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Yes, I’m finally back from my vacation trip to Hungary, Austria, Italy, and France.
I was struggling a bit with how much of my experience to share here, and how to do so in a way that would be of some interest to our readers, who presumably care more about HR and employment law than George’s Life and Times.
Then I found a good article about how American employers and employees are increasingly viewing vacations as an important employee benefit. This resonated with me, and seemed like a way to ease back into employment-related blogging, while including a bit of reflection on my own vacation experience.
The article starts with a self-employed professional taking his first vacation in six years. He says: “Enough’s enough. It’s time to have some fun.”
Sounds familiar. I’m a self-employed lawyer, and as such don’t have paid vacation. I get paid only when I do billable work (and the client pays).
I’ve always had a concern that if I plan a long vacation something big will come along and I’ll either miss out on some really good billable hours or have to change my plans. I think my last vacation of a week or more was two years ago — or was it three . . . ?
The article says: “Some see signs that a pervasive all-work-and-no-play mentality may be shifting” and that “major corporations are recognizing that vacation time is intrinsic to the mental and physical well-being of their employees.”
Key points from the article:
- Employers are increasing their vacation allotments and encouraging employees to take the allotted time.
- In a survey, 80 percent said their employers encourage them to take time off, compared to less than half just two years ago.
- “More and more recruiting ads are touting ‘generous’ vacation policies, a sign that companies are emphasizing time away from work to attract new workers.”
- Younger employees are changing the vacation culture. “Young people want to have more balanced lives.”
- When employees go on vacation, they are more willing to say they can’t be reached. “People come right out and say, ‘I will not have access to e-mail during this time.’”
- American workers lag far behind their European counterparts. The average number of paid vacation days for someone in the US who had worked for a year in 2005 was 8.9; the statutory minimum vacation in the European Union is 21.3 days a year.
Christian Science Monitor: “Nice job! Now get outta town.”
Length of a vacation period, not just total amount used over a year, is an important factor. “Surveys show that Americans typically use only five days of vacation at a time.” That may be too short to get the full mental and physical benefit of vacationing. One quoted expert says:
I want workers to have enough of a break that they forget what day it is. “What’s today - Tuesday or Wednesday?” That’s when you know you have completely separated.
By that measure, my vacation was a success — this definitely happened.
More importantly, although my daughter and I were constantly experiencing new people and places, and had very little “down time,” several aspects of our experience were extremely refreshing and relaxing because so different from everyday life.
Normally, I struggle with interruptions and distractions. Phone calls, e-mails, people walking into my office, short Internet and blogging breaks becoming long ones; before I know it the day is almost over and not enough of the planned work has been done, so I take it home to finish at night — perhaps you know the feeling.
These interruptions and distractions are perceived negatively only because there is purpose-driven activity to be interrupted. Otherwise, they would just be the ebb and flow of life.
The beauty of a vacation is that with the purpose-driven activity removed, the ebb and flow just rolls over us enjoyably and guilt-free. (Of course, this is true only if we have not over-planned our time so as to make the vacation activities as purpose-driven and structured as work.)
Though Emily and I had planned a great deal of travel, including visits to seven cities in two weeks, as well as family reunion activities, we had left enough details open that we were able to relax and go with the flow.
People-watching, talking to strangers, window-shopping, eavesdropping, enjoying everyday street scenes, and even occasionally getting lost were not interruptions and distractions, but for me the essence of a visit to a foreign country, more rewarding than purpose-driven vists to tourist sites (though we certainly did those as well).
As I reviewed my photos, having difficulty choosing the first one to post on this Blawg, I finally chose the above one (the front door window of a Budapest house where we visited a relative), as an illustration of this vacation state of mind. I was free to be “distracted” by such details — and see their beauty in a way I would miss were I hurrying down the street on the way to a client meeting or the like.
A related but somewhat different mental benefit of vacation is being freed to “live in the moment.” Too often, even away from work, I am thinking about work or something else unrelated to what I am doing at the moment. At a number of points on this trip, I had intense feelings of just totally “being there” — experiencing sights, sounds, tastes, and smells completely free of extraneous thoughts. Those are moments I will long remember.
So go now, take a vacation, go somewhere new, let yourself get distracted by whatever grabs you, and let go of your excessive thought-baggage.
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Welcome back, Georgie.