Time off from work could soon become mandatory | Wilnesh News

Due to the prevalence of workplace burnout, some employers are considering furloughs, total office closures and other ways to give workaholic employees a break.

Currently, only a minority of employers (8.7%) require employees to take a minimum amount of holiday, some of which are for legal or regulatory reasons. 2024 report Provided by the International Employee Benefit Plan Foundation. Even so, employers are increasingly considering how to furlough employees, said Julie Stich, vice president of content at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

There’s a good reason for this. Recent Harris Poll poll Found 78% of Americans don’t use maximum paid time off allowed by their employer. The poll found that workers took an average of 15 days of paid time off last year, although nearly half of workers took more paid time off than their employer allowed.

Yet burnout rates are high. A 2023 survey from Eagle Hill Consulting revealed that 45% of U.S. workers claim to experience burnout at work. The proportion is higher among workers aged 18 to 32 (52%) and women (48%).

“There is more discussion about furloughs than there has been in the past. There are a lot of cases where companies are reporting that employees are not taking furloughs,” Stich said.

Here’s what companies and employees dealing with these issues need to think about.

Track vacation usage and employee mindset

An important first step is understanding the company’s benchmarks, says Wende Smith, director of people operations at BambooHR. This can help companies develop a plan moving forward. Is the problem limited to one particular sector or is it broader-based?

“If you don’t track it, you won’t understand what your problem is, or if you have a problem,” Smith said.

Before implementing broad policy changes, it’s important to address the underlying issues that may be preventing employees from taking time off to recharge.

This can include heavy workloads, a lack of adequate staffing and the need to coordinate time off with other employees, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

If employers are serious about furloughing, they need to talk to employees to find out why they aren’t furloughing and address those issues, Smith said. Leaders also need to set a good example for their direct reports about taking time off, she said.

When employees take time off, respect their time off, Stich said. “Don’t keep messaging them while they’re on vacation.”

Pros and cons of mandatory paid leave

Jobs such as pilots, air traffic controllers, trucking and certain finance positions may have furloughs based on law or industry best practices, Stich said. But other industries may have more flexibility in enacting these policies. Jonathan Gove, senior executive consultant at Eagle Hill Consulting, said mandatory policies can be beneficial because they force the issue of leave to be addressed, but there can also be challenges, such as employee resistance and enforcement.

“There may be some people who view their furlough time as a savings account, especially if they are paid on termination,” said Kate Derby, WTW’s Western region professional practice leader for absence, disability management and living.

Additionally, furlough policies can be complex to administer. Stich said if employers were to implement the measure, they would have to determine how many days would have to be furloughed. Is it one day off per month, one day off per quarter, or five days in a row? There is also a trade-off in using blackout periods to keep the business running—for example, during tax season for accountants, or three weeks before the start of school in a pediatric office, when back-to-school inspection season requires an all-hands-on-deck approach.

To avoid scheduling headaches, companies may require employees to tell their managers by a certain date which week they plan to take off, and if they don’t, the manager will need to work with the employee to determine the time off, Stich said.

Mary Will, deputy general counsel and partner at Faegre, said companies must also be prepared to manage who gets access to Golden Week in a fair way or risk running into legal trouble or struggling to fight disgruntled and Dealing with disengaged employees. Employers must be prepared for complaints like this: “We don’t think it’s fair that Joe always gets a week off between Christmas and New Year’s but others don’t,” she said.

Federal, State and Local Laws

There is no federal law requiring employers to provide paid time off, but some state and local laws apply. Jill Kahn Marshall, an employment and labor attorney and partner at Reavis Page Jump, said different states also have different requirements for paying for unused paid time off, and that a furlough policy to address the issue could be Very complicated. She said businesses should consult with attorneys before implementing new policies to make sure they don’t accidentally violate any state and local laws.

Ways to Encourage More Vacation Time

Some companies are no longer focusing on furloughs and are looking for alternatives that are less administratively burdensome and employee-friendly. WTW’s Derby said many high-tech companies in California, for example, have instituted shutdowns, often during the week of July 4 or between Christmas and New Year’s. “Even tech companies with unlimited PTO are shutting down. It’s a chance to catch up and take a breather because everyone has the same week off,” Derby said.

More and more companies are also eliminating unlimited time off policies, but these policies don’t always work as expected. In some cases, employees abused the policy, but often they were given far less leave than the required number of days. As a result, some employers have reinstated or are considering reinstating policies in which employees only accrue a certain number of days — typically two to three weeks per year, Will said.

Sander VanderWerf, senior vice president of Aon’s vacation and life solutions business, said some employers may consider creating a vacation plan that requires employees to use the vacation plan or lose their vacation time. “When time is not carried over at the end of the year, employees are more likely to use more time,” she wrote in an email.