Some companies force workers to stop working, use time off
Getting American workers to power down is an uphill battle. So much so that some companies are pushing employees to unwind.
Many people refuse to stop checking work emails and phone calls during leisure time — whether they're in the stand at their kids' baseball games or lying with their feet propped up beside a lake clinging to mobile devices that allow them to work from almost anywhere.
More than half of working Americans did not use all their time off in 2015, found Project: Time Off, an initiative launched by the U.S. Travel Association to encourage Americans to take their vacation. Some 22% found it difficult to take a break because they wanted to show they were totally committed to the company.
Some employers are fighting back with policies that encourage people to take time off. Netflix, famously, has offered unlimited vacation since 2004. Others are going as far as mandating that employees take a time out, even paying bonuses to those who use all their vacation in a bid to boost productivity as well as morale.
"The problem arises when people feel obligated to respond immediately at the cost of engaging in other activities," says Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, a recruitment and hiring firm. “Constantly being available online translates into more work hours. That intrudes on your personal life, can cause burnout and lead to a variety of physical and mental health issues if not monitored properly.”
It can also lead people to look for another job.
Boston Consulting Group noticed the brain drain a decade ago. It started mandating that team members take time off during the week, whether it was to head to the gym or spend time with family. Some executives began using software that allows emails sent after 8 p.m. to be marked non-urgent or delayed until the next business day.
"We found the teams that actually took the time to think about what was being done ... actually worked less hours,'' says Grant Freeland, senior partner and global leader of BCG's People and Organization Practice. "They worked smarter.’’
The U.S. Travel Association took action when it discovered in 2013 that only 19% of its employees were taking all their vacation time. The number soared to 91% the following year, when it offered a $500 bonus to every staffer who used all their days. That incentive, coupled with statements from the organization’s CEO Roger Dow about how critical it was to take time off, and updates to employees about how many vacation days they had left, resulted in the company reducing its financial liability from unused time off by $36,345. The organization is offering the $500 incentive again this year in response to employee demand.
When Denver-based technology company FullContact realized some staffers weren't vacationing, it began requiring they take at least 15 days off. As further incentive, each employee gets $7,500 a year to help pay for a dream excursion. During that particular vacation they are discouraged from logging in.
Edie Richardson, who has worked as a customer success advocate for FullContact for nearly two years, says the vacation policy was one of the factors that enticed her to take the job. She’s used some of the bonus money for plane tickets to Hawaii and saved some. Next summer, she plans to use the money to fund her honeymoon in Helsinki.
The benefit is much more than a financial boost, Richardson says. When she returned from her first company paid trip, she was "so ready to get back to work, I actually came back a day early," she says. "I was so ready to hit the ground running ... It’s really amazing to have that opportunity to get off the grid, to get paid for it and to come back with this renewed sense of, 'OK, I don’t need to burn myself out on a daily basis.' "
The company has seen multiple benefits, including increased productivity, a “dramatic’’ drop in health care costs and sick days, “and we do not have turnover," says Eden Elder, the company's chief people officer. "People want to stay.’’
Still, such policies are not the norm — yet. Among respondents to the The Project: Time Off survey, 58% say they don’t get support from their employer when it comes to taking vacation, and 65% say they are greeted with silence, mixed messages or not encouraged to do so.
"There hasn’t been a sweeping change here yet like in other countries," says Haefner, noting that labor advocates and experts in the United Kingdom, France and Germany have been more attentive to addressing the extra, often under-compensated, work businesses get out of employees toiling after hours. "Perhaps the U.S. could be next."
