Sustainability &…Vacation Time
I had been planning to write about inclusion this week, but then the holidays and a trip to visit family threw off my already loose writing routine, so it seemed appropriate to move up my planned essay about vacation time. I’m sure that claiming that vacation time matters to sustainability will sound incredibly privileged and first-world-problem-y to some, but adequate rest is a basic human need — one that I used to be terrible about granting myself.
In early 2015, I was working a contract job at one theatre, hourly part-time at another (minimum 24 hours per week), and I was wrapping up an over-hire job making dickies for a private high school’s theatre production. Just as the over-hire job was ending, my other two jobs were ramping up for back-to-back tech weeks (hardcore, all-hands-on-deck rehearsal and adjustment period right before opening night). For 3 months, I did not have a single full day off, just the occasional weekend afternoon. One morning at the end of March, after the shows had opened, I was getting my breakfast ready and I accidentally knocked over my very full glass of milk. As it began to soak into the carpet below, I had an absolute meltdown. While scrambling to clean it up, I realized that I was, quite literally, crying over spilled milk. Out of a sense of obligation and the knowledge that my hourly part-time job did not provide any kind of benefit pay, I still went to work and clocked in. However, the milk incident shocked me into the realization that I had been increasingly tired and high-strung over the last 3 months — it wasn’t until that morning that I even realized I hadn’t had a full day off in 3 months. Luckily, work was slow enough that day that my supervisor allowed me to take a half-day. I was also immensely lucky that I had enough money in my bank account that losing half a day of pay wasn’t going to break me. Many people are not so lucky, as I mentioned in my post about wages.
Like I said before, rest is a basic human need — our brains just don’t function properly without proper rest and recovery time. Without proper sleep, we become clumsy, our decisions become careless, and our memories become flimsy. Our bodies, too, are more likely to get sick or develop acute or chronic health problems. I suffer from eczema that flares up on my hands when I’m under prolonged stress. You know when my eczema clears up? When I go on vacation. It follows, then, that people who cannot afford meaningful time off (lack of paid vacation time, sick pay, or working multiple jobs) eventually burn out and can become progressively worse at their jobs, taking care of themselves, and various other aspects of life. Even if you feel no sympathy for people who receive no vacation time, you probably care about how their chronic fatigue impacts your life — you’d hate to get in a collision with someone who fell asleep at the wheel or whose exhaustion resulted in road rage. Take a second to think about all the times that fatigue has made you do things that you wouldn’t normally do.
Now think about all the times you’ve been stuck on a problem, stubbornly working far too long, only to solve it shortly after returning from a break. Proper, restorative rest is good for safety, productivity, creativity, and innovation. If we’re going to face the challenges of today and tomorrow, we’re going to need to be at our best and that means NOT pushing people to their breaking point. At this time, there is no US law requiring employers to provide paid vacation or sick time, so those with low-paid jobs and no paid vacation/sick time often can’t afford time off. Take a second to think about what that means for the person making your burger at McDonald’s. Treating vacation time as a privilege and not a right is woefully unsustainable; by doing so, we’re holding ourselves back and preventing much-needed innovation and achievement.
How you can take action
- Take your vacation time when and how you want and don’t feel bad about it
- Don’t make your coworkers (or employees) feel bad about taking vacation time
- Use your sick pay and remember that mental health days count as sick days
- Support labor reform legislation to require employers to provide paid vacation AND sick time
