The “Holiday Hiatus”

A new survey commissioned by The Workforce Institute and conducted by Harris Interactive reveals that U.S. employees are feeling the pain of the “Holiday Hiatus” — that time between either Martin Luther King Day (Jan. 18) or President’s Day (Feb. 15) and Memorial Day (May 31) that constitutes the longest stretch of the working year without a paid holiday.

The survey suggests that workers call in sick, use vacation time and use other tactics to break up the long period.

“More than half of our survey respondents said they would take a sick day without really being sick,” noted a statement. “These kinds of unscheduled absences cost companies millions of dollars each year. Organizations should look at providing employees with more flexible paid-time-off options to better manage the problem.”

SURVEY FINDINGS
• 40% of full-time salaried employees get both Martin Luther King Day and President’s Day off as paid holidays. 39% do not get either.

• 25% of full-time salaried employees who get neither Martin Luther King Day or President’s Day off or just one of these days off as paid holidays say they are more stressed during the Holiday Hiatus than the rest of the year.

• In terms of how they cope with the stress of the Holiday Hiatus, those salaried employees who said they take action to deal with stress from lack of paid holidays do so in a variety of ways including: taking more vacation time (37%); taking more sick days (16%); eating junk food (25%); and working out more (28%).

• 57% of salaried employees said they would take a sick day when they were not really sick. How would they spend the day? 52% said they’d lounge around the house; 49% said they would run errands; and 25% said they would stay in bed.

• 77% of salaried employees who get neither Martin Luther King Day or President’s Day off or just one of these days off as paid holidays said they would not take a sick day when they were not really sick if their company offered them a “Duvet Day,” a term coined in the U.K. by organizations who give employees one or two paid days off per year that they can take without cutting into sick or vacation time (the idea being they stay home in bed under the covers or “duvet”)

• 21% of full-time salaried employees plan to take five days off between Jan. 18 and May 31, while an additional 14% plan to take six or seven days off.

• 63% of full-time salaried employees are concerned about job security. 60% of these folks say that concerns about job security have impacted their vacation plans, with 23% saying they are less likely to take vacation time this year.