Part of the reason for living in Southern California is the close proximity to entertainment centers like Disneyland, Newport Beach, San Diego Zoo, or Legoland. For a change of scenery, my wife and I are probably the only few people who enjoy visiting urban jungles, like Los Angeles. A visit to Santa Monica pier, Hollywood Blvd, Kodak Theater, and even L.A. Chinatown are exciting enough for us. They’re all within driving distance and we don’t have to stay in a hotel. There is little incentive leaving this area for a vacation. With the economy in a slump like this, it’s also hard to justify going away on a vacation trip and spend my money on some exotic location.
Consequently, I don’t use up much of my vacation days from work. When I read Americans only has an average of 3 vacation days remaining this year (out of 14 days), it makes me wonder why people need to take that much time off? I realize there’s an economic recession, when companies are trying to cut expenses by encouraging employees to take their vacation days. Aside from that, is there really a need to stay away from the office that long, annually? Looking at my office calendar for this year, almost every month (except August), we had a long weekends. Maybe people really don’t like job, or it’s too stressful at work. Or perhaps they just don’t like where they live, and constantly longing to get out and visit more exotic places.
I’m reminded of the times I live in Indonesia, where I worked from 9am to 7pm, 6 days a week (Saturday half day). Long weekends were only twice or three times in a year for religious holidays. That’s my barometer to take a vacation – when the stress level is that high, I will go away once in a while.
Here in America, I love my job (grateful I still have one)! I’m good at it, so work is not that stressful. I’m also living in a nice comfortable home relatively far away from the office’s “busy-ness”. This helps minimize the need to go and take long breaks away from here.
For some, maybe vacation is a therapeutic. Maybe vacation is a status symbol. Maybe vacation is a state of mind. Circumstances are the only way to force me to take a vacation. Meanwhile, I’ll stay here and sip some margaritas.
UPDATE: I just found a relevant (and interesting) article by Michael Arrington of TechCrunch. He talked about Internet Entrepreneurs are mostly in USA because of the Americans do whatever it takes to get things done. I can’t help but agree to Michael’s assessment. Europeans (especially the French) takes things way too easy – that’s against the entrepreneurial spirit.
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Psychologists will be the first to tell you that vacations are important for our mental health. No matter how much we love our work, it is important to spend some time away from it. Sometimes this actually helps to bring new ideas and perspectives to our work.
Vacations can also help with family bonding.
There’s got to be a reason why the French have a mandatory 5 weeks of vacation per year: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories.....4571.shtml
Periapex´s last blog post..Push, Baby, Push.
hi Rudy,
There are benefits to living in Southern California, but don’t give away too many of our secrets… 🙂
I think the vacation that you describe (going to local LA places and not paying for a hotel) is called a “staycation”. I read the term for the first time this summer on a blog post Lin wrote about her staycation. I guess the term’s been around for a while, but it is much more popular in today’s economy. Maybe Lin will stop by and post a link to her article?
~ Steve, aka the SoCal staycation-lovin’ trade show guru
Trade Show Guru´s last blog post..Trade Show Secrets
@Periapex: For us, it was actually more stressful while on vacation. We’re not road warriors, at all. We stress over things like what to see, what to eat, how much to tip, etc. Maybe one day we’ll get it right, but for now it’s easier to be in my comfort zone and stay near home.
5 weeks for the French? No wonder they don’t want to do anything! It can’t be good for the nation’s productivity level.
@Steve: Yeah, I also saw the term stay-cation in a AAA magazine. The thing is, I’ve been on staycations for the longest time (since 1997) when I used to live in Northern California. Despite of the economy, I still hang around.
I read Lin’s article on staycation. See, I knew it was possible!
Your lucky, you live near DisneyLand. I havent taken a vaction in a long time. I guess I haven’t really thought about it. I have always wanted to go to Universal Studios Theme Park when I was a kid, but never had the chance to. It’s one of the few places that I still havent been to. Hopefully, I can change that in the summer.
Farzan´s last blog post..66th Annual Golden Globe Awards Nominees
Hey Farzan,
There’ll be lots of chances for you to visit. Disneyland or Universal Studios are not going anywhere. They’re ready and willing to take your money.
I disagree with you regarding vacation leave to productivity as in Australia we get 4 weeks annual leave and we still had economic growth last quarter.
Reality Raver´s last blog post..The Amazing Race – Team Superbad – Can I Buy A Lottery Ticket With You Guys?
Hey Reality,
Economic growth is measured with many inputs. I don’t pretend to understand it, but suffice to say that productivity is subjective. I can simply look around my office and measure my co-workers productivity, by just giving them deadlines and see how they were met. The company where I work used to have folks who have accumulated 5 weeks vacation (thru many years of service), so those people would only talk about their next vacation. Imagine re-arranging your team’s goals and deadlines because people are taking vacations all the time.
Vacation is not important as a quality time with all families member. Amount of quality time is more important at all.
@hansen
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