Take a Vacay: Time Off is Critical for True Employee Engagement

If you’re old enough, you might remember what vacations from work were like decades ago. You informed your boss and coworkers you were taking vacation, you did a flurry of work in preparation, you tidied your desk and you walked out, pleased that you wouldn’t be returning for a week (or two). At this point, younger Americans might be scratching their heads, believing that this idea is an urban legend like an alligator in the sewer system or bugs in McDonalds’ hamburgers.

The reason this sounds like a fairy story is that increasingly, it simply doesn’t happen anymore. Americans, who are often named as the most productive workers on the planet, seem to have an incessant need to remain connected, even while on vacation. And if it’s not the worker’s needs, it’s the boss’s demand. We check our email during vacation. We return phone calls. We listen in on conference calls. We edit presentations. While it might make us feel that it’s creating less work for us on our return to the office, it might be making us just a little bit crazy. It also may be what’s responsible for record lows of employee engagement among American workers, according to a recent piece by George Avery, director of HR for IBM’s (News - Alert) Asia Pacific systems and technology group sales, writing for Human Resources. Employee engagement isn’t just about what employees give the companies they work for. It’s also about what the companies give back to them.

“An organization can try a number of ways to create an engaged workforce, but unless that decision is reciprocated you won’t really have a high level of engagement,” wrote Avery. “So maybe managers should implore their people to take some time to think about this and make their own personal decision.”

Vacations, says Avery, allow employees to think about how they feel about their jobs, to decompress and to shore up their relationship to their employer. It’s a way employees can affirm their commitment to an organization.

“It doesn’t have to be a beach vacation, but it’s important people have time to analyze their current situation and come to the conclusion they want to be part of their current organization versus moving somewhere else,” wrote Avery. “This level of personal commitment will be necessary to have both elements of the engagement loop closed.”

A company that not only allows, but encourages, employees to take real time off and relax – no last-minute phone conferences from the balcony of the hotel – will likely induce its workers to return a more favorable impression of their jobs. This is an important step to ushering in two-way employer-employee engagement.