American workers need federally mandated vacation time

U.S. Vacations

American Vacation Time

Many people in the United States are clueless about how their country stacks up to other countries in the world in regards to vacation time. Most people generally assume that vacation time in the United States is relatively comparable to that of the rest of the world. However, that could not be farther from the case. In fact the U.S. has been referred to as the "non-vacation" nation since it has no federally mandated vacation time other than public holidays (CNN World). In fact, in a 2009 Mercer poll the only country that was included in the survey that scored worse than the United States was China. Every other industrialized nation and nearly all the developing nations all have mandated vacation time that exceeds the American averages. Many of the top vacation nations in the world offer their citizens a mandated forty or more days off per year while the average among some of the U.S.'s top companies is twenty five and other positions receive far less.

Summary of the Argument

Making sure that American workers receive enough vacation is not only a good idea for the workers, but it is also beneficial to the employers. Research indicates that well-rested employees perform significantly better than overworked ones. This argument will focus on the benefits that employers would receive under a mandated vacation period similar to that found in almost every other country in the world. There is a reason that a vast majority of countries have instituted such regulations; it is good for the overall health of the nation.

Proof

There is substantial proof that has emerged in psychology and organizational psychology that all attribute to the fact that time off is an imperative for physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being. Clinical psychologist Deborah Mulhern explains it like this "Without time and opportunity to do this, the neural connections that produce feelings of calm and peacefulness become weaker, making it actually more difficult to shift into less-stressed modes, what neuroscience is showing is that we require down time in order for our bodies to go through the process of restoration. It is only when we are safe from external stresses that our bodies can relax enough to activate restoration" (Quigley).

The accumulation of work related stress not only has implications for the individual but also the organization and the society as well. Employee performance diminishes after long bouts with work related stress because the effects of stress take a cumulative effect on the individual. This can also lead to other negative organizational implications such as work related illness, absenteeism, low morale, increased levels of intentions to quit and an overall level of exhaustion. Exhaustion has been defined in the literature to be defined as the result of prolonged physical, affective, and cognitive strain at work (Kuhnel and Sonnentag). We propose that negative consequences of job demands, such as emotional exhaustion, can be alleviated during vacation because the employee is no longer confronted with the physical, affective, and cognitive strains of her or his job.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that there is substantial evidence that vacation time has substantial benefits to employees' well-being and increases productivity and job performance, many employers do not act to take advantage of vacation time. Instead they naively sacrifice their employees' well-being and the organizational productivity because they do not understand or do not acknowledge the increasing body of evidence surrounding this issue. Therefore, it is time for the U.S. government to intervene in this issue related to public health and mandate federal minimum amounts of vacation time for all U.S. employees. Literally, nearly the entire world has already taken advantage of this and the time has finally come for the U.S. To follow suite.