Stress-related fatigue, depression, and substance abuse not only claim money from companies every year, but also reduce the quality of life for millions of Americans each year. Workaholism is just as much of a sickness as methamphetamine addiction. It ruins lives, yet we do not give workaholics therapy because we assume they are increasing the bottom line.
Happy workers are more productive, however. They have lower rates of burnout and suicide than people who constantly put in long hours and bank up vacation days until they cease to build up.
To combat this, the intelligent business should require all workers, whether assembly-line workers or CEOs, should be *required* to take at least one week of vacation time each year. It could either be scheduled based on preference or it could be assigned to employees on a rolling basis throughout the year.
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I admire the direction of the sentiment but the general movement of business to remove pensions, health care, reasonable working hours, and decent salaries for workers more or less indicates the callousness of business management for the work force. There are, of course, notable exceptions and frequently the pressure of competition leaves some businesses with small alternatives but the government which could provide a sensible counterforce to these unsocial trends refuses to do so which makes the possibilities look bleak.
Employees are not children. They should know enough to take care of themselves. Also, forbidding someone from showing up at work, doesn't mean they aren't working. People take their laptops, PDAs, cell-phones, and worries everywhere. Should we also prohibit people from working second jobs ?
One week!
A low figure there my friend, but I agree that people should be made to take their allowance. And the minimum holiday per year should be at least 20 days. Why? Tired workers are not as sharp. And they make the rest of us look bad.
Try getting your boss to up your holiday allowance when "Creepy Jenkins" takes no holidays at all. Your boss will reply, "Well. Good old Jenkins doesn't need holidays."
One week!
A low figure there my friend, but I agree that people should be made to take their allowance. And the minimum holiday per year should be at least 20 days. Why? Tired workers are not as sharp. And they make the rest of us look bad.
Try getting your boss to up your holiday allowance when "Creepy Jenkins" takes no holidays at all. Your boss will reply, "Well. Good old Jenkins doesn't need holidays."
Haven't you guys heard of work/life balance? Every company I have worked for has this as a policy i.e. no meetings to be scheduled before 8am and after 5.30, no coming in on the weekend etc, if you haven't taken five consecutive days off in four months, you HAVE to take some time off. Maybe this is a country thing (I am from Australia). In any case, you can always tell the overworked employees who haven't taken any time off, they are irritable and tured all the time.
Could we spell "mandatory" correctly if this idea comes to pass?
Please stop trying to tell CEOs how to run their business.
It sickens me.
At the root of this is freedom vs central control. Passing laws to regulate behavior should be a last resort, in my opinion.
Nice idea. I think this is practised in some businesses such as Investment Banking where you are obliged to spend an uninterrupted period of 1-2 weeks away from the office.
Bosses will surely use this as an excuse to not let employees plan their won vacations. I predict his will devolve into a breathholding contest to see who can go the longest without vacation
I don't agree with this.
Because I'm an engineer and it seems that being laid-off or companies closing is a normal part of my career due to our shrinking manufacturing in the US, I prefer to 'bank' my vacation as a cushion if I ever need it between jobs. Companies are required to pay you for unused vacation, but they aren't required to pay severance.
Also as an engineer, the design cycle doesn't deal well with my absence. I'm designing things to a deadline and the deadline doesn't move when I'm on holiday. I realize that the deadlines are just 'made-up', but we're held to them. The company depends on us.
My new company has 'use it or lose it' vacation after you've banked a specified amount and some engineers choose to lose it, rather than let their projects fail because they weren't here.
I'm not advocating 'workaholism', but I really don't understand what it means. If I were home, I'd be fixing something or working on something manually. So sitting at my desk at work is really easier. We take a short vacation every year, but it's expensive. Even time off at home is expensive due to projects.
Besides, I'm already off two days a week anyway.