The Importance of Vacation

Why Taking Time to Relax is Critical for Well-Being

In America, we often view vacation as a privilege rather than a necessity. Something you earn rather than something you should be entitled to or given.

This is evident everywhere you look. While some companies are now instituting unlimited paid time off (PTO), though this is far from altruistic, most companies have traditionally forced their employees to earn their time off through working at the company. You only get to take meaningful vacation days once you’ve worked there for 6 months to a year. And even then, it isn’t much.

Even after working for a company for years, vacation time in the US pales in comparison to the rest of the world. If you’re reading this in Europe, you enjoy far more time off than your peers in the United States.

Unfortunately, no matter where we are, we can too often have the mindset that vacation or time off isn’t an absolute necessity. That it’s not as important as meeting a deadline or getting through the next item on our to-do list.

Some companies and managers even use vacations and time off as a weapon against employees. Managers may be reluctant to approve time off (a practice that should be done away with in most industries). Or make employees feel like their jobs or opportunities may be at risk if they ask for time off.

@prodity.coWe should be booking time off, not requesting it. let's fix this. #work #corporatelife #ux

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And some companies even take away the ability to take time off. I’ve seen leaders at several companies now take away the ability to take vacation in order to “increase output” or “deliver on deadlines” without considering the long-term costs associated with this type of behavior and mentality. Yes, you may increase output in the short-term, but are you going to retain the best talent? Are your people going to continue to work their hardest when they know you may not let them take time off?

Vacations, time away from work, and time away from our everyday life, shouldn’t be weapons. They should be expectations. They should be mandatory. And if you’re not making it a priority, you should be. This goes for managers ensuring their teams are taking time off as well as employees ensuring they are taking time off. And I’m certainly talking to myself here as well, though I’m happily coming back from several days at Yellowstone.

Vacation for Well-Being

Your well-being is vastly improved by taking vacations.

According to the Cleveland Heartlab, numerous studies have found that taking vacations improve your health. A nine-year study from the State University of New York at Oswego found that annual vacations reduced the risk of mortality due to coronary heart disease, specifically in men with a high risk.

Another study found similar results for women. The Centers for Disease Control found that:

women followed for 20 years in the Framingham Heart Study who took the least vacation time—no more than once every six years—were nearly eight times more likely to have a heart attack than women who took at least two vacations a year.

According to the New York Times,

“Another study, published in 2000, looked at 12,000 men over nine years who were at high risk for coronary heart disease. Those who failed to take annual vacations had a 21 percent higher risk of death from all causes and were 32 percent more likely to die of a heart attack.”

But it’s not just heart health. We also get other physical benefits. In another study, participants tracked their sleep before, during, and after their vacations. They found that sleep quality improved while on vacation and continued to be better after participants returned home. “After a few days on vacation — and it usually took two to three — people were averaging an hour more of good quality sleep…When they got home, they were still sleeping close to an hour more.”

Vacation for Creativity

One of my favorite topics is the idea of the default mode network of our brain. We have to let our brains rest in order to enter into default mode, which can often be the time for some of our most creative or productive ideas.