How good are you at taking all your vacation time each year?

Our reader poll today asks: How good are you at taking all your vacation time each year?

• Great! I never let a vacation day go to waste 35.79%
• Okay. I take most of my vacation days but a few go unused 24.42%
• Not good. I usually have a lot of unused vacation at the end of the year 31.77%
• Poor. What’s vacation? 8.02%

Take Your Time Off. 40% of you report that you’re not good at all about taking all the vacation you’re afforded. Think of it this way – you’re giving your employer a discount on your labor (10-20%) by working extra time that you’ve been allocated for vacation. Not to mention the impact of burnout on your performance and your health. You’ve been given vacation for a reason. Take it. There’s always some “good” reason like a meeting or a project that can get you to defer (and eventually not take) your time off. The thing is, the work will be there upon your return. I’m writing this after taking 3 weeks of uninterrupted vacation. That’s the longest consecutive period I’ve ever taken. I was terrified at first but guess what… the work is still here and everything is fine. Not to mention I had a great time getting away. Plan your next vacation now and encourage your team members to do the same!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.