Why Vacation is Good for Your Career
We all have vacation days, but not everyone feels compelled to use them. In fact, many workers are consciously choosing not to use their paid time off. A recent study by Project: Time Off revealed that the number of Americans taking vacation began to decline in 2000 and, while it has increased in recent years, is much lower than the global average. Why are fewer people going on vacation? Many people worry that taking a vacation will make them seem lazy or not dedicated to their work. Others are stressed out about tasks piling up and becoming overwhelming while they are away. However, ignoring your vacation days is detrimental to your productivity—and can even prevent you from getting that raise.
Take time off to improve your health
A study from Project: Time Off revealed that 54% of Americans did not use all their vacation days. There are a variety of reasons why workers today don’t want to take a vacation, but one of the big reasons is the anxiety that comes with leaving everything behind. It’s harder and harder to truly be offline with the proliferation of technology—most people have work email on their phones, so it’s a challenge to completely disengage from your job.
For employees that are more senior, taking time off can be challenging since they tend to have more responsibilities and taking a vacation can then impact their subordinates. Many companies are beginning to recognize the importance of vacation time and are developing a more open and encouraging attitude when it comes to employees taking time off. On the other hand, taking vacation has been scientifically proven to improve your mental and overall health. Working too much often leads to stress and feelings of burn out, which can contribute to depression. Stepping away from work and scheduling time to relax and de-stress has a positive effect on mental and physical health. Stress and burn out not only negatively impact your overall well-being but can also affect your quality of work and productivity.
Taking time off makes you more productive
While our brains aren’t technically muscles, when it comes to work and vacation, we should treat it like one. When you are overworked and stressed, your brain can be overwhelmed, making it difficult to complete tasks and to come up with new and creative ideas. Taking vacation not only provides the opportunity to give your brain a break and to reset, travelling to a new environment helps stimulate your brain. If you are constantly working and pushing yourself, processing information and developing new ideas become more difficult, which has a direct impact on your career. It can affect whether or not you get a promotion or a raise—employees who do not take vacation are up to 27% less likely to receive a promotion and up to 84% less likely to receive a raise or bonus when compared to people who take regular time off. Interacting with different cultures and forcing yourself to adapt has cognitive and psychological benefits which can make you a better worker and help your overall career trajectory. Travelling—especially to new and unfamiliar destinations—not only helps boost your mental faculties, but it can also make you a more well-rounded person.
Americans, in particular, idolize hard work, which can make it more challenging to take vacations. However, successful business people from Bill Gates to Oprah Winfrey prioritize taking time off from work and often build it into their schedules. When it comes to taking time off, it’s great to take a longer trip, but even better if you can build in multiple short breaks or trips throughout the year. Not only does this give you something to look forward to during a busy period, it also helps prevent burnout and ensures that you will have time to recharge and relax multiple times rather than taking all your time at once. Whether you take a full vacation or enjoy some low-key time off, it’s clear that stepping away from work and putting up an out of office is important to both overall health and professional growth. Instead of looking at paid time off and vacation as a “perk,” it should be considered a necessary part of being an effective and engaged workforce.
To some, it may seem counterintuitive but taking a vacation can make you a better worker. Taking time off gives your brain a chance to recharge which will lead to more creativity and better information processing. Don’t forget, people that take time off are also more likely to receive a raise or a promotion. Not only does it have a direct impact on your overall productivity, taking time away from work helps decrease stress and promote better mental and physical health while increasing overall well-being. Next time you start feeling burned out, use some of those vacation days to help jumpstart creative thinking and more contentment at work!
Do you think it’s important to go away on vacation or would you rather spend the money doing something fun at home? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
