About that vacation you missed

It's an aspect of American exceptionalism that you might not want to embrace

Why do so many Americans give up something that seems so much better than work? (Photo by Ezequiel Garrido on Unsplash)

Probably the most influential journalist in America in the 20th century’s first decades was Arthur Brisbane, editor of the New York Journal and author of a syndicated column read by 20 million people. His boss, William Randolph Hearst, once gratefully offered him a six-month sabbatical, writing that it was “in recognition of your outstanding work.”

Brisbane turned down the vacation.

“There are two reasons why I will not accept your generous offer,” he explained in a note to the Chief. “The first is that it might affect the circulation of your papers if I stopped writing for six months. The second reason is that it might not.”

Good point: You don’t want to find out the hard way that you’re dispensible.

That’s apparently why more than half of U.S. workers, according to a new Pew Research Center study, don’t use all their vacation time. Asked why they skip vacations, 35 percent of those in the stay-at-work majority said it’s because they’re afraid of losing out on a promotion or even losing their job if they take the time off that’s due them.

It’s worth thinking about as we slide toward the end of summertime, traditionally the main vacation season. Not everybody is lucky enough to have a job that offers paid vacation. But among those who do, consider the choice so many make: some 768 million days each year that Americans could have spent splashing on a beach, say, or hiking in the mountains, or taking a nap in a hammock, that they instead spent at the factory.

I’m quite familiar with those folks. I used to encounter one in the mirror every morning.

Not to give you the wrong impression: During my decades of full-time employment, I took time off that has left me some glorious memories. But there was always time left in the company’s favor at the end of the year. I would assert that it wasn’t fear of losing my job or my relevance that kept me from using all that time; no, I worked because I had a job I loved. But I love my family, too, which makes it odd that I gave up time with them to instead hang with people who — how do I say this gently? — I cared about less. People, you know, who likely also might have wished to be elsewhere rather than with me.

It's sort of a national characteristic, this vacation avoidance. It shows up in the ultimate test of our expectations: what we write into the law. Three times since 2007, the Center for Economic and Policy Research has published a study called “No-Vacation Nation,” looking at the vacation time required by law in the world’s 21 richest countries. Workers in the European Union, for example, are legally guaranteed at least 20 days of vacation a year. Japan requires 10 paid vacation days and 15 paid holidays. In Spain, the law requires employers to pay for 25 days of vacation and 14 paid holidays a year.

And how many days of paid vacation does the law require in the United States? Zero. Yep: zip. No wonder we’re a nation of reluctant vacationers: Officially, it’s just not something that Americans do.

Maybe you find that reassuring: Leaving vacation time on the table doesn’t mean you’re an oddball, you’re just part of the national norm. But reassuring isn’t the same thing as healthy.

Experts say there’s a cognitive impact when people get away from work – it unclutters the mind. The University of Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center found that taking a vacation improves emotions and reduces the chance of depression. And time off can literally make you healthier, by reducing the production of the so-called stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine, which can suppress your immune system. Vacationing can literally help you avoid getting sick.

Maybe most importantly, time off can stimulate your soul. It can make you a more whole person by expanding your experience beyond your usual daily routine. It can deepen your empathy, and help you find your true self, or remind you of who that is.

Even those of us who are retired or self-employed may find it hard, though, to step away. I know: Since leaving the full-time workplace more than three years ago, I’ve jumped into a lot of tasks — including work for five great not-for-profit organizations, alongside preparing The Upstate American, and working in a big garden and yard, and — oops, I’m doing it again: making excuses for being part of the vacation-reluctant band.

But tomorrow, as I write this, we’re heading out for some days off, a late-summer getaway. As you read this, then, I’ll be at the shore, eating lobster and a bucket of steamers, I’ll bet, and probably staring at the sea. And we’re taking another trip next month, and one the month after that, and another the next month. I like to think that this practice of responsibly turning away from some responsibilities is evidence that I’m growing, still. It seems to be a fine custom, this business of not working. If it’s alien to your habit, I urge you to give it a try. You will be rewarded.

Oh, one more thing: If The Upstate American doesn’t show up in your in-box when you expect it, and you instead get a message telling you that I’m on vacation, take it as a good sign, please. I’ll probably come back with a lot of new ideas to share. And by all means, don’t cancel your subscription, because that would only suggest that Arthur Brisbane was right all along. That would be disappointing. Those newspaper editors sometimes seem like know-it-alls.

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