After several tumultuous years for HR leaders and employees, companies are reassessing how they can maximize their workforces’ well-being. Paid time off (PTO) is a critical part of this process, as it gives employees the space to relax, focus on relationships, and take care of personal responsibilities and needs. This enables employees to come back refreshed and energized, which increases engagement, retention, and productivity.
However, many employees are refusing to take sufficient PTO, which has led to an epidemic of overwork, stress on the job, and turnover. One of the biggest obstacles to employees taking the necessary time off is the fact that many workplace cultures reward long hours and punish employees for fully detaching from the office. This leads to burnout, a form of workplace fatigue that has severe consequences for engagement and productivity, often prompting employees to search for another job.
Company leaders and managers need to resist the cultural status quo that reinforces the perception that employees will pay a professional price for taking the vacation time they’ve earned. This means emphasizing the value of time off, determining whether and how employees are using your PTO policy, modeling healthy behavior by encouraging company leaders to take the time they need, and providing flexibility with your PTO benefit to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse workforce.
Breaking the Addiction to Overwork
It’s no secret that many employees, especially at American companies, have allowed work to dominate more and more of their lives. This phenomenon is so pervasive and harmful that it’s colloquially discussed in terms that denote addiction: work junkies, workaholism, and so on. This addiction leads employees to work longer hours, take on more tasks than they can handle, and forgo huge quantities of PTO—hundreds of millions of vacation days are unused each year in the United States alone.
When employees finally do take PTO, many can’t stop working. Eighty-two percent say they work while on vacation, 70% continue to answer calls from colleagues and clients, and 42% take vacation days to do even more work. It isn’t just the fact that employees continue to work when they take PTO—it’s also how much they work. Almost half of Americans say they work at least an hour per day, while nearly a quarter work more than 3 hours per day. The same survey found that just 27% of employees use all the vacation they’ve earned, and the average employee had almost 10 unused days remaining at the end of 2021.
All the evidence points in the same direction: the need to take time off. It’s vital for employees to break their addiction to work and start taking full advantage of their well-deserved time off. HR teams can help them do so by offering inclusive PTO policies, monitoring how (and whether) these policies are being used, and establishing a positive PTO culture.
How the Culture of Overwork Harms Employees
There are many warning signs that employees are working too hard, but the clearest red flag is the prevalence of burnout. Forty-eight percent of employees and 53% of managers report they’re burned out at work, which has a destructive impact on performance and the health of workplace culture. At a time when just 23% of employees say they’re engaged on the job and workplace stress has reached record levels (according to data collected by Gallup), it has never been clearer that HR teams need to focus on addressing the cultural factors that are responsible for these consequences.
Despite the fact that 58% of American employees say work is the main source of their mental health challenges, 57% don’t think mental health is a good enough reason to take time off. HR teams can address this disconnect by reminding employees that the company takes mental health seriously and providing benefits that reflect this priority (such as mental health days). Gallup reports that 60% of employees show signs of “quiet quitting,” which refers to psychological disengagement from work. Quiet quitters cited shifts in engagement and culture as the top changes that would make a company a “great place to work.”
There are many ways HR leaders can address the engagement crisis and reduce burnout in their workforces, but the most fundamental shift is cultural; employees should no longer feel like their careers will suffer if they take the PTO they need and deserve.
Steps Toward Establishing a Positive PTO Culture
When employees use PTO to completely unplug from work, care for their mental health, and prioritize their well-being, they will enjoy a wide range of physical and psychological benefits, from better sleep to healthier social interactions to a boost in creativity. HR teams need to show employees that using PTO isn’t a sign of weakness or laziness but rather an investment in their own physical and mental health, which will improve their performance and help them advance their careers over the long run.
Managers and HR leaders need to set priorities and maintain open communication with employees about PTO. While 81% of employees say it’s important for managers to help them prioritize their workloads, only 31% say they’ve received guidance on this front. Company leaders should clearly define cultural norms and expectations, and they need to model healthy behaviors (such as taking enough PTO) at the top. Meanwhile, HR teams must provide PTO policies that meet the needs of diverse workforces. Floating holidays allow employees to take time for religious observances, cultural festivals, and other customs or traditions. Convertible PTO allows employees to put the value of the time they’ve earned toward an array of priorities: retirement contributions, emergency funds, professional development, philanthropy, travel, and so on.
While the implementation of PTO programs is important, the creation of a positive PTO culture goes beyond formal benefits and policies. HR teams and company leaders must incentivize PTO by outlining its benefits, encouraging employees to fully disconnect from work, and providing the flexibility they need to take care of themselves.
Rob Whalen is co-founder and CEO of PTO Exchange.