TM - May 2008 - (Page 27) longer and longer commutes so they can have bigger houses and furniture, and more everything.” Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources for CareerBuilder.com, echoed this, calling the phenomenon the classic, “Americans don’t know when to quit.” But Haefner also spoke to how vacation deprivation can be driven from an employer perspective. A highpressure company culture may inadvertently suggest to employees that taking a vacation is a bad idea. “There are some organizations that are really under the gun, or culturally go-go-go, so they have a hard time encouraging or supporting people to really disconnect, to really take the time,” Haefner said. “You could definitely find workers who would say that, without a doubt, ‘I want to make sure that I have visibility. If something good happens when I’m on vacation, would I get credit for it?’” Encouraging employees to engender a support system that will allow them to fully enjoy their vacations may only serve to needle this paranoia. “One of the things I coach people on quite a bit is if you’re going to be taking time off, truly get the maximum value of it. Make sure you’ve transitioned open items to somebody else on the team, so you’ve got that backup so people don’t have to call you on vacation,” Haefner said. “The double-edged sword is some people feel, ‘Well, if I’ve transitioned to somebody and something happens while I’m out, [is he or she] going to get all the credit, yet I did all the work leading up to it?’ There’s this whole psychological component. A lot of people have a hard time just not being present.” Beyond making sure they receive full credit for their work, employees may be wary of taking a vacation because they feel it’s their first step toward getting fired. According to Mark Thomas, president of recruiting firm Thomas Executive Resources, when encouraged to take a vacation an employee may think, “‘Oh, the company wants to see how well they perform without me, and if they perform well without me, maybe they don’t need me. And if they don’t need me, then my job is at risk.’ That happens because employees naturally think the company is only looking out for itself,” he said. The Mental Toll What is the big deal about American workers not taking enough vacation? After all, there are still evenings and weekends; it’s not as if everyone is working 24x7. But according to Thomas, the long-term effect is a drain in overall effectiveness, productivity and creativity. “People don’t come up with new ideas, and they’re not refreshed, so they get stale,” Thomas said. “Everyone in a job is always going to have some type of tasks, assignments or work that is a repetitive part of [his or her] job. That’s just the nature of work. The longer you go without vacation, the more you get burnt out and the less enthusiastic you’re going to be about doing the same thing over and over and over again. Even jobs that have a lot of variety and change to them are going to have things May 2008 talent management magazine www.TalentMgt.com 27 http://www.TalentMgt.com
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of TM - May 2008 Talent Management - May 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Learning Connections Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take The Four Pillars of Managing Performance Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie Advertisers’ Index Editorial Resources Full Potential TM - May 2008 TM - May 2008 - (Page Intro) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page Cover2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 1) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 2) TM - May 2008 - Talent Management - May 2008 (Page 3) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 4) TM - May 2008 - Editor's Letter (Page 5) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 6) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 7) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 8) TM - May 2008 - Contents (Page 9) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 10) TM - May 2008 - Human Performance (Page 11) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 12) TM - May 2008 - Leading Edge (Page 13) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 14) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 15) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 16) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 17) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 18) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 19) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 20) TM - May 2008 - Learning Connections (Page 21) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 22) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 23) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 24) TM - May 2008 - Make the Connection: Effective Employee Evaluations (Page 25) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 26) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 27) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 28) TM - May 2008 - Vacation: The Benefit Many Employees Don't Take (Page 29) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 30) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 31) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 32) TM - May 2008 - The Four Pillars of Managing Performance (Page 33) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 34) TM - May 2008 - Transform Talent With Deeper Skill Specialization (Page 35) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 36) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 37) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 38) TM - May 2008 - Mentoring's Role in Succession Planning (Page 39) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 40) TM - May 2008 - Graybar: Supporting a Long-Term View of Talent Management (Page 41) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 42) TM - May 2008 - American Diabetes Association: On a Mission to Improve Employee Health (Page 43) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 44) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 45) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 46) TM - May 2008 - Taking the Talent Pulse: What Drives High Potentials? (Page 47) TM - May 2008 - American Systems Employees Earn a Piece of the Pie (Page 48) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 49) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 50) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 51) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page 52) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover3) TM - May 2008 - Editorial Resources (Page Cover4)
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.