The office anywhere culture finds its roots in the ever-present cell phone. The ability to connect to work anytime has moved from could to should. A 3 a.m. email reply is now (sadly) viewed as a badge of honor. A recent Qualtrics study found some of us check our phones as many as 150 times each day. And that incessant checking continues while we are on vacation.
The ability to unplug from work, while on vacation, is difficult. It is a product of our company culture that either encourages us to disconnect or discourages us to unplug. The organization Project: Time Off reports that our use of vacation time has been on a steady decline the last 40-years. On average, we take only 17 days off a year. The most dramatic decline began in 2003, the year the first cell phone was introduced with integrated email and web-browsing; arguably the tool by which a constant connection to work was created and unplugging from work while on vacation was gone.
Project: Time Off has documented the severity of the issue:
Only 1 in 4 workers unplug from work while on vacation
Almost 80% of workers will only take a vacation if they can have access to work
Up to 62% of workers who check in frequently while on vacation, leave vacation time unused
More than half of those workers who check in frequently while on vacation report stress in their home life. Among those workers who unplug while on vacation, only one third report stress at home.
Workers who choose not to take vacation time off point to several reasons:
Don’t like returning to piled up work.
Don’t believe anyone else can do their job.
Feel the more senior their role, the harder it is to take off.
Want to demonstrate complete dedication to their job.
Their boss expects them to respond while on vacation so why leave.
How an organization manages vacation expectations is perhaps one of the most significant tests of culture. Research finds that in those organizations that demand that employees unplug while on vacation (as role modeled by senior leaders), they have higher levels of employee engagement, employees feel more valued by their employer, employees feel cared for as a person, and employees feel their work is essential.
Among those employees actively looking for a new job, 74% indicate the ability to take a vacation is “extremely” or “very” important to them. Fully 40% of employees who work for a company that does not support a culture of unplugging while vacation, indicate they are looking for another job.
A sensitivity toward vacation time is most pronounced among Millennials. Among this sizeable cohort, 38% indicate they do not take vacation time off to show complete dedication to their company. They are afraid what their boss will think of them for taking time off (27%), are worried vacation time will lessen their chance for a promotion (27%), they feel guilty (29%), and they don’t want to be seen as replaceable (32%).
The irony is that company leaders obsess over the creation of high-performance cultures, but do not see the error of not paying enough attention to their messaging around vacations. It takes more than an approval of time off by a leader to convince an employee that vacationing is a critical cultural value. As leaders, we must demonstrate our commitment by taking time away from work and entirely unplugging. Actions do indeed speak louder than words when it comes to creating a culture of well-being.