Non-management workers tend to make full use of their vacation time each year, more so than executive-level and middle-level employees, according to the 2006 Workplace Vacation Survey, jointly conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and CareerJournal.com, The Wall Street Journal's executive career guide.
HR professionals indicated that employees with two years or less tenure were more likely to use sick or personal days as vacation days compared with employees employed for 16 or more years. According to 68 percent of HR professionals, one year or less tenured executive-level employees at their organizations receive more than two weeks of paid vacation/paid time off per year compared with 50 percent of middle management and 35 percent of non-management employees. New hires in non-management level were provided with two weeks per year of paid vacation/paid time off, according to 42 percent of HR professionals.
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"Even though they may qualify for more than two weeks off a year, middle and upper-level employees may feel they need to put in more time at work in order to move up the corporate ladder," said David Patton, editorial director, CareerJournal.com. "With the increased use of mobile communication devices and easy access to email, they can take the breaks they need while remaining in touch with the office."
The long weekend vacation was again the choice of U.S. workers this summer, in lieu of extended vacations, and many workers are using their vacations to get work done. Survey results revealed that almost 60 percent of human resource (HR) professionals and 44 percent of employees agreed that employees were opting to take long weekend vacations instead of being out of the office for longer periods of time.
While employees are taking shorter breaks to lessen the length of time away from job duties, 43 percent of HR professionals and 30 percent of employees polled agreed that employees often also combine business trips with personal vacations. One-third of employees surveyed indicated that they typically take work on vacation and almost half of HR professionals said that employees feel personally obligated to stay connected to their organization while on vacation. Four percent of HR professionals and employees said their organizations ask that they stay connected to the office while on vacation.
Additionally, increased access to communication devices has made it easier to link vacationing workers to their jobs. Eighty-one percent of HR professionals said that their organizations provide a means to stay connected to the office, such as cell phones, pagers, laptops and Blackberries or other handheld devices.
Although the survey shows that employees feel obligated to work on their days off, survey findings also indicate that employees still value and want time away from work.
The 2006 Workplace Vacation Survey Report is available for free at http://www.shrm.org/surveys.
There were 619 HR professionals who completed the survey. Of employees, 473 completed the survey. Employee data was gathered from a convenience sample of visitors to the CareerJournal.com Web site - the online poll was given to one out of five people visiting the site over a four-week period.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world's largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 210,000 individual members, the society's mission is both to serve human resource management professionals and to advance the profession.
