A vacation primer for workers who swear they can’t take time off

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Here’s one word to explain why workers who skip holidays — those who swear they can’t take time off — need to get a life and take a vacation:  Health.

Taking breaks from work helps reduce stress and all the health damage it causes, from hypertension to sleep deprivation.

Vacations are usually associated with the prefix ‘re’, as in, Recharge. Refresh. Renew.

Vacations help our brains breathe.  Take a vacation and find creative solutions to nagging problems.  Rediscover creativity in your life, and in relationships.

Holidays are like yoga for the mind — all that stretching and deep breathing and relaxing help the frantic brain let go of all the stuff associated with work.  Vacations free our brains to be open to new experiences, new sights, and new sensations.

Yet research shows a majority of American workers still don’t take all their allotted vacation, even though they only get two weeks, compared to four or five weeks in many other countries, from Europe to South America — where smart workers take all their vacation time.

A Harris Interactive survey for JetBlue, reported that 57% of Americans confessed to unused vacation last year.

Worse, the online poll of 1,118 American workers showed only 60% believed they deserved the time off.  Almost 40% said they would have problems convincing their boss to let them leave work.

Here are 9 more reasons American workers should take their vacations:

1.  Productivity improves, at work and at home, when you’ve had time to relax.

2.  Work relationships might improve after a break from co-workers.

3.  The company won’t collapse if you’re gone for awhile.

4.  You have a binding, legal right to take a vacation (at most workplaces).

5.  Family and partner/marital relationships can improve with time away.

6.  Vacations help us explore new places, and open our minds.

7.  Vacations introduce us to new experiences, which can lead to higher creativity, and personal and professional breakthroughs.

8.  Believe that old adage: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.”

9.  Can’t afford to travel?  You’ll rediscover your community, and yourself, when body and brain have time away from work.

NEXT: Fighting “vacation deprivation” without spending much