Live to work or work to live?
 

I read this article this morning and it got me thinking. Do you take all your vacation throughout the year? Do you feel guilty when you're away? Do you not take vacation because "work" needs you?



Afraid to take time off

Canadian workers' dilemma and it's making them sick

By Kim Covert, Financial PostMay 14, 2009



OTTAWA -- Need a vacation? Join the crowd.

Nearly 25 per cent of Canadians aren't taking the full number of vacation days they've been allotted, according to an online Harris/Decima poll conducted for Expedia.ca, leaving 34 million vacation days unused every year.

That amounts to workers handing back about $6.03 billion in wages annually to their employers, Expedia.ca, an online travel agency, said yesterday.

Not surprisingly, 42 per cent of poll respondents said they're feeling stressed, tired and vacation-deprived -- up from 33 per cent in 2008.

"The stress associated with the current economy and impact on the workplace makes the need for time away from work even more important," said Beverly Beuermann-King, an Ontario stress and wellness expert who says taking a vacation is an investment in one's health.

So if 41 per cent of respondents say they're more productive when they come back from their holidays, and 54 per cent say they feel rejuvenated and reconnected to their personal lives after a break, why wouldn't a person take a vacation?

"The economy has put people in a position where they don't feel like they can take vacations," said Karen Seward, a senior vice-president with workplace health consulting firm Shepell-fgi. "It makes it impossible for people . . . to know that they can come back and everything will be fine."

Thirteen per cent of poll respondents said their work is their life and they're too busy to get away. Others feel guilty about taking time off work; others are holding off on taking expensive vacations due to the state of the economy.

Some will only go with their electronic devices at hand.

According to poll results released yesterday by The Creative Group, an employee placement firm, 61 per cent of marketing and advertising executives said they check in with work at least once a day while on break. Only eight per cent said they never check in while on vacation.

"Advancements in technology have made it easy for professionals to stay connected to the office, even when on vacation," said Collin Maria Ezzell, division director for The Creative Group.

"While checking in periodically may provide peace of mind, excessive communication can spoil the benefits of being away from the office."

Even though companies benefit financially from their employees leaving vacation days on the table, the result -- a burnt-out staff -- can end up costing them, too, said Seward.

"We're seeing increasing rates of burnout, stress," said Seward, whose company provides workplace health and wellness programs. "Mental nervous disorder is now the top claim for disability that insurance carriers are seeing and a lot of it is people who don't know how to take a break."

The mental and physical health issues connected to burnout are being reflected in escalating drug costs and costs of employees off work on short-term disability, she said.

Seward said it's middle-aged and older workers who tend to defer their vacations, while younger workers expect to take their vacations either in time or in money.

Source: Expedia.ca
© Copyright (c) The Province

http://www.theprovince.com/Health/Af...501/story.html

i'm a workaholic

same here, I almost worked for 2 years before I took my first vacation at the company I'm currently working at. They had to pretty much tell me to take a vacation. Good thing was when I came back from vacation I had the current years vacation banked :)

I need money to pay insurance :(
Im still hoping to win the lottery, that way i wont have to work anymore. hah

im unemployed so :jerkit:?

werd


40 mill this weeks draw from 649

I can't leave shit up to my coworkers. They don't know how to do my job.

However, after 2.5 years of not taking a vacation, I'm finally taking some (after my company told me it's policy for them to not pay vacation time out). I'm taking a few friday's off every weekend, rather than taking a long time off at a time like most people. I find that giving myself a long weekend every now and then works out better than just taking 1 long vacation off.

It's hard to take time off, when there's no one to cover you. When I come back from vacation, there's always a pile of stuff to get done. I figure, if i can get a couple weeks off every other year, and take some long weekends in between, i should be able to keep my sanity.

I don't think they can do that
http://www.bclaws.ca/Recon/document/...3_01.xml#part4

Same here. Sure, it's probably illegal but you won't see me rock the boat over it. I'll just use my days off.

It's legal to not pay you out, unless you're terminated, laid off, quit, company goes bankrupt, etc. I might save the bulk of my vacation time off as a fat bonus for when I leave the company for school. I've accrued enough vacation time to make a small financial dent on my company should i decide to leave, hehehe

you could rock the boat by starting a class action lawsuit against the company along with repirations for psychological issues or threaten to do so to your boss :)

"use it or lose it" policies are not legal in Canada. If you do not use your vacation, your employer must roll it over or pay it out.

My former company tried this on us when it was bought by a big American company, they found out quickly that those of us with several weeks vacation rolled over were going to take the next few months off to avoid losing our vacation, so they quickly changed their policy to conform to Canadian law.

I have 35 days right now.... I have banked days still from 2 years ago...

but I'm taking tomorrow off. 4 day weekend :Pbjt::Pbjt:

i want a f/t job........sigh

I've been umemployed since January.
Not planning to get a job until august.

I feel that work needs someone to work, and I need work more than they need me. I need money to pay for things, to pay my bills, to pay for the car, etc.

You know you're starting to mature when you realize how much your job means to you. lol

^WORD

Fuck vacation! Its all about working your ass off so you can retire early and pay bills.

For me there is no benefit to working more I get paid the same if I put in a 70 hour week or a 40 hour one. Saying that I don't even get half the holidays required by law, besides stats/weekends I'm lucky if I get 6-7 days off a year and that's after 16 years working here. Working in the family business for a workaholic father isn't that great. :)

I took last Friday off and my phone was going non stop all day I had to shut it off, fuck I hate work.

Obviously, no one answer will fit all scenario's.
For me, i do sales so my pay is greatly decreased when i don't work. And because I do sales, the harder I work ie doing sales related tasks on my days off, will result in increased sales so I can get paid more. Being paid more means i can afford my hookers and blow.

I can leave at my scheduled time to leave, but without computer access to see the inventory, it can be quite hard to sell. That means i usually find myself at work for hours after I am allowed to leave.

That being said, i don't see how empoyee's are "giving money back to the company" when they do not take any holidays, Obviously the article was written by someone who has no idea what they are talking about.

Oh wait, this is written in Ottawa. Maybe their laws are different from BC.

lol, same here! ive been off since february, ive just now finally started to hunt for a job and when i mean hunt, i mean casually browse craigslist for jobs.

But those jobs cost you $$$.
And usually those pics don't match the real people. :eek:

QUE?

Come work in Asia..

Why?

So I can wait till I'm 50 before traveling? No thanks, Costa Rica was much more fun at 27.

I'm on the "retire dead" plan. I want to work less when I get older, yet I want to enjoy life now and later, why limit yourself?

Plus Ayn Rand said it best:
We all need a reason to live, thus why we work and criticize the lazy bums of the DTES for not contributing.