Vacation Days and Employee Effectiveness - Essay Example

Vacation days and employee effectiveness Human beings are not electro-mechanical robots. They need recuperation; they need to break free from monotony; and they need time with their loved ones. However, looking at the recent statistics and Labor Laws in the U.S. it seems that US workers are robots. They work almost all hours of the waking day, have little time for personal life and do not even consider a vacation their right. This status quo and culture of workaholics have been developed by extreme competition and desire to succeed in the global economy. Instead, what has compromised in the process is the right of workers to have work-life balance. The following paper argues that the US negative attitude towards vacation has become a detrimental factor for its progress and productivity as an industrial nation. It needs to re-evaluate its workplace policies to reflect on more paid vacations and public holidays in order to enhance workers’ productivity and keep up with workplace diversity. Introduction With long working hours, a handful of national holidays and virtually no vacation, the United States have come to be known as "no-vacation" land. Ironically, despite its reputation as the leader of manufacturing in the world, it does not have the most efficient workforce (Pawlowski 2011). Moreover, it does not even have a paid-vacation policy in its labor laws. Compared to other countries of the world, the U.S. has one of the most inhumane workplace ideologies which include least to non-existent work-life balance, no paid-vacations and long work hours which eventually lead to inefficacy and inefficient workforce. Discussion The emergence of the global economy has facilitated manufacturers all around the world to collaborate, share and trade the burden of production. Today, a company does not stay in one location for its work processes or depends on one area for generating workforce. Indeed, workers are spread out across the globe yet remain connected with the center of control and other work groups. This trend has generated diverse pool of talents and skills for employers to choose from. Engineers of manufacturing industries may work at one location - say China while its command center may be somewhere like the US. This freedom of being able to recruit from various locations of the world brought about diversity in the workforce but it has also brought on the issue of diverse vacation policy adopted by organizations and countries of the world. Differentiation in vacation policies can be a disconcerting phenomenon for the human resource department especially if the policies vary from no holidays to paid vacation. The US is known by experts in this field as a no-vacation land and the worse workplace among advanced nations because of its inhumane policies mentioned above. According to a report on differences in workers in the US and other countries, workers in Europe, Japan and Australia have more paid leave and public holidays as compared to the US which does not have any law that mandate employers to pay employees for vacation or public holidays. The figure below taken from the survey show that France has the highest paid vacation days while the US has zero (Ray & Schmitt). Figure Source: Ray & Schmitt 2007 European employers under the Working Time Directive (1993) are required to pay for leaves by their governments. Similarly, Australia and New Zealand workers enjoy four weeks of paid leave and 7 paid public holidays, while Canada and Japan have the least number of paid-leave yet they do require employers to grant 10 days paid annual leave (Ray & Schmitt). It is no wonder therefore to find more Europeans and Australians vacationing across the world more than Americans. For the US workers, paid-vacations have remained elusive dreams. They struggle to even secure pay for public holidays and family emergency leaves. Given such strict policy towards work, the average American according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics works 160 hours more than they used to in 1976. They have more stress, prone to absenteeism, lost productivity and deteriorating health. Employers pay approximately $344 billion a year for inefficiency. Statistics indicate that US male workers are likely to have 30 percent chance of heart attacks as compared to 50 percent among female apart from depression, anxiety and stress related illnesses. Productivity therefore is compromised if workers are sick, not in the work frame of mind, and tired ("Mandatory Paid Vacation Coming to the US"). Similarly, the majority of US workers consider free time the first priority in their life. With heavy workload and pressure from management to keep up with other workers across the country and the world, executives and blue collar workers are finding it difficult to sustain work-life balance. The burden is enhanced when they realize that employees across the globe from France to China get more vacation than they do. What is more sad is the fact that US employees give up their vacation or cash their vacation time instead of use it to relax and recuperate according to Braun Consulting Group. This is because pressure of joblessness, economic low-down and high priority given to work as a source of happiness (Pawlawski). What they do not realize is that work-life balance is imperative for high productivity and intellectual development. According to Clutterbuck work-life balance refers to "the time and energy people contract to expand to a third party in return for a defined reward" (Clutterbuck 8). It is defined as "a state where an individual manages real or potential conflict between different demands on his or her time and energy in a way that satisfies his or her needs for well-being and self-fulfillment." (Clutterbuck 8). Workers in the US are unaware or tend to ignore the fact that time and energy are limited, and should be allocated to activities which have value to them. With little time available for family or even themselves, they have been trained to suppress their need for work-life balance. Realizing the degradation of the US workforce, John de Graaf in 2009 proposed a Paid Vacation Bill but has been rejected due to critics from opposition. The bill proposed to offer workers five weeks paid annual leave. However, it has been opposed on the basis that it would negatively impact business and that social policymakers should not be involved in the workplace (Pawlawski). Conclusions The sad status quo is that US employees are unaware of their rights. They continue to be suppressed by employers who mandate long work hours. Most have no desire to take vacations in fear of losing pay and job. They are unaware of the concept of work-life balance. On the other hand their European and other counterparts from other parts of the world enjoy intermittent vacation time, recuperate and refresh to return to work energetically. US workers are more absent from work due to illness, stress or simply tired of working. Although opponents to paid-vacations argue that the majority of the white collar workforce takes them, the brute reality is that the majority of the production workers belongs to the minimum wage work class, do not have such privilege. Instead, they depend on Unions and the law to secure their jobs and even wage. If these workers are becoming regularly absent and tired of their work, then it is not surprising that the US is losing its edge as the leading manufacturing country of the world. To remedy this situation, it is imperative that the Paid Vacation bill be passed. The federal government should make it mandatory for employers to pay at least four weeks of vacation and paid public holidays for all work groups. This would achieve three folds purpose. Workers will be more confident in taking leaves which can be divided during the year. Secondly, they will have more free time for work-life balance. And most importantly, workers would be refreshed throughout the year and be more productive. This would decrease expenses in medical bills, productivity loss during absenteeism and loss of productivity due to slow work. Works Cited Author not available. "Mandatory Paid Vacation Coming to the U.S.?" Global Employment Law, June 11, 2009 available at: http://globalemploymentlaw.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/mandatory-paid-vacation-coming-to-the-u-s/ Braun Consulting News. "The Shrinking American Vacation" Braun Consulting Newsletter, Vol. 7, No. 6 (Winter) 2004/2005 available at: http://www.braunconsulting.com/bcg/newsletters/winter2004/winter20044.html Clutterbuck, David. Managing the Work-Life Balance. CIPD Publishing, 2003. Department of Labor accessed on 31 January, 2012 from: http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/workhours/vacation_leave.htm Pawlawski, A. Why is America the no-vacation nation? CNN. May 23, 2011. Ray, Rebecca and Schmitt, John. No-vacation nation USA - a comparison of leave and holiday in OECD countries. European Economic and Employment Policy Brief # 3 2007 Read More