\n<\/p>\n
A<\/span> recent survey of more than 3,000 US workers for employment search site FlexJobs found that almost a quarter didn\u2019t take a vacation day during the past year and \u2013 more concerning to the study\u2019s authors \u2013 as many as 82% \u201cavoid using\u201d their accrued time off. Why?<\/p>\n Kelsey Szamet, an employment lawyer, says the reason is a shift in mentality. \u201cMany employees are concerned about the security of their jobs,\u201d she told Quartz. \u201cThe adoption of AI and automation technologies has allowed employees to actually consider their own replaceability before requesting a leave or a holiday, or any kind of time-off benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n Are you hesitant to take time off because of a slowing economy and the onset of AI? Don\u2019t be. As a business owner with hundreds of business clients, and an employer myself, I know many people \u2013 successful people working at companies \u2013 who have no problem using their allotted vacation time each year.<\/p>\n These people take ownership of their jobs, and make sure they get them done. My company offers unlimited paid time off (PTO) to our employees. I don\u2019t track their vacation time. I don\u2019t care where they are, and when they\u2019re working. They\u2019re hired to fulfill obligations and I leave it to them to do what they believe is right to meet those responsibilities. If that doesn\u2019t happen because they\u2019re taking \u201ctoo much\u201d vacation, well, that\u2019s a matter to discuss when their performance reviews roll around.<\/p>\n Good employers also understand that PTO is compensation. Discouraging an employee from taking vacation is like telling them to take a cut in pay. You\u2019ve made the commitment in writing. You better not renege. This is not only good practice, but discouraging PTO is potential wage theft. If you\u2019re working for someone who practices this kind of wage theft, my advice would be to find somewhere else to work.<\/p>\n I once coached a Little League baseball team alongside a corporate operations specialist who made every game, every practice, even out-of-town tournaments. I once asked him how. He told me it was simple: \u201cWhenever I have something to do, my first thought is, who on my team will be doing it for me?\u201d<\/p>\n Delegate. Share work. Be a team member. Build resources around you. Cover for your colleagues when they want to take some time off, and they\u2019ll return the favor. Be smarter about how you work, so you can enjoy the days when you\u2019re not working.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s technology. So many employees are afraid that AI is going to take their jobs. You think a manager doesn\u2019t have the same fears? The truth is that AI is so immature right now, it\u2019s taking more time to review the slop that it generates than it\u2019s saving. True, this will change. And the smartest employees will embrace it, and use it to do more of their jobs, so that they can be even more productive and valuable to their employers, and also take more time off because technology is able to cover for them.<\/p>\n AI does not have to be a job killer. It can be a vacation-enabler. Start planning for this eventuality, and you\u2019ll have a better work\/life balance in the years to come.<\/p>\n Also, PTO has changed. This is not 1980. There is the internet. There is your iPhone. You don\u2019t need to go completely dark. Worst-case scenario: you\u2019re catching up on work in a ski lodge. Or in a cafe in Rome. Or by the pool in Aruba. It\u2019s still better than your workspace in the office.<\/p>\n Above all, communication is key. Maybe your boss is a jerk, and I realize that happens. But most managers aren\u2019t jerks. They just don\u2019t want any problems for themselves.<\/p>\n So don\u2019t create any. Take your time off, but try to understand if they need you. Check in with them regularly and quickly, even on vacation, just to make sure they\u2019re cool. If they\u2019re normal people, they\u2019ll scold you for doing so, but will also be secretly grateful. Make sure they know your plans, when you\u2019re gone, when you\u2019ll be back and how to reach you if they need. The grand majority will leave you be.<\/p>\n Maybe the FlexJobs survey is accurate. Maybe \u2013 like so many other surveys that get sent to me \u2013 they\u2019ve got their own agenda, like attracting more job applicants to their site.<\/p>\n But taking their results at face value, I think employees who are afraid to take time off are being overly fearful.<\/p>\n Believe it or not, chances are that your boss wants you to take vacation. They want you not to be stressed. They care that you\u2019re happy working at your job \u2013 and for their company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A recent survey of more than 3,000 US workers for employment search site FlexJobs found that almost a quarter didn\u2019t take a vacation day during the past year and \u2013 more concerning to the study\u2019s authors \u2013 as many as 82% \u201cavoid using\u201d their accrued time off. Why? Kelsey Szamet, an employment lawyer, says the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[7511,1120,1406,257,1407,1651,4810,514],"class_list":{"0":"post-42081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-afraid","9":"tag-boss","10":"tag-gene","11":"tag-isnt","12":"tag-marks","13":"tag-problem","14":"tag-vacation","15":"tag-work"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}