Paid Time Off: It’s Yours to Use - Right?
Whether you call it vacation, paid leave, or just paid time off, employees expect to have it and most organizations, whether large or small, provide it to their people. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 92% of private industry workers at larger establishments and 71% of those in smaller businesses have access to paid time off. So, if most employees have access to PTO, why are we hearing such a stir around what some refer to as guilty vacations?
Interestingly enough, the battle over to pay-or not-to-pay has been a topic for over 100 years in the US. Some have tried to force the issue through legislation but attempts at the federal level have been unsuccessful.
As a HR professional, I don’t disagree that this is not a legislative issue. But I would argue it is an important issue and should be a priority for all employers. It starts by organizations not only supporting but encouraging–and perhaps even requiring–employees to take their time off.
Let’s look at why promoting time off is so important for the success of the business. It’s important both for employees and company culture but also for leaders. Executives and owners need time off to recharge and reassess too!
Time away from work is vital to an employee's wellbeing.
When employers provide employees paid time off, they’re telling them that their personal life is important and it creates a culture of loyalty. Employees need to know they are valued as a person, not just as an employee and that taking time to recharge is necessary.
Secondly, while it may seem counterintuitive, companies that promote and encourage time away from work see better results. A recent article in Forbes cited a 2017 mandatory time off experiment conducted by a global Aviation company resulted in a 33% increase in employee creativity, 25% increase in happiness and 13% increase in productivity. While dated, with the changes we’ve seen in the workplace I would wager those numbers are much higher now.
In my opinion, the problem is we’ve allowed the notion that taking time off from work is bad to grow legs. Please hear me when I say, time off is more than ok! It is necessary, and without a shift in mindset around this topic, leaders should prepare to continue to see increased turnover and low morale.
This push has become even more critical as the divide shifts towards the younger generations. While Gen Z doesn’t necessarily cite PTO as a priority, this generation and millennials place a high value on work-life balance, which cannot be achieved without promoting time off.
Strong leaders know this and insist on the use of paid time off!
Some are still trying to figure it out, but for those who choose to make their team feel guilty for taking their time off, I simply say shame on them.
I once worked with an executive who had this deep-seeded expectation that all leaders should be at work at least 9 hours a day, five days a week. I did not report to this person, we were peers, but they worked with the CEO for years. When I accepted the role, it was with two caveats; first that I could leave at noon on Thursdays and work remote on Fridays from the state I left my husband and daughter in for my first two months so I didn’t have to miss my daughter’s senior year of volleyball and second, that my Mexico trip the month after I started would be honored. After all, I had been with the company for five years, so I had plenty of vacation time to use.
Shortly after my daughter’s season ended, I had the great misfortune of losing my daddy and was out for six days. Three months later, my stepmother needed surgery so I worked remotely for a few more days to be with her. This was on top of being selected to participate in a Corporate Development program that took me out of the office three days a month my first year at this facility. Then, (yes it gets better) eight months later my father-in-law passed away.
It hadn’t been very long after that last death that my CEO asked if I expected to be out of the office again anytime soon. I was shocked and hurt, and I recall telling him not that I know of, but if I had a choice, I would have much rather been at work than grieving the loss of my favorite person. From that moment on, I felt like I was under a microscope, and I didn’t like it. I worked many hours, never missed deadlines and the quality of my work was on point. Yet, I had time-off guilt, even when I wasn’t actually off, but was out of the walls of that facility.
Over a year later, my CEO told me one afternoon to get an early start on my trip out of state for my first grandchild’s baby shower. I hesitated then admitted I didn’t want the team to feel as though I wasn’t there because I had been at Corporate earlier that week. He told me he didn’t have a problem with it, it was really my peer that had distorted views on other people’s schedules. Had he only known how that early interaction impacted me, I am confident he would have handled it differently because he was truly an amazing leader.
I’ll end with this quote from the brilliant Adam Grant “Bad bosses punish time off. They see vacations as a lack of dedication to work. Good bosses grant time off. They see vacations as a source of energy for work. Great bosses insist on time off. They see vacations as a right, not a reward – they care about your life beyond work.”
