The research is in: 'holiday-shaming' makes your business less successful

The march toward a more sensible work-life balance, giving employees trust and freedom and making sure your staff isn’t living to work, has been picking up pace recently. Unlimited holiday is the next step on that journey.

The latest info now shows that an environment where employees are encouraged to take vacation days = higher productivity and staff retention. We all know that time off is good for us – much like any machine, no matter how well-oiled, the human body and brain can only work so hard for so long, and then it needs a break. After all, we spend one third of our entire existence sleeping – where the most healing activities in the body take place – and that indicates that our waking hours need to be a combination of both production and leisure.

Our brains are always working, even when sleeping, so refocusing it on pleasurable and non-work activities and thoughts is essential to keeping us literally sane and mentally and physically healthy. In fact, according to Scientific American, “Mental breaks increase productivity, replenish attention, solidify memories and encourage creativity. Many recent studies have corroborated the idea that our mental resources are continuously depleted throughout the day and that various kinds of rest and downtime can both replenish those reserves and increase their volume.”

Do employees really benefit so vastly from taking holidays?

The health benefits of taking holidays are becoming more well-documented and better understood. Longer breaks are not only beneficial, but critical to our health and wellbeing. Research from AARP has shown that over 70% of people who take a break to travel reported better emotional and physical health and improved relationships and productivity at work. Overall wellbeing is one of the biggest advantages of holiday travel, with the benefits starting during the initial travel planning phase and extending well beyond the trip. The same benefits apply to just taking a break from work.

Michelle don Durban, SVP of marketing for Evernote, an app and platform that helps with productivity and organisation, told HR Grapevine: “Time away allows room you to focus on new experiences and provides opportunities for better sleep, which is important for the brain and overall wellbeing. It turns out that by giving your mind a break, you can increase productivity, replenish your attention, and foster creativity.”

Despite the reported health and productivity benefits and the growing trend among companies to offer unlimited, paid vacations, ‘holiday shaming’ is more prevalent than you might expect, with many employees reporting that bosses are giving them a hard time or being manipulative about time off. As reported by Entrepreneur, according to a Family Vacation Survey of 1,500 U.S. adults conducted by car rental company Alamo, 59 % of Millennials and Gen Z and 41% of older employees feel a sense of shame when they take time off.

But if you’re a leader or in HR or even a colleague, hear this: down that path lies certain failure.

As leadership strategist and author Victor Lipman put it for his article on the topic for Forbes: “Let me say it straight. This vacation shaming is crazy stuff. Nutsville. Loony tunes. Burnout City. And bad, demoralising management to boot.

“People need to relax, refresh and recharge. Sometimes they just need to get away and disconnect. Long-term, vacation shaming isn't a recipe for productivity but for resentment and retention problems.”

It’s also a hot bed for health problems – and, unless you’re literally working in the business of saving lives, no job is worth risking your health. Read ‘em and weep: One study, from Boston University, discovered that men who didn’t take vacation for several years were 30% more likely to have heart attacks than those who did. Yikes.

Evernote not only introduced the unlimited, policy scheme, they also offered every employee a US $1,000 [£850] holiday to encourage people to take at least five consecutive days away from the office/work.

Don Durban explained: “While a few days off here and there are great, we believe our people benefit greatly from taking extended time away from work to really disconnect, recharge their batteries and come back to work refreshed. By offering a holiday stipend to those who take five consecutive days off, we feel we are reinforcing the importance of taking time away from work to really disconnect and recharge."

She continued: “This benefit was deliberately designed to remain unlinked to specific ‘holiday’ criteria. We reimburse our employees for the full $1,000 whether they spend $10,000 on a dream holiday, or sit at home and read – as long as it’s five consecutive days. The important part is the five consecutive days to encourage employees to take longer breaks to completely unwind – which the company knows is essential for the happiness and wellbeing of its employees and team as a whole."

In addition to this, to help ensure people did in fact take time away from work, the company introduced Wellness Weekends – typically scheduled around a three-day holiday to extend the time.

“We have found these are highly successful because when the entire company is taking time away, any stress that can accompany missing days (for holidays) is alleviated,” Dom Durban shared.

Evernote is certainly not the first to introduce this initiative – it follows in the footsteps of global finance giant Goldman Sachs, who introduced unlimited vacation days this year. And female-focussed dating app Bumble began a similar scheme in 2021.

Commenting on whether other companies should follow suit, the SVP had this to say: “We have a tremendous opportunity to reshape both employer and employee expectations and do so in ways that benefits both. Redesigning your holiday policy to be centred around the wellbeing of employees and how it prevents employee burnout while maintaining a healthier work-life balance leaves a lot of interesting space to get creative and responsive.”