We’ve talked in the past about how Americans take significantly fewer vacation days than our counterparts in other countries. There are also reports that show workers are actually leaving vacation time on the table. As vacation planners we can’t imagine how this is possible! A recent study by Alamo Rent a Car offers an explanation: “Vacation shaming”. According to their survey results, about 60% of millennials feel the pressure to not take vacations. I think we all here agree that vacations are important, so we wanted to delve a little deeper into this phenomenon and see if we can help find some solutions.
Have you experienced vacation shaming? Do you use your vacation time?
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A few comments… I would take one of the initial points Chris made (about start-ups) and add that often times in the software industry “kids” take internships with or have their first jobs with young companies that are fighting to make it. When they finally do move on (or the company becomes established), the “no time for vacation” mentality has either sunk in the company culture (even though its no longer applicable), or they take it with them when they move to another company… and one of two things happens… either they get cured, or they infect the new company. Spread that out over the last 15-20 years and you have a significant chunk of the work-force that was indoctrinated into the industry believing vacations didn’t happen much if at all…. and then perpetuating it.
Another point I’d like to make is that you need to a plan a vacation. I know people (including the younger version of me) who have a whole pile of reasons that they can talk themselves into about future uncertainties so that they just can’t commit to taking a week off 4-5 months in the future… and of course it’s pretty difficult to take a whole week off on short notice (say less than a month) for most people, so they end up never making plans for a decent sized, get-away vacation.
My last comment would be that part of taking vacation is definitely company cultural. In my new job they actually require that employees use 5 of their 24 days of PTO consecutively. Culturally, they recognize the importance of getting away. That’s pretty new for me as 20+ year software developer. And it shows there is no stigma to taking a vacation here… everyone *has* to.
Thank you for the comments, Ross! And yes, I see all your points there. We often hear from people in the software industry that they think layoffs are coming and don’t know if they will have a job in a few months. So they don’t plan vacations. It’s a real concern.