Bosses must become vacation evangelists

Employees are taking less time off, despite its benefits.

In the nearly six years of this column’s glorious existence, I’ve never shied from offering controversial workplace opinions.

Today will be no different: I think vacations are a good thing.

Yeah, I said it — let the hate rain down on me from the two or three people who might disagree. I feed on your outrage, suckers.

I went back to the very first paragraph of the very first “I Just Work Here” column and found the basis for my staunch pro-vacation stance:

“Work is, by its very definition, not fun. I know this because I looked it up in the dictionary and spotted non-fun words like ‘labor’ and ‘exerts’ and ‘effort.’ I also know this because I work, and have done so since realizing that money is necessary to obtain food and shelter and satellite television.”

We might enjoy our work — we might even love it — but it’s still work, and giving ourselves a break is crucial in ways that are often overlooked. I’ll get to those myriad benefits in a moment, but first, the reason I bring this subject up is that many working Americans fortunate enough to have paid vacation days are choosing to not use them all.

Several studies over the past two years have found that more than 50 percent of workers leave vacation time behind. One of the more thorough reports came from an advocacy group called Project: Time Off, which is trying to change the way Americans think about vacation time.

Combining the results of a survey of more than 5,500 full-time workers with historical data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the study found that from 1976 to 2000, people took an average of 20.3 vacation days per year. But after 2000, that number declined, reaching 16.2 days per year in 2015.

Per the report: “The 55 percent of under-vacationed Americans left a total 658 million vacation days unused. It is the biggest number Project: Time Off has ever reported.”

The internet is partially to blame for this: “As Internet adoption goes up, vacation usage goes down. America’s culture of busyness has been driven in large part by connectivity, so much so that the Pew Research Center found nearly half of office-based workers say that email has increased the amount of time they spend working.”

But there’s also the fact that companies are trying to do more with less, putting greater pressure on workers and creating a sense of guilt when it comes to vacations.

That is, for lack of a better term, stupid.

OK, maybe a better term is shortsighted.

We aren’t wired to work and work and work without giving our brains and bodies periods of rest or, at the very least, some distraction. It has been shown time and time again, in research from a wide array of disciplines, that people who take vacations are better workers.

They have higher levels of focus and commitment. Their stress levels are lower and they’re less susceptible to burnout. They’re healthier. They have better relationships.

And all of that winds up saving companies money in the long run.

And there’s even a broader economic benefit. According to the Project: Time Off report: “Had Americans used the vacation time they earned in 2015, it would have meant $223 billion in spending for the U.S. economy.”

Bottom line: If you’re a company that doesn’t push employees to use their vacation time, you’re hurting yourself and you’re bad for America and I don’t like you. (Neener, neener, neener.)

Seriously, though, this needs to be dealt with, and change can only come from the top. Bosses and managers need to become vacation evangelists. They need to drive home the benefits of time off, take time off themselves and effectively declare: Vacation — it’s not optional.

That doesn’t mean people need to shell out big bucks for a trip to Bali.

You can take time off and just lounge around the house. Do some projects. Walk around outside and poke things with sticks, I don’t care. As long as you’re physically and mentally disconnecting from work, you’re getting the benefits of that time off.

I have a vacation coming up, and I’ve been looking forward to it every day for months. (I’ll be spending my time at the Dairy Queen Addict’s Rehabilitation Center in Minnesota.) Just knowing a break is on the horizon carries a psychological benefit.

So let’s reverse this trend of banking vacation days or leaving paid time off on the table. It will make us all better people.

Vacations are a good thing. And I don’t care how wildly controversial that might sound.

In the weeks following Donald Trump’s election, equity markets, together with interest rates, increased in anticipation of economic growth spurred by corporate tax cuts and a more businessfriendly regulatory environment. Optimism for quick action on tax reform softened with Congressional failure to adopt a “repeal and replace” healthcare law. This significant legislative setback cast a cloud over future fiscal policy and a comprehensive overhaul of the tax system, including tax reform and infrastructure investment.

The Trump Administration revealed their tax reform plan in late April. While lacking detail, three proposals in the plan provided an indication as to the potential impact on municipal bonds.

1. Lower taxes for highincome earners would result in lower demand for municipal bonds, as the tax-exemption would carry less value.

2. The proposal to phase out the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) would increase demand for currently outstanding AMT bonds, which pay on average about a half a percent higher yield than non-AMT bonds.

3. Elimination of state and local tax deductions from federal taxable income would increase demand for municipal bonds in high income tax states.

The potential for an end to the municipal taxexemption has diminished, since it would require an examination of broader tax reform. The municipal tax-exemption is relatively low on the list of major federal tax expenditures, accounting for $54 billion (or 4.8% of expenditures), while the top five expenditures account for $585 billion (or 51.7%).

In the White House budget proposal, the deepest cuts come from Medicaid, food stamps and other public aid for low-income children and families. The budget also seeks an end to subsidized federal student loans and loan-forgiveness programs. Tax reform (tax cuts) and infrastructure investment programs are unaddressed. The proposal will certainly be modified by the time it’s signed into law.

Bottom line: The taxexemption on municipal bonds is safe in the near term, though other, easier tax reforms could impact bond issuers and investors. For example, a reduced corporate tax rate could reduce corporate demand, and more specifically bank demands, for tax-free bonds. Similarly, reduced personal income tax marginal rates could also reduce demand.