If you wake up every morning dreading what comes next — that long, arduous 9 to 5 — you’re not alone. The numbers speak loud and clear: over half of Americans are unhappy with their jobs.
With numbers like that, it’s only fair to ask — are you getting enough time away from work? It’s worth wondering whether hating your job has more to do with doing it too much than the actual work itself.
Time away from the office is critical for avoiding burnout, but it’s also directly related to your mental and physical health. One study discovered that people who take at least a week of vacation per year actually have healthier hearts (in addition to darker tan lines).
It’s hard to know where to draw the line between ambition and quality of life, but hey, we’re going to try.
Food for Thought: Why Do You Work?
Only you can know when to say “when”, but when it comes to time off, you need to dare to go there.
Start by breaking the discussion down to the most basic level — why do you do the work you do for the amount of time that you do? How much do you need to live the life you want? Is the work you’re doing now putting you there? If it’s not, it might make sense to work fewer hours in a better position (because hey, you’re not making enough anyway, right?).
These are tough questions to ask yourself, and if you have a spouse, they can make for some challenging conversations, but they’re worth having.
Ultimately, how much time you want and need to take off each year comes down to balancing your financial goals with your lifestyle goals. When one wins, the other inevitably suffers.
So ask yourself — do you live to work, or do you work to live?
If you work to live, then you’d better make those hours count and actually start living.
How Often Should You Be Taking Time Off?
How much time to take off each year and how often to take it can of course depend on how much wiggle room your employer gives you.
Most people take one big vacation a year — a solid one to two week stretch without work, then back to another 50 weeks of work until the next one. Spoiler alert: this is not ideal.
If you want to crush your own morale, make what you look forward to the most take a year to enjoy — it’s just not how the human mind works at its best. Thought leaders and CEOs are all looking at new models for productivity, and the same basic principles can be used to structure your year’s vacations.
Rather than focusing on one trip a year, break you year down into 13 week cycles. Set goals for yourself during those three months, and you’re actually more likely to reach them than an annual goal. Then reward yourself with a few days or a week off to recharge before you jump back on the horse.
Vacation Time Around the World
The reasoning behind people’s poor perspective on work is anybody’s guess, but one thing’s for sure: the culture of work in America has fallen behind the rest of the developing world’s.
If you’re located in the US, the chances of you being able to take quarterly paid vacations may be pretty slim. And believe it or not, that’s actually not the norm.
As it turns out, four weeks of paid vacation a year is the norm in the European Union. In the US, one to two weeks is much more common (and considered a pretty decent deal). The work culture in these countries seems significantly different, and longer vacations are often encouraged to bring you back to work at your best.
What To Do When You Don’t Get Paid Vacations
If you don’t get any paid vacation with your current employer, reading this is probably just irritating you right now. And let’s face it: even a week of paid time off a year is nowhere near enough. Don’t feel held hostage by the number of vacation days you have left though — there are other ways to get time off (and not suffer financially for it).
It all comes down to knowing what you need to be at your best (and if that’s four weeks of paid time off a year, then that’s just fine). Dare to go there, and don’t settle for anything less than you want.
Include your desired vacation time in discussions and negotiations with both current and potential employers. Get it in writing, and be crystal clear on the company’s policy on unused vacation days.
If there’s no wiggle room at all to get you to your desired number of vacation days, don’t freak out — it’s just time to get creative.
Instead of looking for employers that offer the amount of vacation time you want, add the cost of your annual vacations to your salary requirement, and break that down into monthly sums that you save just for putting your feet up every quarter. Make sure your employer is okay with you taking unpaid time off throughout the year, start a beach fund, and start daydreaming about massages and little umbrella drinks.
How much time off do you take every year? What would you do if you had four weeks of paid vacation a year? Tell us in the comments below!
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