in my most recent job (in Paris) my coworkers still tried to get away with not turning in for vacation days! Meanwhile Americans follow the rules even with 2-3 weeks. I did find that my bosses in the US would often use time off as a reward – like “you worked hard, no need to turn in for your Friday off”. I actually had a boss let me take a week off “free” once.
In the words of my French husband, he gets too much vacation and “you need to be rich” to take 6 weeks a year and actually travel. I hadn’t really considered that it will cost at least 1000€/week if you fly somewhere for your vacation.
Yup, I’ve heard that too Lynn that you have to be rich to actually go on a vacation in France w/all the vacation time. But just unplugging and catching up on Netflix shows or painting or doing things around the house can be just satisfying as flying somewhere — sometimes more so because you have more money in your wallet when the “vacation” is over. 😉 Americans seem to view vacation as a reward like you mentioned whereas in France it’s one’s right to have that benefit. I hope you have a wonderful summer!
I have always used my vacation time. However I did work with many who did not use their vacation time claiming they had too much work to do. These people also came to work sick. I also worked with those who never took their morning or afternoon breaks too unless they were a smoker. Everyone ate lunch at there desks, no lunch break. I thought they were crazy but when you are working in a culture as described you become as the others…
Yeah some people are just really dedicated to their jobs and that’s admirable in a sense but sometimes it ends up hurting us in the long run. So can’t say what’s best for everyone, but for me personally, a go go go work environment 24/7 wasn’t my style at all. Glad you were able to use your vacation time!
I get 30 days off plus holidays, and I always use all of them, usually just for “staycations” at home to get caught up on things there and relax with my pets. Americans have their priorities backwards and need to enjoy life more. It goes by too fast!
30 days is great! Is that for an American company or one in France? Big fan of staycations too. 😉 I’m not sure we all have our priorities backwards — many Americans don’t work like dogs by choice. And even if we get paid vacation, a measly two weeks is barely enough to really unwind. Even worse is when your work environment makes it impossible for you to actually get away. I don’t think anyone wants to NOT enjoy life. Just that life circumstances aren’t always easy and sometimes in my experience, when you’re in a bad situation, it’s very difficult to get out (even more so when you have kids, a mortgage, etc.).
I think the media, especially movies, give this impression that all Americans have very glamorous and exciting jobs and that they fill so fulfilled that they don’t need holidays. To me this just plays in the hand of the corporate world who keep employees’ right to a minimum. Generally speaking the States don’t seem to be a nice place to work: long hours, few holidays and little protection against abuse.
But I think this is very short sighted on the US employers’ part: a happy, relaxed workforce makes for a more productive company. On top of our annual leave and statutory holidays, my UK boss is OK with us attending doctor’s appointment or children’s sports day without taking any time off. In return we are less stressed and more committed to the company.
Longer hours don’t necessarily mean that more is achieved: I remember friends of mine complaining that their American colleagues seemed to spend twice their time at work but that most of it was on pointless meetings. And statistics prove it: French workers are as productive as American even though they work less (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/05/14/u-s-productivity-putting-in-all-those-hours-doesnt-matter/)
You’ve brought up a bunch of great points, Karine. The media does portray American work culture as more glamorous than it is in most cases. Even jobs that are high-pressure do come off as more exciting than they are. Very misleading.
I think employers can talk about how they’re such a great place to work (solid benefits, great work/life balance, etc.) until they’re out of breath but until they actually step up the paid vacation, offer work contracts and other perks, nothing will change.
I also wanted to bring up the fact that health insurance coverage is almost always tied to one’s employment. So if you’re the sole breadwinner for your family and you lose your job, you also lose your insurance and are forced to pay for COBRA if you want coverage. Insurance reform is a step in the right direction but back when I looked at the Obamacare rates in NJ, they were outrageous for a single woman with no preexisting conditions. So my point is that I think Americans sometimes put up with a lot of issues in the workplace because they need the job for their insurance — especially if a family member has a serious illness. It shouldn’t be like that.
And your last point is right on too. Working more hours isn’t always more productive.
Fortunately my husband is currently working as a postdoc in the US and his boss is really cool. so he can take 2 weeks this summer (and he just took 2 weeks in may for our honeymoon) to go back to France 🙂
Yes we’re French, yes we love holidays and yes we have no problem at all to take all the days off that we can (and more if it’s possible) 😀
Lets go travel!
That’s so good to hear! Sounds very reasonable and I’m sure he’s refreshed after 2 weeks off. Makes for a happier employee.
Where did you go on your honeymoon?
We went to French Polynesia (Tahiti, Bora Bora…). That was soooo great!
Oooh Nice! Sounds beautiful!
I agree, I think, Americans should be paid for vacations days and we should get more. Too many people are burnt out, stressed, and anxious. Maybe if more people took vacation we’d have less crime too, who knows. I use my vacation time every year, so much so, that I usually run out and end up take days off with out pay. I leave tomorrow for Denver for a week of Adult cancer survivor camp, by myself. No kids, no husband….completely alone. Looking forward to it!!!