by Mike Gannon

Created on: June 25, 2009

With 40-plus hour work weeks, more vacation time might invoke the sounds of singing angels to most employees in today's work force, but is it really sensible?

In today's economy people are losing their jobs left and right, while some companies are lessening their work force to spread the workload on to fewer employees. It seems like everyone could use some time away, even if they aren't working at the moment.

There are some overall benefits that can be gained from businesses offering more vacation time to their employees. Businesses will attract more potential employees this way, but at this point in time any company in the US can attract potential employees with ease because so many people are looking for work. However, any employee of a business that offers more guaranteed vacation time will be more likely to stick with that company for a longer period of time since the company provides more value than just a paycheck. It can also be assumed that more vacation time means less work and therefore less stress. Happy employees are diligent employees and this can help the company, not just the employee.

Vacation is paid time off, unpaid time off is known as a "sick day", or what some might call "I drank too much last night". Who will pay for this vacation time? There are really two options here, either the employer can pay for it or the the government can pay for it. The government generates money through taxes that the employees pay so that would cancel out a paid vacation if the employee is already paying for it. The employer can pay for it, but this would take away from their revenue and an increase in prices would have to be passed on to the consumer to balance profit margins.

Even though paid vacation time is seen as a reward, can a business justify paying someone to not do any work for an entire week? What about small startups, can they even manage to provide the funding for paid vacation time? Employees are generally rewarded paid vacation time after tenure, not their job performance. If Joe Blow decides to do enough work to just skid by for a year, does he really deserve extra paid vacation time? Looking at the topic in this light, it would seem that guaranteeing more vacation time is only feasible if there are no weak links in your chain of employees and managers.

With the various pros and cons of offering paid vacation time it might hard to make a decision on whether it's a good idea or not. There is a better option here to reduce stress, increase profits, and will generally benefit both employee and employer. It's simply managing your time and increasing efficiency. The easier it is for a company's employees to complete their tasks, the less time they have to work. Couple this with profit sharing, or even just keeping them at the same salary as someone doing a greater load of inefficient or harder work, and you'll need less vacation time.

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