Do Not Be A Fool - Take Your Time Off!

I just returned from a week long vacation in the Boundary Waters of Northern Minnesota.  Complete isolation - no phone and no computer - and a lot of free time to ponder life (in between the paddling and portages).

I find it extremely odd that to this day, I still know people who actually lose vacation because they do not take it.  Absolutely absurd!  The typical answers - they can not get away, to much work when they get back, and the company really frowns on long vacations.

Highly developed company cultures encourage and even force their employees to take the vacation they have earned.  Why?  During an extended vacation (no less than one week) people tend to come back with one of two attitudes - they have recharged and are ready to get back into the fray or they have realized that their current work situation is not meeting their needs and make a decision to move on.

The first attitude is easy for companies to accept. The second, well that is a different story.  Far to many organizations fear the second attitude and that is why they frown on extended vacations.  They would rather keep an unsatisfied employee than go through the work of finding a replacement or even more exasperating, they fear the challenge of creating a culture where people do not want to leave.

I say give vacation, make employees take their earned vacation, and celebrate when your employees make a choice to leave and better themselves.  Quit being selfish and bitter, and support the growth of your people.  We all need to take time to drive down the road and see what is out there!

Comments

[Pete Jones - Desmoinesisnotboring.com]

Amen!

[MiddleCoaster]

This is a good article, but the author/editor needs to proofread for spelling, puncuation and grammar..

"Lose", not "Loose"; "Too", not "To".

The mispellings, incorrect puncuation and a weak grammatical style give the impression that the author is ignorant of basic spelling and grammar.

To me, overuse of the word "I" is a lazy way out of writing well.

[hera777]

The misspellings distracted me from the meat of the article, especially "loose" for "lose." I also tend not to trust information that is communicated poorly. You need to hone your English skills so that your message doesn't get lost.

[Pete Jones - Desmoinesisnotboring.com]

Always interesting to see people who leave negative comments hide behind pseudonyms and not their real contact info.