Don't Be a Modern-Day Peasant! Take Your Vacation Days

Spring break used to conjure up images of debauchery. College kids blowing off steam on Daytona Beach and “going wild.” Now, as college professors, our spring breaks have an entirely different vibe. We want to do nothing; preferably in a quiet location. Uninterrupted time alone with a novel is the new debauchery.

Early in our careers, we worked straight through spring break and were grateful for the opportunity to “catch up” on all the work we didn’t get to when classes were in session. Perversely, we worked even more during the week of break, went right back to teaching, research, and all of our other duties, and consequently got sick just in time for summer. That should have been a clue—we were doing it wrong. We can be a little slow on the uptake; especially since breaks are built into our careers.

Typically, faculty earn a sabbatical every seven years. It’s a time to step away from our regular duties as professors and give ourselves time to think deeply about a specific topic. We realize this concept may sound privileged, but it has been a fixture of academia since 1880 because it works. A sabbatical offers uninterrupted time to write, ruminate, read, and learn new things. This change in our daily routines and perspective often leads to some really impactful, innovative work, and that makes sense.

Think about it. When do you come up with truly fantastic ideas? Is it when you are answering emails, making dinner, and helping a kid with homework? Absolutely not! It’s right as you are falling asleep, or in the shower, or on a stroll. It’s at times when your brain is in what neuroscientists call “default mode network” (DMN), a fancy term for daydreaming. DMN is that mind-wandering state that leads to spontaneous thinking and new synaptic connections.

Not working on anything can be the secret to great work. As Steve Jobs famously noted, creativity is connecting things. The DMN allows ideas to cross-pollinate, and some of their mutant offspring can be really compelling.

When we started researching happiness and well-being, so many other things started to make sense, and the importance of taking breaks—vacations in particular—was one of them.*

Researchers have been trying to quantify the importance of vacations (yes, we know how that sounds, but stay with us). It turns out that well-planned vacations have a long-lasting and positive impact on cognition and reduce stress. Some research has observed that longer vacations, 14 days or more, even benefit us after we come back to work by increasing our motivation (at least for a few days). Perhaps the European Union, with its four weeks of annual leave and twelve paid public holidays, is on to something…

If vacations are great for us, what’s the problem?

The problem is that almost half of all U.S. employees that have paid vacation as a benefit do not take all of their allotted time!

We feel like we should clarify what this means because that is a bonkers statistic. Of all the employees in the U.S that have paid vacation days allotted to them as part of their total compensation package, almost 50% of those people are not utilizing this benefit. That’s like paying out of pocket for a doctor’s visit when your company pays for your health insurance.

Research finds that it’s hard for employees to request vacation when they don't see their managers and leaders taking a break, as if being a workaholic with no outside interests is a badge of honor. Back when Ed was a management consultant, he got the message that team players didn’t take time off. Instead, they got stressed, overworked, overweight, divorced, and had fewer days off than medieval peasants!

Take the benefit, people!

We think toxic overcommitment has polluted the culture of “busyness” and has put us in this position. People love to talk about how busy they are because it makes them feel like they are valuable to the organization. Often the opposite is true and their business is a facade.

Recently, some firms have been offering “unlimited” vacation for their employees. Sounds counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Employees are offered as much time off as they want but they are taking less than ever? It’s true and it’s a double whammy because it’s bad for the organization and the employees. When there is no set number of days, people don’t know how many to take and so they take even less.

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That leaves companies with burned-out workers, and that is bad. Burned-out people make mistakes and impact the culture, which in turn impacts the bottom line. And the more senior the employee, the more opportunities they have to screw up.

So, what’s the fix? We think good managers should encourage their employees to take all of their vacation days. Every last one. It shows that they actually care about the well-being of the people they work with and it’s a win-win situation because the employee feels valued and will come back refreshed (and maybe with some new ideas). And—hey, managers!—take those vacation days yourself! You’ll be modeling good behavior and be a lot more pleasant to work with.

We think it is important to point out that a vacation doesn't have to be extravagant. You don't have to fly to Palm Springs or camp in the Alaskan wilderness without Wi-Fi. You just have to let go, take time away from your daily routine, and find your DMN!

You can baby-step into it by taking a long weekend and not checking your email (we dare you!). It will probably feel weird because you are conditioned to be as plugged into work as that ethernet cable in the back of your office computer. But do it and see how you feel. We bet you like it.

You’re probably worried about letting your clients or co-workers down. Well, we found these great suggestions for setting vacation boundaries. You’re welcome.

If you have used all of your vacation and are sad, don’t worry. There are also little things you can do that may not be the same as a three-week holiday but that can help you reset and rejuvenate. You can pick a window of time every day where you don’t use your digital devices, practice mindfulness, schedule short breaks at work every day to clear your head, plan mini-adventures for weekends or days off to have something fun to look forward to, or take a walk outside. In fact, of all of these suggestions, taking a nature walk has a multitude of benefits. If it’s too cold outside, a virtual nature walk will even do!

No matter what type of length of vacation suits you, we just want you to take it. You earned those days and that time to rest. Take your brain for a walk. You might just come back with your best idea yet. And if you want to engage in vacation debauchery? We will not judge. Just keep it down, okay? We’re reading over here.

*Full disclosure: this year Tara totally disconnected for a five-day long (child-free) trip over her spring break. Ed used his spring break to be insanely productive the whole time. We are works in progress!