Vacation Deflation: Breaks Get Shorter ---
Work Demands Edge Out Classic Weeklong Holiday; A Business Trip With
Kids
15 August 2007
The Wall Street Journal <javascript:void(0)>
When Jacqueline Platt goes on a trip to Barcelona next month, she plans
to hit the beach, eat tapas, see the sights and party until 5 a.m. The
hard part: She has to squeeze it all into one weekend.
"Everyone's telling me I'm crazy," says Ms. Platt, a 26-year-old account
executive at PJ Inc., a public-relations firm in New York. Two years
ago, when she was an executive assistant at another firm, she took a
week off to go to London -- but her schedule doesn't allow for such
luxuries anymore. She plans to take a red-eye flight on Thursday, return
to New York on Monday, and work a full day Tuesday. "To be out of the
loop for a full week is really hard," she says.
The leisurely summer vacation -- long considered a chance for employees
to break away from work for at least a full week, if not two -- has
fallen out of favor. Instead, many people are opting to break their
vacation time into long weekends, say researchers who track vacation
patterns. Some employees are even combining their vacations with two- to
three-day business trips to avoid being away from work at all.
"There are no more 'off' switches in life," says Peter Rose, a partner
at consumer-research company Yankelovich Inc., based in Chapel Hill,
N.C. "We may sleep, but our in-boxes don't. It's made it tougher for
people to walk away for long periods of time for anything."
A full 35% of employed U.S. adults aren't taking all the vacation days
they get for the year, inching up from 33% last year, according to
Expedia.com's annual Vacation Deprivation survey. Only 14% plan to take
off a full two-week vacation this year, down from 16% last year.
The trend has picked up as the work force has grown leaner. These days,
many employers don't hire temporary help to replace salaried workers
while they are gone, says George Faulkner, a principal at Mercer Human
Resource Consulting's health and benefits practice. Employees often work
on multiple projects and report to more than one manager, making it more
difficult to get vacation dates approved.
Another factor: Growth in the number of dual-income couples has made it
harder for people to coordinate their vacations, consultants and firms
who track vacation trends say. Last year, more than 40% of
married-couple families were dual-income, compared with about 35% in
1977, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
To be sure, younger employees use their vacation time differently -- a
trend that could alter the work environment over time. According to
Yankelovich's annual Monitor survey of consumer trends, more working
Generation Xers -- which the company defined as those born between 1965
and 1978 -- than baby boomers use all their vacation time. "Generation X
is more balance-focused," says Mr. Rose of Yankelovich. "That means not
living their lives in the office."
But for the most part, employees in the U.S. are reluctant to take
breaks. "I think we've moved into the era of the long weekend," says
John Challenger, chief executive of outplacement firm Challenger, Gray &
Christmas Inc. He says people are generally more insecure about their
jobs now.
Some workers are even combining their family vacations with business
trips. When Shirish Lal, 40 years old, travels for work, he occasionally
brings his family along. His wife and children joined him for a weekend
in New Orleans recently. Mr. Lal, vice president of marketing for
telecommunications provider CenturyTel Inc. in Monroe, La., gets two
weeks a year, plus holidays. But "it's tough to get away from work," he
says. Even when he is gone, he stays plugged in through email and his
cellphone. "It's hard to disconnect, and it's not worth it," he says.
To be sure, BlackBerrys have made it easier to stay plugged into work
from afar -- but "for many, it is a stop-gap measure," says
Yankelovich's Mr. Rose. "It still doesn't replace being in the office,
being on the call, being in the meeting."
For many employees, the thought of coming back to a full in-box and
answering machine makes leaving the office a challenge. "I have lots of
vacation time, but working for an elected official, it's difficult to
find a good stopping point," says Blanca Madriz, 30, a legislative
assistant in the office of Texas Rep. Veronica Gonzales (D., McAllen).
The last time she took a long vacation was four years ago, when she took
a two-week trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, for her grandparents' wedding
anniversary. Now she takes only extended weekends and prefers to stay
inside Texas, visiting cities such as Houston and Brenham. "We're a
small staff, so taking two weeks off just puts a huge burden on everyone
else," Ms. Madriz says.
In a push to go after regional markets, the travel industry is offering
more options geared toward people who are looking for a quick trip,
either by car or short flight, says Cathy Keefe, spokeswoman for the
Travel Industry Association.
For instance, in March, Alaska Air Group Inc.'s Horizon Air launched two
new flights to Sonoma County from Los Angeles and Seattle. Travelers are
allowed to bring home a case of up to 12 bottles of wine at no extra
charge. In May, JetBlue Airways Corp. launched a flight from New York's
John F. Kennedy International Airport to Nantucket, Mass.
At the Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas, manager Ed Carette says that an
increasing number of guests come for a quick stay. The hotel saw a 15%
increase in traffic from cities that are within driving distance from
2005 to 2006. "They have a limited amount of flexible time," says Mr.
Carette. "People are just looking for an opportunity to get away and be
pampered."
To avoid burnout, some employers in recent years have started
encouraging workers to take their vacation time. For the past several
years, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP has shut down between Christmas and
New Year's Day to give employees extra time off. (The one exception was
2005, when it created a five-day weekend around July 4 instead.)
Managers are also more conscious of whether employees are taking all of
their allotted vacation time, says Jennifer Allyn, managing director in
the Office of Diversity at PricewaterhouseCoopers.
But telling employees to take a vacation doesn't always create goodwill.
Last year, Yahoo Inc. sent an email intended to encourage its workers to
take off the week between Christmas and New Year's -- which would help
reduce the company's liability for unused vacation time.
But the language in the email was so firm that people thought it was
required, says Yahoo spokeswoman Heidi Burgett, and the company saw an
angry backlash from employees who complained that they didn't want to
take the vacation. The company sent out a second email clarifying that
it was optional. ---
Vacation Blues
Many busy workers are making their getaways shorter.
-- 35% of employed U.S. adults aren't taking all the vacation days
they get
for the year, inching up from 33% last year, according to Expedia.com.
-- Just 14% of employed adults plan to take off a full two-week
vacation
this year, down from 16% last year.
-- Fearing burnout, some companies are pushing their employees to take
their vacation days.
-- The travel industry is offering more options geared toward people
who
are looking for a quick trip, the Travel Industry Association says.
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