That’s men: Take your holidays. Really. The sky won’t fall in if you do

I was taken aback recently to read that 41 per cent of workers in the US don’t use up all of their holiday time.

This is on top of the fact that 23 per cent of Americans have no paid days off – the US being the only one of the world’s wealthiest nations that doesn’t guarantee workers paid holidays. That’s according to Karen Sternheimer, editor of the always- interesting Everyday Sociology blog (everydaysociologyblog.com).

According to one study, she notes, “nearly 20 per cent of respondents report that they receive negative or mixed messages about taking their paid time off. In a still-recovering economy, workers might feel pressure to demonstrate that they are hardworking team players devoted to their jobs.”

Distinguished marks

At least this sort of thing doesn’t happen in Ireland, I thought. Then I began to wonder. I recalled that when I worked for

The Irish Times

, one of my distinguishing marks was that I was the only journalist who owed the company days rather than the other way around.

Colleagues accumulated Toil (Time Off In Lieu) like nobody’s business, convinced that an institution that had been around since before their great-grandparents were born would collapse if they took their days or all of their holidays.

Many eventually left with the company owing them days that they will never get back now. Nobody was stopping them from taking their days and that’s why I wonder how many people, right now, are choosing to work through this sometimes-fine summer and letting their holidays slide into the bin of history.

This is fine if you happen to like your work so much that it’s what you want to do with your time – and I am not among those who believe that nobody ever says on their deathbed that they wished they spent more time at the office.

I expect lots of people would love to be back at work again and not lying there dying, but they don’t get to say that because most of us won’t get to say anything at all when we’re dying, much less make fine speeches.

So skipping holidays because you actually want to be at work is one thing – although you’d be more productive if you took your holidays. It’s another thing altogether to skip your holidays because you think you can’t be done without. On the day you retire, the work will continue without any noticeable interruption, if your place of work is properly organised.

And if you are in a job in which you will be frowned upon, or think you will, for taking your holidays, you need to be looking around for a better place to work. Sternheimer mentions a friend who, on a short holiday, “remained plugged into his office via electronic devices. He went out of town, but he was not exactly on vacation. And yet he felt anything more would put his future at the firm in jeopardy.”

And if sacrificing himself in this way helps him to climb the ladder, the situation won’t necessarily improve. In the study quoted above, “56 per cent thought that the higher up one rises, the harder it is to take time away. Nearly half said that they respond to work emails during their paid time off.”

This matters because it’s about quality of life, and while we pay lip service to the idea, we spend too little time working out how to improve our own quality of life.

We’ve been needing to work that out for a long time. In the boom years it wasn’t all that uncommon to hear people asking, effectively, “Is this all there is?” The “all” included climbing various ladders with their attendant long hours and big mortgage repayments. When the crash came, ladder-climbing was replaced by survival.

But now that the economy appears to be moving again,we would do well to ponder quality of life before we make a rush for the ladders again.

And where is that best pondered? On holiday, that’s where. Go for it.

pomorain@yahoo.com Padraig O'Morain is a counsellor accredited by the Irish Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. His latest book is Mindfulness for Worriers. His mindfulness newsletter is free by email.