Americans are becoming a very dull lot. We have a reputation of all work and no play. We actually receive less vacation time on average than our peers in many other countries. Worse yet, most people don't even take the time they are allotted. Howard Shapiro, writing for the Philadelphia Inquirer recently wrote that Americans gave up a stunning 438 million vacation days which they failed to take in 2007. The figure for time left behind comes from Harris Interactive and Expedia.com (an Internet travel site). Expedia obviously has a vested interest -- if people aren't taking vacation days, they're not taking vacations, and hence, they aren’t using their site. Looking at it another way, the 438 million days Shapiro calculated are worth about $60 billion, using average hourly wages for the tabulation. But this trend points to a more alarming situation.

A new work phobia?

So why are so many employees afraid of scheduling longer vacations? Workaholism. The Puritan work ethic. Feeling guilty about taking earned days. The fear of being overrun by competition. Corporate downsizing. Job insecurity. Fast-moving workplace environments. Slower economy. These are just some of the most popular excuses.

A SHRM/CareerJournal.com 2006 Workplace Vacation poll was conducted to determine opinions about employees' time off from the perspective of both human resource professionals and employees. You would think that of all the disciplines, Human Resource people would be the best at taking their allotted vacation. Yet the poll revealed:

• HR professionals while on vacation (middle-management-level and executive-level employees) were expected to stay connected to the organization more than non-management employees.
• The top three methods organizations provided for their employees to stay connected while on vacation were cellular phones/pagers, laptops and BlackBerry/handheld devices.
• 70% of employees responded that they were opting to take long weekend vacations instead of being out of the workplace for longer periods of time.

Some of it is self directed. We have become a society that multitasks in most aspects of our lives and feels we need to stay constantly busy with activity, whether productive or not. In a January 2006 Time Magazine article, "The Perils of Multitasking," Dr. Edward Hallowell, a psychiatrist, has seen the fallout of multitasking mania. Over the past decade, he has seen a tenfold rise in the number of patients showing up with symptoms of a work-induced Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Patients were more irritable than they wanted to be, their productivity was declining, and they had trouble being organized.

How about corporate culture? Let’s face it, in some organizations people don't get rewarded for taking vacations, but they do get rewarded for working long hours. Employees who are high achievers in disciplines like sales may feel like taking a vacation makes them look like a slacker.

So first and foremost, use that vacation. Schedule it now, and then take it. If not, what are your options?

I’ll just carry it over to next year

This is usually the first reaction for those that don’t take their allotted vacation. And if you are planning to spend 3 weeks touring New Zealand or something, this could make sense. But understand that your company’s vacation policies probably have rules regarding the carry-over of earned but unused vacation. Some employers do adopt "use-it-or-lose-it" policies to encourage employees to take time off each year. Others may allow them to carry it over from year-to-year with no restrictions. But most companies only allow employees to carry over some portion (e.g., a maximum of one week) up to a stated cap (e.g. two weeks).

But by definition, if you are carrying over vacation to the next year, that already puts you behind using this year’s vacation. And independent of special circumstances/projects/etc why do you think you will use all this vacation this year if you still haven’t used last years??

Then just pay me for unused vacation time

Usual reaction number 2. But contrary to what many employees believe, neither federal nor most state law requires employers to provide paid vacation. Vacation is given to employees because of the significant benefits both employers and employees realize as a result of time away from work. Therefore, many employers find paid vacation counter to the concept of why it is offered to begin with.

Put it in my 401K

This is a relatively new trend but what if you could put the cash equivalent of those unused vacation days into your 401(k)? Last year's Pension Protection Act of 2006 focused on 401(k) design features, such as automatic enrollment (to encourage participation). That got some employers thinking about what else can they do.

I noted that some benefits experts suggest this might appeal to highly paid employees whose vacation days are worth more. But since those making the big bucks typically max out on their annual 401(k) contribution already, it may not provide as big a plus.

Donate it

Following the attacks of September 11th and the disaster brought by Hurricane Katrina, donating accrued vacation time to help victims became a new way to use up that time. While those are certainly honorable gestures, it still doesn’t address the real reason employees get vacation time -- to get away for a bit and recharge.

Just do it – take the vacation

If all else fails, just use the vacation time. The good news is that the well-respected Framingham Heart Study, which found over two decades that workers who take annual vacations are less likely to die of heart attacks.