WORK-LIFE BALANCE

How to Get Your Team to Use Their

Vacation Time
by Liane Davey
AUGUST 04, 2017

Evidence is piling up that vacations are good for

business. Not only does taking vacation contribute to
enhanced productivity but it also immunizes our teams
against the toxic negative attitudes that can be
contagious in the workplace. So if vacation has such a
good ROI, why are people taking less and less of it? In
one study, researchers found that employees fear that
their manager will think less of them for taking
vacation. Yup, they are blaming you (what’s new?). To
change this worrisome trajectory, you need to get
creative about how to get your team members to take
vacation.

First, make the business case. Use a few minutes in a

team meeting to share some of the research on the
benefits of vacation. A 2015 HBR article by Ron
Friedman is a treasure trove of facts about the benefits
to reaction time, creativity, and engagement. The
article also highlights the risks of foregoing vacation in
terms of impulsiveness, poor concentration, and
negativity. Hearing these statistics will help disabuse
your team of the notion that you’ll think poorly of them
Photo by Vicko Mozara
for taking their full vacation.
As with anything that matters in the workplace, the key to vacation compliance is to measure it and manage it.
Keep track of how many vacation days employees have taken, and give periodic updates. Ideally, work it into
performance planning at the beginning of the year. (Research has shown that vacations planned more than a
month in advance are restorative, whereas the stress of vacations booked at the last minute can negate the
positive impacts of the time off.) If getting employees to use their full vacation allotment is going to be a
challenge, make the tracking public to increase the positive peer pressure. You can even use visible symbols
(such as stars or checkmarks) to subtly associate completed vacation with success.

YOU AND YOUR TEAM SERIES For some people, not taking vacation is actually a
Time Off selfish move. They find it incredibly arduous to prepare
everything for their absence and conclude that it’s just
not worth it. It’s your role to make preparing for
vacation as smooth and seamless as possible. Over the
long term, establishing backups for each role and
codifying processes through knowledge management
make it easier for any one person to be away with the
confidence that their job will be in good hands. In the
short term, provide a template that allows the person to

The Data-Driven Case for Vacation
by Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan
Stop Putting Off Fun for After You Finish All Your
Work
by Ed O’Brien
document their ongoing activities or projects and
assign someone to cover each aspect. Start this
conversation a couple of weeks before vacation so that
as many tasks as possible can be wrapped up before the

How to Negotiate for Vacation Time vacation begins. A smooth getaway this year will
by Deborah M. Kolb and Sharon M. Brady increase the likelihood that the person will take more
vacation next year.

But what you do to encourage people to take vacation can all be for naught if you reinforce the wrong behavior
during vacation. Be explicit with your team about what you mean when you say “vacation.” Make it clear before
the employee leaves that you don’t want them checking email or voicemail. Where possible, exclude them from
email recipient lists. Instead, save a list of things that came up during the vacation that you want to cover when
they return. If you want to get tough, don’t allow a day to be used as vacation if they’re in contact with the
office.

Although it makes sense to unplug while on vacation, many employees fear the avalanche of emails that awaits
them when they return. Another secret to increasing the use and quality of vacation time is to make returning
from vacation much less painful. Ideally, schedule a day or a half day for the person to catch up. Leave the other
employees covering the role in place as though the vacation were one day longer. (If you use out-of-office auto-
replies, set the return date to the next business day to give yourself one day of slack.) If you have flexibility as a
manager, allow the person to work from home on the first day back to assist with overcoming jet lag or tackling
mountains of laundry. Small gestures that create a little breathing room at the end of a vacation will ensure that
you don’t erode the vacation’s benefits by noon on the first day back.

One of those benefits that you’ll want to capitalize on is the time for the brain to focus on other things. This
resting phase allows for consolidation of all the information that has been packed in over the year. Changing
gears also promotes insight and creativity. Take advantage of that creativity by scheduling an extra-long
meeting with the person a few days after vacation. Lavishing them with some attention will reinforce their
choice to take vacation and will also provide a chance to have a unique kind of conversation. This meeting is an
opportune time to talk about process improvements, challenging stakeholder issues, or career development, all
of which will feel more manageable after a vacation.

Even if you try all the proactive strategies in the world, some of your team might still be leaving vacation
unused. Don’t ignore it. Make missed vacation a subject for feedback and a topic in development discussions.
Try something like, “I notice you have seven unused vacation days. I checked, and this is the third year in a row
you haven’t taken all of your vacation. I’m concerned about your ability to bring your best if you’re not getting
an opportunity to fully unplug. When are you going to schedule those days?” If that doesn’t work, up the ante:
“This is now affecting how I think about your performance and your promotion potential.”

Now, before you start implementing any of these strategies with your team, stop and check your own vacation
balance. If you aren’t modeling the use of real, full, disconnected vacations, you can’t expect it from anyone
who works for you. If you’re one of the vacation violators, be honest about it. Opening up about why you
haven’t been taking vacation and what you’re going to do to change that might help others get there with you.

Vacations are good for your people, for your team, and for your organization, but somehow vacations have
become counter-cultural within our hyper-busy workplaces. You have a responsibility to reverse this disturbing
trend before it does real damage to your business and your people.

Liane Davey is the cofounder of 3COze Inc. She is the author of You First: Inspire Your Team to Grow Up, Get Along, and Get Stuff
Done and a coauthor of Leadership Solutions: The Pathway to Bridge the Leadership Gap. Follow her on Twitter at @LianeDavey.

This article is about WORK-LIFE BALANCE


 FOLLOW THIS TOPIC

Related Topics: TIME MANAGEMENT | STRESS | PERSONNEL POLICIES

Comments
Leave a Comment

POST

0 COMMENTS

 JOIN THE CONVERSATION

POSTING GUIDELINES
We hope the conversations that take place on HBR.org will be energetic, constructive, and thought-provoking. To comment, readers must sign in or register. And to
ensure the quality of the discussion, our moderating team will review all comments and may edit them for clarity, length, and relevance. Comments that are overly
promotional, mean-spirited, or off-topic may be deleted per the moderators' judgment. All postings become the property of Harvard Business Publishing.