Taking the Kids: Taking all the time off you deserve

on Jul 16, 2015

For one thing, they take less sick days. "A vacation isn't a luxury. It's a medical necessity," said Dr. Leigh Vinocur, a spokesman for the American College of Emergency Physicians, who said she sees patients daily whose conditions are caused or exacerbated by stress. "The number one thing a vacation can do is release stress," she said. They also can improve your sex life, she added, and your kids' school performance.

If you are afraid to take your vacation, here's another factoid to consider: Those who don't use all their vacation aren't any more likely to get a raise or a promotion. "Martyrdom," said Katie Denis, "is bad for business," as well as for your family life. Still, she said, in many corporate cultures, "people get weird when you want to talk about whether to take vacation."

If you still feel too guilty to get away, consider that, according to the U.S. Travel Association, those unused days cost the U.S. economy $160 billion in spending that could support 1.2 million jobs.

If your boss grumbles about the "extra work" your absence will cause, remind her how many innovative ideas you'll come back with. Denis noted that some of the greatest recent success stories have been products of vacation thinking, including Dropbox and Instagram.

Point to what MasterCard is doing. After all, said Executive Vice President Susan Kunreuther, they couldn't launch an advertising campaign to encourage Americans to take vacations while their own people weren't taking the time they were owed -- often leaving more than four days on the table.

Now MasterCard employees get reminder emails of what vacation time they have left (sent to bosses, as well) and there are incentive contests with vacation experiences as prizes. Managers, Kunreuther said, are being encouraged "to leave folks alone" during vacation and weekends.

The strategy is working. During the four months following the campaign (September to December 2014) employees, in total, took almost 1,500 more days than they had the previous year but Kunreuther added, "We have a long way to go."

So where are you going on vacation?

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