VIEWPOINTS : Do American Workers Get Enough Time Off? : Two Weeks May Be Average, but Is It Adequate?
S ummertime means vacation time for many American workers. But with roughly two weeks off a year the norm, lots of people question whether they have enough time away from the job. To get a sampling of opinion on the issue, free-lance writer Meredith F. Chen interviewed various experts. Excerpts follow:
Richard Belous, labor economist with the Conference Board, a business research group:
“I think what workers are getting is fair, and, given the forces of international competition and the pressures that many employers are under, workers can’t expect to be given too many more paid days of vacation and still have these organizations be internationally competitive.
“On average, American workers are getting around 11 paid days off, which has been a tremendous growth since the 1940s. The other thing which our economy is offering is many alternatives to the 9-to-5, 52-week-a-year job.
“Now we have many, many more options. We’re seeing the growth of contingent workers--part-timers, temporaries, life-of-project people, consultants and even something called leased employees. There are many more people now who can call the tune as to when they work. If they want to go away and take a long vacation, they can do that.
“In the old days when our productivity levels were well in advance of other countries, we could support a vacation scale which was much higher than other countries’, and we could boost the number of paid days that people take off. Now, although we are still by and large more productive than other nations, we’re not a giant among pygmies. And that means many corporations can’t just vastly expand the days off or paid time off because that will just boost labor costs.
“You can say that people do need some time off and that makes them better workers, but there’s been no study I know which says what that optimum time is.
“In the 1980s, roughly half of the jobs that have been created are what I would call contingent worker jobs. It has negatives in terms of security and benefits--I don’t want to make it sound like it is a godsend with no costs. But it does give many people added flexibility.”
Jerome Rosow, president of the Work in America Institute:
“We are tied to an obsolete system of determining vacations. It’s time for American business to re-examine vacation policy and to make more provision for increased leisure and for the recognition that vacation time is a tremendous reward--particularly with the feminization of the labor force.
“Normally it takes about 10 years to get about three weeks of vacation and 20 years to get four weeks. I would think that at least upgrading that by one week at each level would be a minimum improvement that ought to be considered.
“It’s interesting that at an executive level, vacations will reach up to six weeks and even longer with so-called personal time. We still have in the vacation system a class structure. There is a very small elite--maybe the upper 10% of American business and industry--where vacation benefits are much more flexible and generous.
“Companies don’t use vacations as a reward. It’s a major oversight in existing personnel policy. They think of giving people cash bonuses or stock options but they wouldn’t think of saying we’re going to give you a month’s vacation with full pay because of the great job you did last year. So vacations could also be a tremendous incentive that I would urge American business to look at.
“For a person who works part time out of choice, vacation is not an issue because they have so much leisure time anyway that it is moot. But those people are a small minority of the labor force. The labor force is essentially a permanent work force. Out of 118 million who are in the labor force, you might have 15 million who are part time. One hundred million people work a 37 1/2-hour week. Vacations are a very vital and critical issue.
“You have the iron rule that vacations are seniority-based, but with more people changing jobs now--we’re going to change jobs four or five times in a lifetime--you loose all your accrued seniority every time you change employers. It creates an immediate inequity.”
William Winpisinger, president of the International Assn. of Machinists & Aerospace Workers:
“The U.S. is last among industrialized nations in the amount of paid vacation workers get for various lengths of service. Most of our trade competitors close up shop for a month in the summertime. I’m not saying that that is the magic answer, but it doesn’t seem to me that a month is too long. More vacations cycled through the years would create more opportunity for more jobs.
“I’m not sure that there is an across-the-board magic answer. Each industry has its own particular problems based on order cycles or various production emergencies and so on. Each industry has to schedule it to fit its own peculiar circumstances, and I think collective bargaining is the best vehicle by which to do that.
“Vacation time has always been an issue in collective bargaining. It’s nowhere near as critical as child-care facilities, but it’s always present at the bargaining table. It inches very slowly upward, but over the past eight years it has been inordinately difficult to do that.
“I think extended vacations or sabbaticals are a heck of an idea. We’ve been unable to advance it over nearly a decade now. I think it’s a good idea and I’d like to see it tried in some expanding industry.”
Douglas A. Fraser, former president of the United Auto Workers:
“Too often, rather than give vacation time, (workers) are paid in lieu of vacation--so they don’t get the time off. It would be more satisfying and rewarding if they actually took the time off to spend some time with their families. Employers wouldn’t want to give you any vacation at all if it was up to them.
“I don’t think a month is too much--certainly not for a longer-service worker. After you’ve put in some time with one company, I don’t think four weeks is exorbitant.
“If a management person has an entitlement to a sabbatical, I don’t know why a blue-collar worker should be a second-class citizen. The blue-collar job is stressful and it might be more physically demanding. People should be free to do what they wish with, say, a nine-week sabbatical.
“For a while, Americans weren’t inclined to take vacations . . . but that is changing. A vacation is good for one’s mental health.
“Americans should learn, and I think we are learning, to utilize leisure time better. And once we get in the habit or the practice of taking vacations, it will be productive and I point to those people who retire. People used to worry about whether they could make the psychological adjustment of not going to work every day. As it turns out, of course, people who enter into retirement have one of the most satisfying periods of their lives.”
Wendy Melin, entertainment and activities manager for the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim:
“From what I see at the hotel, I don’t think that (workers) get enough vacation. But I think that they relish what they do get. . . . It seems like stays are short and a lot of parents seem real tired. Parents use our child care a lot so they have one night alone. . . . I hear people make comments like, ‘Oh God, we haven’t been on vacation for two years.’
“We see people from all over the world and the country. Foreign visitors seem a little more relaxed than the American visitors and their time isn’t quite as structured and seems a lot more spontaneous. . . . I think that is because they have more time than the American vacationers.”
Robert Warren, partner in the law firm of Gibson Dunn & Crutcher:
“My experience is that lawyers tend to very often take less time for a vacation than they really are permitted--not because somebody imposes it on them, but because they’ve gotten involved in things that are interesting and that have commitments.
“I think lawyers should take a break, and it’s a mistake to get so caught up that, year after year, you wind up essentially not taking vacations. That’s unfair to the lawyer and unfair to the lawyer’s family.
“Law firms have always been generous in allowing vacations. . . . In fact, I think law firms have always been very generous on that subject. Our own practice is to, essentially, after the minimum probationary period, have people accruing vacations, first, of three weeks and after 10 years or partnership, of four weeks.
“The problem with sabbaticals is that, whenever you are away from a practice for a long period of time, you cannot just come back and immediately pick up the threads. Cases don’t wait, clients don’t wait.
James O’Toole, professor of management and organization at the University of Southern California:
“The whole issue of vacation time is being made moot by the growth of part-time employment. When you have part-time employment, basically you take off whenever you want to take off. The vast majority of people in retailing who work for the big chains are part-timers, so they are getting a lot of vacation.
“Between the unionized workers and the people who are part-timers, you’ve got a pretty large part of the total work force. Professional people have flexibility in their schedules anyway, so it’s not much of an issue there. There is a lot more flexibility. . . . Government employees have very generous vacation. So I don’t know who is left.
“Very few corporations offer sabbaticals. The most expensive benefit you can give anybody is to pay them not to work, whether it’s vacations or sabbaticals. For somebody to go away for six months or a year, that is all lost productivity.”
“I’ve never seen any evidence that sabbaticals cause people to return refreshed and ready to work even harder. As a matter of fact, I think it heightens their dissatisfaction. Those people should probably start looking for employment elsewhere.
“The vast majority of workers have a tremendous amount of choice, a tremendous amount of flexibility. Most of them can pick and choose and get as much vacation time as they want.”
