Time to Stop Romanticizing Work and Only Work (free issue)
We’re supposed to work to live, not live to work
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Some people may wonder what this newsletter issue has to do with healthcare. I think that taking sick days and time off to take care of yourself is closely linked to healthcare. Taking care of yourself means taking care of your health.
I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and the host was talking about a local business owner who was in his 70s and still working. The host said it was so admirable that this man said he never once missed a full week of work. The most he had missed was a few days after hip surgery. The host was effusive with his praise. It reminded me of the perfect attendance awards that some schools give out to children if they don’t miss one day of school.
Why is this admirable? Why is this worth celebration?
If someone wants to work all the time, going in when they’re sick, injured or just not feeling well and not taking time off for themselves, that’s their business (unless others end up having to put in extra work to compensate or the sick person spreads their illness). But this attitude can lead to other problems, namely if they are in a position of power and they can work just a few days after surgery/had the flu/ had a baby, why can’t their employees? If they don’t take a vacation, why should their employees? This puts pressure on employees to go to work no matter how they feel. This is what worries me about the admiration for people who never call in sick or take off time that they can.
…if we called in sick, the nursing supervisors did everything in their power to guilt us into coming in, regardless of how we felt.
When I was working on the floors, if we called in sick, the nursing supervisors did everything in their power to guilt us into coming in, regardless of how we felt. We got the third degree about how sick or injured we were, when it started, and whether were we absolutely sure we couldn’t work. Do I need to point out that this was for people who – you know – help sick people??
The result was many nurses gave up and came in anyway or took fewer days than they needed, leaving us to work with colleagues who were not at the top of their game and likely not giving the best care, and maybe extending their own illness or injury because they weren’t allowed to rest and heal.
When I was a nursing supervisor, if someone called in sick, my standard response was, “I’m sorry to hear that. Please take care of yourself.” I wasn’t the “sick police.” If the employee called in sick and had sick days owing, they got them. If they didn’t have sick days owing, they called off and didn’t get paid.
Taking a sick day or a vacation is not a weakness. Why do so many American companies behave as if it is?
According to the Pew Research Center, almost half (46%) of U.S. workers take less paid time off than their employers offer. This includes time for vacations, doctor’s appointments, or minor illnesses. I found it interesting that it was the upper-income employees who took less time – 51% of them. Those with higher education levels were also less likely to take time owed to them. This article is almost 10 years old, but I found this part interesting: “…people who take all of their vacation time have a 6.5% higher chance of getting a promotion or a raise than people who leave 11 or more days of paid time off on the table. That percentage may sound small (and it is a correlation versus a causation), but it is the polar opposite of the idea that staying at work might mean getting ahead. It simply doesn’t.”
Companies that don’t value their employees to the point that they feel bad or scared about taking time off work are not good companies.
Here are some of the reasons why the workers didn’t take their time off. They:
Don’t feel like they need more time (52%).
Worry they’ll fall too far behind at work (49%).
Feel badly about their coworkers having to take up the slack while they’re gone (43%).
Fear they will lose their job (24%).
The first point is a personal choice – not everyone wants to take time, but the remaining reasons are caused by their company and the work climate. Companies that don’t value their employees to the point that they feel bad or scared about taking time off work are not good companies. In my opinion, they would be the least likely employers to support their employees when problems come up, and the quickest to let them go.
According to this Forbes article:
28 million Americans don’t get paid vacation or holidays
Nearly 1/3 of U.S. employees do not get paid time off
Over half of employees say they still work while on paid time off (ranging from checking emails to putting in hours of work)
This has to stop. Employees are not robots. They need time off to rest, connect with family and friends, enjoy life. We are supposed to be working to live, not living to work.
American employers aren’t legally obligated to provide paid holidays. Many do and some are quite generous, but they don’t have to. Looking at countries considered to be comparable to the U.S., this is what they offer:
New Zealand: 30 days
Italy: 30 days
Belgium: 30 days
France: 31 days
Spain: 34 days
Germany: 34 days
Portugal: 35 days
Austria: 35 days
And since I’m Canadian, I have to throw in what we get here. The total varies a bit according to province, but the bottom rate is 2 weeks’ paid vacation after one year, (10 days) which goes up to 3 weeks (15 days) after five years with the same employer. This raises again to 4 weeks (20 days) after 10 years. Individual contracts can improve this and many companies offer 3 or 4 weeks’ vacation to start. On top of this, there are at least 10 statutory holidays, such as Christmas and Labour Day, which are paid. Some provinces and territories have more.
These days off are not luxuries.
The importance of sick days is obvious, but some people may not recognize the health implications of just taking time off. This Harvard Business Review article does a good job of explaining it though. Here are some of the highlights:
Taking time off allows your mind to rest, or as the author writes, unclutter it. It seems that not only does taking the vacation help relax your mind, but the planning does too.
Your stress levels can remain quite high while you work. Chronically high-stress levels can make it easier for you to get sick and take longer for you to recover. Relaxing on a vacation or just time off can help lower those stress levels, allowing your immune system to reset and protect you as it should. In addition, depending on the type of vacation you take, you may be more physically active. This, we know, is beneficial to your overall health.
We have to stop romanticizing overworking and putting work first at all costs. It doesn’t do anyone any good. And to be brutally honest, most employers wouldn’t have a hard time replacing an employee who suddenly couldn’t work anymore, regardless of how “indispensable” they seemed to be when they were putting in all those hours.
What do you think? Leave your comment below. Let’s get a conversation started.
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