6 Great Reasons You Should Get Away

Skipping that vacation this year? Regardless of your reason—busy workload, want to impress the boss, saving up your days—postponing your vacation can do more harm than good, to both you and your employer. Here are a few things you should keep in mind before deciding to let another year slip by without a vacation.

1. Vacations keep you focused and productive.
If you don’t give yourself time to recharge, your job performance may suffer. In a 2013 human resources study, 75% of participating HR professionals reported employees who vacationed more performed better than those who vacationed less. Besides, vacations help you learn the skill of relaxing, which helps you manage stress at work.

2. Being passed up for promotion is unlikely.
A recent USTA study found no evidence that avoiding vacation improves your probability of getting a bonus, raise, or promotion. In addition, if you’re never away from the office, your employer may never truly realize how valuable you are. Instead, coordinating others to cover for you is almost always a better plan than passing up on your vacation.

3. Getting away can do wonders for your health.
Most people return from vacation feeling energized and less stressed. The opposite is true as well. Studies show that men who don’t take vacations are more likely to suffer from heart disease. Women who don’t get away suffer more frequently from depression. Staying healthy reduces the amount of employee sick days, which saves employers money in the long run.

4. Not getting away can cost you.
It’s not just health and relaxation benefits at stake. If your employer’s “use-it or lose-it” policy requires you to take your vacation days within a certain period of time and you don’t, you may never see them again. In fact, the Project: Time Off organization reports that U.S. employees loose $52.4 billion in combined benefits every single year.

5. It can cost your employer as well.
Unused paid time off wreaks havoc on balance sheets and leaves companies financially liable. According to Project: Time Off, U.S. companies recorded roughly $224 billion in unused vacation time this year. Also, when failing to take vacation, employees cost their companies by taking more sick days, reducing their job satisfaction, and adding to employee retention costs.

6. Vacation stimulates creative thinking.
Vacation keeps employee productivity up. It improves performance. Most importantly, it gets their creative juices flowing. Big ideas often follow when people pause and calm their minds. Getting away from your regular routine may be just what you need to get your brain thinking outside the box.

As you can see, there are many reasons to get away from your job, and few reason not to. Besides, life is short, right? Take time to enjoy it. Both you and your employer will be better off.

Based on 6 Reasons Why you Should Use your Vacation Days from HRVoice.org.