Plan For Vacation Month

Americans who plan out their vacation are happier, healthier, more creative, and are better at avoiding burnout.

At UC Davis, we celebrate Plan for Vacation Month in January to encourage departments/units to schedule time in a January staff meeting where everyone on the team takes out a calendar together and plans their time off for the year.....making vacation "happen" is a team effort!

Excessive work without periods of recuperation and opportunities to engage in rewarding activities can lead to burnout or the development of mental health disorders. Our ability to respond to challenges, stay on task, and control our emotions and behaviors can be replenished with rest. We need the positive emotions we naturally feel from taking even brief vacations and engaging in fun and meaningful activities.

The Importance of Actively Encouraging Vacation

In a study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM)  talent managers and human resource professionals overwhelmingly agree that fully utilizing vacation leave drives higher employee performance and productivity, boosts organizational morale, contributes to employee wellness and results in higher employee retention. 

However, there is a critical disconnect:

  • 65% of Americans say they either hear nothing, negative, or mixed messages about vacation.
  • 80% report that they would be more likely to use more of their paid time off if their bosses encouraged them to do so. 

When it comes to taking time off, the boss is the single-most important influencer—even more important than employees’ own families.

Resources:

Supervisor/Team Vacation Toolkit

  • Read "The High Price of Silence: Analyzing the Business Implications of an Under-Vacationed Workforce"
  • Read How to Manage Your Team's Vacation Requests
  • Schedule a meeting, preferably in January:  "Let's figure out how we can support each other’s needs for renewal and wellness and avoid anybody feeling resentful."  If everyone feels that they’re solving the problems jointly as a team – and that the team will help ensure they get their time off, too – you’ll usually find people willing to step up to make things work.
  • WorkLife is happy to provide a short workshop, "Seriously...You Gotta Go!...The Importance of taking vacation" to show your support for staff taking their earned time off.
  • Review the UC policy for Absence from Work, vacation starts on page 12
  • Let your staff know at least a week ahead of time and encourage them to:
    • Check how much vacation time they have on UC Path.
    • Examine busy work times and avoid planned leave during this time.
    • Check school and work calendars of vacation partners.
    • Look into specific places they want to visit and determine the best time of year to visit. 
  • Make a "Dream Board"  (a dry erase board where people can write/draw their travel/vacation dreams.)
  • Encourage participation in our Gunrock Goes activity--even providing the tiny Gunrocks.
  • Depending on your team size, either collect requests ahead of time or have your meeting with a big calendar and make a strategic plan together.
  • Scheduling will likely not be made on one day — readdress as necessary.

This activity is a tangible and proactive way to manage your upcoming year and signal to your employees that their well-being is important to you. Supervisors and managers are encouraged to have a mindset that each member of your staff will be absent up to four weeks (generally) a year using their earned vacation and sick time. Making this reality part of your strategic plan will ensure coverage, increase efficiency and demonstrate that the well-being of your staff is important to you.

How to Take Vacation when the Idea Itself Stresses You Out

Prep Your Workload

The benefit of having a set vacation date is it provides that hard deadline that some of us find helpful in getting our work done.  Many people don't like having work "hanging" while on vacation so use the opportunity to motivate yourself to tie up loose ends.  Identify and strategize around your, or your unit's natural work cycle (the ebb and flow of workload based upon outside factors and business strategy) utilizing the time of year when deadlines and workload are not as demanding as other times.  Plan as a team to ensure coverage.

Identify Your Backup

Consider which of your coworkers can best hold down the fort while you’re away and ask if they’re willing to be your official backup contact. See this person as your "gatekeeper" who can identify things they can take over, identify situations where they ask others to be patient, or contact you as a last resort if there is something pressing that only you are able to manage from afar.  Put your ability to "log off"  in their hands and don't forget to return the favor.  Vacation is a mutually beneficial endeavor for all team members..

Set An Effective Out of Office (OOO) Message

To feel more comfortable not checking your email, include this key information: the date you’ll return, whether you’ll have access to email (if possible, just say that you won’t!), and whom to contact in your absence. Make it fun by sharing where you’ll be and what you’ll be doing. If people can imagine you on a real vacation, they may be less likely to interrupt you.  It also helps us normalize and cultivate the importance of taking vacations into our culture of well-being.

Prepare for a Positive Return

Before you leave for your time off, make a list of helpful notes and priorities for your first day back and consider strategizing a "soft" return by adding a day to your OOO message and working those priorities rather than reacting to whatever/whoever gets you first. At the very least, try to keep an open schedule with minimal meetings the day you return.  Consider tacking an additional vacation day (or two if you suspect jet lag) on at the end to get your home-life in order (piles of laundry?) before heading physically and mentally to your accumulated work pile of responsibilities.

 “It’s a funny thing about coming home. Looks the same, smells the same, feels the same. You realize what has changed is you.”  -- F. Scott Fitzgerald