A nation in dire need of a vacation

OW LONG SHOULD A MAN’S VACATION BE?” asked The New York Times in an all-caps headline in 1910. The question was prompted by a recent statement by then-President Taft calling for three months of annual vacation for every American.

If we only vacation two weeks annually, the President warned, we will “exhaust the capital of (our) health and constitution” and be unable to return to our work with “energy and effectiveness.” His countrymen, he pleaded, “ought to have a change of air where they can expand their lungs and get exercise.”

With Taft’s comments a century behind us, The Times’ question remains relevant. To begin to answer, we must first consider how much — in fact, how little — we are vacationing already.

To start, there are zero legally mandated paid holidays in America, and 23% of American workers get no paid vacation at all. The most stable jobs offer, on average, a little more than two weeks of vacation per year.

It’s no wonder our average private-sector worker receives fewer paid vacation per year than the minimum legal standard set in 20 of the 21 most developed economies (you need a break, too, Japan!). We don’t even use all of the vacation time we do have: 57% of us leave vacation days on the table each year.

Taft was right about the effects of our restlessness: If we do not make a change, we are in trouble. Vacationless people are more likely to have heart attacks and suffer from depression.

And contrary to the hellish family vacations of Hollywood comedies, research shows that vacations are key to family cohesion. They are even good for work: One study showed we do 8% better in our annual reviews for each additional 10 hours we take off yearly.

And that’s just the benefits to the vacationers themselves. Swedish researcher Terry Hartig argues that vacationing has an “ecological effect on population health”: When we take vacation, we are more supportive to our neighbors, making everyone’s lives better. Hartig calls it “collective restoration.” Perhaps we are happier during winter holidays less because of the gifts and more because we are experiencing the public health benefits of simultaneous vacation.

So, how long should a man’s, or woman’s, vacation be? For the sake of our health, work and neighbors, the answer is: much longer.

First, companies with paid leave policies already should follow the advice of the naturalist John Muir and implement mandatory vacation. Without it, “work martyrdom” — feeling so indispensable to your work that you never take off — is only going to get worse: 59% of millennials, compared to 41% of their older co-workers, report feeling shame for taking vacation. If vacation were mandatory, we would stop sacrificing our health at the altar of productivity.

Second, we should join the developed world and implement a federal minimum paid vacation law. Although America has had a minimum wage for eight decades, it has never been paired with a minimum vacation policy. By contrast, in the same year we mandated our minimum wage, the British Parliament mandated minimum vacation, initiating a cultural divergence that today results in Britons receiving 28 more annual paid vacation days than us. The Brits took the better path.

But individual vacations are not enough. To support “collective restoration,” we need to bulk up our national holiday system. Singapore, for example, requires leave and a full day’s pay on each of its 11 public holidays.

Even more, if you do work on a public holiday — hear this, retail workers who are going in on Thanksgiving as Black Friday creeps ever earlier — you must be given double your regular day’s wages.

Next, we should increase the number of national holidays. Not only could we celebrate more patriotic touchstones — say, the moon landing, the suffragettes, elections and more — we would also share in more much-needed collective rest.

Sure, with this would come a hue and cry about abandoning the great American work ethic.

It’s bunk. While Taft was famous for being large, he was not lazy: he was secretary of war, governor, President and chief justice of the Supreme Court. Perhaps his success is because he valued finding time for a “change of air,” not despite it. Let’s take a page out of his book and make it easier for each other to take it easy.