According to a recent survey, up to a third of employees in Ireland aren’t taking their holiday entitlements.
In a climate where employees are keen to use whatever tools are at their disposal to hold on to their jobs, it seems that sacrificing holidays to impress the boss is a popular tactic.
The surveys - one by gohop and the other by hotels.com indicated that between 15-18% of workers don’t intent to use their full allocation of holidays this year. A further 18% had several days left over from last year.
While dedication to your job and workplace is admirable and you may be rewarded financially for forgoing your holiday – it’s also really bad news for your health.
Researchers in New York last year surveyed a group of men between 35 – 57 as part of a heart disease prevention trial. The results speak for themselves. Participants who took annual leave reduced the risk of heart disease by 30% and overall death by 20%.
Participants who took no holidays over the 5 year period had the highest incidents of heart disease and death. Grim statistics I know, but realistically not a huge surprise either.
An individual who takes little or no annual leave is also likely to work through lunch, work late and have little or no concept of Work Life Balance. Meals are rushed, stress levels are high and after years and years of pushing through the exhaustion stage of the stress response the body simply cannot cope.
Irish employees are a long way off from their American counterparts where up to a third do not take any annual leave at all despite having the shortest holiday entitlements in the western world. There are also a number of other lifestyle and cultural differences there that need to be factored in when looking at the New York study however the overall findings from the survey cannot be ignored.
Essentially we need to recognise that booking annual leave and taking a couple of weeks out of the office is going to benefit your physical and mental health. If you can’t afford to go away, book your days off and do blissful nothing at home for a while. There are plenty of short breaks on http://www.discoverireland.com/int/ and great ideas on line for things to do if you’re strapped for cash.
There will always be reasons not to and excuses for putting off holiday entitlements (many of which cannot be carried over in to the following year – worth checking out) but the New York study has given us the best possible reason to take your hols this year yet – it’s officially good for your health!
I had a colleague who had something like 30 days holidays owed to her. She was stressed out of her brains and had an odd notion that the company would go into melt-down without her. She took early retirement due to very very poor health.
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