The “Unlimited” Vacation Is Real, But Will It Take Off?
For most employees, the number of vacation days—if they’re lucky enough to get any—is set early in the year. Despite it, however, Americans have developed a propensity of skipping part of their vacation days or not using them at all.
According to a recent survey from the U.S. Travel Association’s Project Time Off, a staggering 55 percent of U.S. employees do not use all of their requisite vacation days at work. These figures are the highest they’ve ever been since the statistic has been followed. On average, this amounts to nearly four less vacation days taken compared to 1993, as shown in the Project Time Off graph below.
Financially, this means that U.S. employees are skipping a mammoth “$61.4 billion in forfeited benefits” nation-wide with 658 million unused vacation days. The survey indicates that over 200 million of those days cannot be rolled over to the following year, leaving them virtually worthless.
With the trend of used vacation days steadily slipping, a left-field solution has begun to emerge, although rather slowly: unlimited vacation days.
The notion may sound borderline-Utopian, but a small number of companies like Netflix and LinkedIn are already coming on board. The reason? Getting rid of set days may incentivize flexibility.
Peter Cappelli, the George W. Taylor Professor of Management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, spoke on the subject recently.
“I believe the idea of ‘unlimited’ vacation is in part a way to shift the workplace culture from a sense of entitlement when it comes to days off to one that says, ‘I’m going to look after you and you look after me, and if you need to take a day off here or there, take it, and we’ll all understand,’” Cappelli writes.
The reality of more companies joining LinkedIn and Netflix, unsurprisingly, isn’t quick to develop. According to Fortune, only around 1 percent of companies offer vacation policy like this. And there is a concern that some employees would abuse this kind of system.
Cappelli takes this into account and argues, “But the statistics suggest that the opposite is true. We are not even getting people to take the vacations they are allowed to take or in certain instances, being told to take. So we’re seeing the opposite issue right now.”
Cappelli discussed the issue alongside co-host Dan O’Meara, a labor attorney and Managing Director of the Wharton Council on Employee Relations, on their SiriusXM show In The Workplace. O’Meara was less of a fan.
“Certain employees will barely want to take advantage of it and others will want to push for time off, all of the sudden,” O’Meara declares. “Because there’s no two or three week cap, you’ll deal with people who will want to make that work for them. It’s hard to imagine there won’t be employees who get annoyed when their peers can get away with it. There could be issues of equity.”
Cappelli further acknowledges that “this type of policy is clearly more suited for some workplaces than others.” So if it is a viable solution to the U.S. vacation dilemma, it likely won’t be universal any time soon.
In The Workplace airs live, 5 p.m. on Thursdays on SiriusXM Business Radio, powered by the Wharton School, channel 111.
About the Author
Matthew Korman
Matthew Korman is a writer on MetroMBA. Since graduating from Rowan University with a degree in journalism and political science, Matthew has worked as a music industry writer and promoter, a data analyst, and with numerous academic institutions. His works have appeared in publications such as NPR and Sports Illustrated.
