Planet Money recently ran a podcast about why Americans don’t take more days off from work. In fact, even if they had as many government-required days off as Europe or South America, they wouldn’t take it. Last year, Americans left $65 billion dollars worth of vacation on the table. Just forfeited it.
And the funny part is Planet Money couldn’t find a real answer why America is such an outlier when it comes to this.
- It’s not that we’re formed from Protestant and Puritan values. Switzerland is Protestant and they get 4-5 weeks of paid vacation.
- It’s not so the unions or management can use it as a bargaining chip.
- It’s not because our income tax is lower. (No one is factoring in income tax when they think “ooh, I get to keep more money from the days that I work”.)
- It’s not that America is so consumerist, that we are obsessed with buying stuff. Europe is exposed to just as much advertising, just as much corporate control.
- It’s not because Americans don’t value leisure. I can tell you that just from looking at the boats and houses on Lake Minnetonka.
No one seems to know why Americans like to keep working, but I know that I’m one of them.
And so are my workmates. At my job, December becomes a kind of “non-month” because everyone takes their remaining vacation then. Because you use it or lose it. And software engineers are nothing if not efficient — we’re not going to leave anything to waste.
Time off interrupts the routine. Maybe I’m too old now, but there are weekends when I get up and kinda wish it was a workday. I like being on the computer. I can watch movies while I code/debug. I can crochet while the program compiles or waiting for a response. Work gives me something to do.
It feels like the days off are more labor than the days on. Days off are reserved for chores, toting people around to cross-country or friends’ houses or work. They’re spent getting together with friends, which is taxing for an introvert. In essence, weekends are more work than work. And on the occasion my time is free, what am I going to do? Sit on my ass and play video games? I do that after I’m done with work.
In the same vein, I might not like taking off work because I know what it does to my workmates. I don’t know about other industries, but in software development, we all exist in an interdependent chain. Business Analysts depend on Developers to implement the features they want and QA to verify that they work. Developers are dependent on BAs to give them work in the first place and for QA to check for bugs. QA is dependent on developers to give them work to check and for BAs to provide/clarify acceptance criteria. Take one of those out and you have work stoppage. Like, even as I write, I’m talking with a QA person confused about the requirements for an issue because the BA is gone. I don’t know the requirements, so that issue can’t continue until he comes back next week from vacation.
And I can’t just take spontaneous days off. I’d prefer to do that–just take one or two days off a month as mental health days. But work shakes a finger at me if I didn’t reserve that time two weeks in advance because that would mess up how many developer hours they can count on in the sprint. (I could lie about being sick, but that just makes me feel guilty).
For another thing, I don’t like traveling. Say I want to take two weeks off to go on vacation somewhere. I have to plan all that in advance. I have to reserve the hotel, plane tickets, restaurant reservations, activities to do. Whole damn thing has to be planned out ahead of time. Sometimes by years or you don’t get the best deals. And vacations are expensive. If you’re not doing something like camping, you’re going coastal or international and the expenses keep piling up. So does the stress as you’re away from everything that makes you feel safe. I would be more relaxed, both mentally and financially, if I didn’t staycationed.
So I stay home. But what am I going to do when I stay home? The same thing I do when I’m done with work–play video games, watch movies. I’m even desperate enough to try baking, but that just makes me fat. I’ve accumulated enough hobbies to fill the time between workdays. Add a day off and that’s more video games and eating and movies than I care to do in a day.
It’s a strange dichotomy to be in. I know I should take vacations, but I don’t want to. I don’t feel like it’s any better for my health or leisure to leave my house because of the expense or stress it causes. So why bother?
So that’s why I don’t take time off. Because it’s easier not to.
