Don't Let Work Burnout Give You The Summer Blues

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 21 /PRNewswire/ -- The summer season may invoke images of lazy days and fun in the sun, but American workers certainly aren't acting on those ideas. New data from Yahoo! HotJobs shows that fewer and fewer employees are taking hard earned vacation time, even during the summer months. As a result, nearly half of U.S. workers (49 percent) surveyed say they feel burned out by work. A significant 39 percent even went as far to say that they are too tired to take a "real" vacation on their designated days off.

"People don't always realize the true benefits of taking vacation time," says Susan Vobejda, vice president of marketing at Yahoo! HotJobs. "They focus more on the absence from work and related details, when in fact a vacation allows time to recharge batteries and come back to the office with new energy and increased productivity."

While nearly three-quarters of the workforce surveyed (74 percent) have two or more weeks of vacation time available each year, 45 percent of those same workers didn't use all of their vacation days in 2006. What's more, when they did take vacation time, most of the respondents (28 percent) limited themselves to only one to two consecutive days, just enough for a long weekend.

What's the Hang Up?

Several reasons co-exist for why workers don't take advantage of vacation time, including the cost, heavy workload and guilt:

  -- 36% feel they have too much work to do to take a vacation;
  -- 34% say they can't afford to go away;
  -- 32% prefer to roll over time as a cushion for surprises or emergencies;
     and
  -- 15% are anxious about the workload they come back to after vacation.

  To Escape or Not to Escape?

Americans often dream of ideal getaways -- 20 percent of respondents aspire to international travel, 19 percent want a beach vacation -- but the reality of their time off is quite different:

  -- 30% use vacation days as needed "mental health" days;
  -- 31% run personal errands, like going to doctor's appointments and
     catching up on housework; and
  -- 32% use the time to interview for a new job.

Even when people do take a full-fledged vacation, over 70 percent of respondents say they're distracted by thinking or wondering about what's going on at work at least some of the time while they're away.

"When employees feel burned out and overwhelmed, their morale drops, their work suffers and they may even turn their energy to looking for a new job," continues Vobejda. "Ensuring employees are happy, balanced and taking personal, uninterrupted time for themselves once in a while can really help employers' bottom lines."

There Should Be No Question

The good news is that many of the U.S. employees surveyed say that they do take vacation time to relax, travel and spend time with family and friends. To truly enjoy your vacation, manage your workload in advance, so you're not overwhelmed when you return:

  -- Plan ahead:  Make sure your vacation is scheduled on your company's
     calendar as far ahead as possible.  Assign your duties to someone else
     while you're gone and let everyone who works with you regularly know
     how your workload will be managed while you're away.
  -- Prepare a cheat sheet:  Ideally, this will include a list of essential
     tasks to be completed during your absence and who they are assigned to,
     the location of any necessary forms, documents, or other resources
     essential to get the job done.
  -- Leave a note:  Be sure to leave away messages on both your voicemail
     and email sharing the dates that you will be gone along with a
     secondary contact person.
  -- Have no regrets:  You earned that vacation, now enjoy it.

And, have a plan of action post-vacation, so that you don't dread returning to work:

  -- Don't fly redeye:  If at all possible, try to get home a day or two
     before you have to return to work so you can catch up on personal
     laundry and to do's.
  -- Take it slow:  Unless there is an urgent phone call to make or meeting
     to attend, spend the first hour or two at work refreshing your memory
     about assignments, deadlines and deliverables.
  -- Reconnect:  Schedule a meeting with the people who were handling your
     tasks while you were away to get an idea of how work progressed in your
     absence.
  -- Create a prioritized to-do list:  Rather than tackling everything at
     once, prioritize your tasks and concentrate on the most critical ones
     first.

  Don't Burn Out, Lay Out!

To help employees in their continued quest to avoid burnout and to encourage them to take the vacation time that they need, Yahoo! HotJobs is unveiling the "Don't Burn Out, Lay Out" sweepstakes during the summer of 2007. From May 21 - July 9, visitors to the Yahoo! HotJobs site (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/) can enter to win an 11-night/12-day spa package vacation for two to the U.S. Virgin Islands of St. John at the Caneel Bay Resort, St. Thomas at the Frenchman's Reef Marriott Resort and St. Croix at the Divi Carina Bay Beach Resort. Visit http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ for more details.

About the Survey

Data was collected from more than 1,800 people with jobs via an online survey questionnaire across the Yahoo! network and fielded nationwide. Fifty- seven percent of respondents were male and forty-three percent were female. The results reflect only the opinions of those who chose to participate.

About Yahoo! HotJobs

Yahoo! HotJobs (http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/) is the fastest growing Web site among its top competitors. Yahoo! HotJobs' unique user audience grew +36% in Q1 2007 (comScore Media Metrix). As a leader in the online recruiting industry, Yahoo! HotJobs has revolutionized the way people manage their careers and the way companies hire talent. Yahoo! HotJobs' tools and advice put job seekers in control of their careers and make it easier and more cost- effective for employers and staffing firms to find qualified candidates.