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US workers heading into Memorial Day weekend—the traditional start of summer—are being inundated with bad economic news. With inflation at a 40-year high and the cost of travel rising, many are rethinking their vacation plans.
A March survey of nearly 4,000 US adults by CNBC and Momentive found that 29% of those surveyed had, in the past six months, canceled a trip or vacation due to rising costs, while another 40% of respondents said they would consider canceling a trip or vacation “if higher prices persist.” But even if workers are going on fewer trips, simply taking time off and going nowhere can help prevent burnout, according to Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Workplace Intelligence.
“Regardless of whether workers choose to travel or opt for a ‘staycation,’ taking time off has been shown to reduce stress, promote work-life balance, and improve productivity,” Schawbel wrote on LinkedIn last year.
Unplug. US-based workers are notorious for not using all of their vacation time, and a March survey by Bankrate, a financial services company, found that only 30% of US workers who get paid vacation days “plan to use all of their allotted time off in 2022.”
Some organizations are taking steps to convince employees to go on vacation and enjoy themselves. Companies like Goldman Sachs have instituted minimum PTO policies, so employees are required to use at least some of the time that’s available to them. Earlier this year, Google increased its minimum annual time off by a full workweek, now at 20 days. Others try to help defray the cost of taking a vacation, CNBC reports:
- Airbnb gives employees an annual travel credit worth $2,000 to spend on Airbnb rentals
- Evernote provides $1,000 towards personal travel to every employee every year
- BambooHR provides up to $2,000 per year toward vacation expenses
Lead by example. Vicki Salemi, career expert at Monster, says that HR leaders should be proactive in helping employees use their vacation time, even if they won’t be traveling this summer. She recommends managers consider meeting “individually with people on the team as well as as a whole and telling them, ‘If your vacation plans have changed, please, you need to take a vacation.’”
Salemi also told HR Brew that managers need to reassure employees that their work will be covered, so employees don’t feel the guilt that can be associated with taking time off. “It’s important for a leader not only to say, ‘[I] want to make sure you’re still taking your time off, and by the way, when you’re taking that time off, it’s well deserved. We don’t want you to be working. We’ve got your back…We need you to relax, unwind, and enjoy.’”—KP
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.