Last year only 41% of Americans took a day off for vacation. While I applaud the work ethic of these folks, I have to say that it seems like a foolish thing to do in the long run. The fact is, if you are employed and have vacation days and don’t spend at least some of them to take some time off, then you are losing money.
Let me explain: you are hired by your employer for your time. Using your time to put toward a skill or set of skills for the benefit of your employer. But your employer also provides vacation time each year. Sometimes it rolls over, sometimes it expires. Either way, if you do not take at least some of that time, you are essentially doing work for your employer while losing your own time.
Every employer who provides time off of any kind is counting on you not working every year for that amount of time. What this means is that besides weekends and holidays, your employer expects you to not work for however much vacation time you have for that year.
So unless you really love your job (and most people who like their jobs get tired of them from time to time), you should probably stop providing your employer with what essentially is free labor.
If you’re boss says that you will be fired if you go on vacation, provided you’ve followed the proper company protocols for requesting time off, know that he or she is probably lying. More than likely you are dealing with a sociopathic control freak. I’d recommend you find a new job, but that’s up to you.
If your self-employed, then this obviously doesn’t apply to you. I do recommend going on a vacation anyway, even if you have to save up a bit so you can take the time off.
Besides, you probably shouldn’t work so hard anyway. Hard work is not rewarded at most jobs and usually any proactive, outside of the box actions are considered distasteful. So take your vacation time.