How many times have you heard someone say “I need a vacation!”
What are the warning signs that YOU need a vacation? Our Life daily team has researched the subject, and our list of what they discovered is shown below.
Before checking it out, you may be surprised to learn that Americans don’t always take the vacation days to which they are entitled.
A new survey conducted for JetBlue Airways reveals that 57 percent of Americans will end the year with unused vacation days. Most of those surveyed will let 11 days go to waste—75 percent of their vacation!
Almost 40 percent said they’re afraid to ask for time off.
“People force themselves to keep working because of either fear of eventually losing their job, dedication to their job, or because they’ll get too far behind if they leave,” says Gary Johns, a management professor at Concordia University.
Psychologist Paul Powers says, “Research has shown that for every dollar of vacation benefits that employers provide, they get three dollars worth of productivity back.”
Not taking a vacation can have a detrimental effect on both your career and your health. a study by the University of Pittsburgh found that taking one week of vacation a year reduced the risk of death from a heart attack or stroke by 29 percent.
With this information in mind, maybe you should check very carefully the indications that show if you need a vacation:
1. You find yourself thinking of 100 reasons why you need a vacation.
2. You spend all your off time only thinking about work.
3. You dream about work every night.
4. You start thinking seriously of early death from job stress as a blessing.
5. You grit your teeth all day long to keep from screaming.
6. You have nightmares that you are chained to your desk.
7. You wake up on Sunday morning and automatically start getting dressed for work.
8. You answer calls at home with your work greeting.
9. You turn off all the ringers on your home phones because you can’t bear to hear the phone ring.
10. When you’re told: “Office meeting in 5 minutes,” and you think, “What the f**k do they want from me now?”
11. When your computer is closed and you want to scream, “who the hell turned off my computer?”
12. If you have thoughts about poisoning, choking, punching, or slapping a colleague.
13. If you try to avoid saying “hello” to someone because you don’t want to risk hearing their life story.
14. If you are asked to stay late and help someone, and the first thing that pops in your head is, “no f**ing way!”
Are any of these examples familiar to you?
If the answer is “yes” then now is the time to go to your boss and say: “I need a vacation!”
If you know of any other warning signs that we could add to the list, feel free to share them by using the comments feed below.
Finally, perhaps you should take note of this quotation from Robert Orben: “A vacation is having nothing to do – and all day to do it in.”
