Encouraging a break: the importance of taking vacation time

June is here and with it comes thoughts of summer travel, sunny days spent at the beach, relaxing at the cottage, and picnics with family and friends. But wait, perhaps not this year, again. The impact of COVID-19’s lockdowns and social distancing requirements has changed the entire outlook regarding if and how people spend their vacation time.

Employers are struggling

Increasingly, leaders are noticing signs of burnout or languishing in the behaviour of employees who have struggled to create sufficient balance between work and life demands. While employees wear signs of fatigue and worry on their faces — even noticeable through virtual meetings — it isn’t easy for employers to enforce taking needed breaks from work, let alone a block of vacation time.

— Suggested reading: 

— Suggested reading:  Signs you are languishing

There are many questions that surface about vacation time, but even more so as a result of the pandemic. Please refer to this HRReporter article or this post by the law firm, Sanfuri-Tumarkin for helpful answers to common questions related to whether employers can mandate vacation, roll it over, or pay out employees. 

In 2020…

We worked harder and took less time off.

American workers walked away from an average of 33 percent of their paid time off. In Canada, the stats are quite similar. As per Canadian HR Reporter, less than 50 percent are taking less or no vacation time. 

According to a study completed in July 2020 by IPX 1031, only about 40 percent of over 2000 respondents had taken or were planning on taking vacation time.

Reasons why we’re not taking vacation

Normally, the reasons people cite for not taking vacation include

• Worrying about piles of work when they return
• Feeling stressed when away from work 
• Not believing they have the time or can’t delegate their work
• Feeling vulnerable that they are replaceable
• Sensing that their company culture discourages taking vacation

Adding COVID-19 to the mix, people are actually including the pandemic as the reason for not taking their vacation.

— Suggested reading: Ways to improve work-life integration

For employers, it requires paying extra attention to promoting the value and need for annual vacation time.

Tips to promote taking vacation

Here are some tips that are easy to implement with little to no cost.

• Ensure leaders to model the behaviour — they need to take their allotted annual vacation entitlement and stay unplugged from work
• Create a reference guide or links for ways to vacation safely during the pandemic
• Offer support for ways to delegate work and reinforce that taking time off is encouraged by the organization
• Pay employees a small bonus (e.g., $100) if they take their full vacation entitlement for the year
• On the company intranet, post stories, blogs, vlogs, or photos of employees sharing how they spent their vacation time

While there will be some who continue to struggle with taking time off work, the more employers can do to feature the benefits and value of vacation time and offer creative ideas for how to do so, even during a pandemic, the healthier and more productive their workforce will be. 

Additional free resources

These are just some of the many tips and resources available to promote the importance of taking vacation time. We are pleased to offer additional resources including our Remote Care Wellness Toolkit. If you would like a digital copy of this toolkit or other employee benefits-related information, please contact us at info@primebenefitsgroup.com. Let’s work together and create solutions that work best for you and your organization.