Innovative Payroll Services

Studies Affirm Vacation Important for Good Health

Published by bizactions.com

Vacations, sick leave, and personal leave all cost employers money. Yet two recently published
studies lend support for the importance of employees' vacations and time off from work.

As one of the lead researchers, Jessica deBloom (of the Behavioral Science Institute, Radboud
University, The Netherlands) puts it: ""You could state that vacation costs for employers may be
outweighed by gains in making employees happy, healthy and attending work." deBloom is one of
the researchers in the study-of-studies recently appearing in the Journal of Occupational Health.

Two recently published studies (including the deBloom study-of-studies) deal with issues
involving stress between work and home/personal life and the impact of vacation and leisure time
on employees' health. Following are highlights from the studies.

Study 1. Vacation effects on health and well-being. Journal of Occupational Health under
the title "Do We Recover from Vacation? Meta-analysis of Vacation Effects on Health and Well-
Being." deBloom and five other researchers from Radboud University and from the University of
Konstanz, Germany, published results of their analysis of seven studies dealing with the issue of
vacation impact on employees' health and well-being. Their review appeared the

This study-of-studies sought answers to two key questions: To what extent does vacation have
positive effects on employees' health and well-being? And how long following the return to work
do such effects endure?

The quick answers to those two questions: "The results suggest that vacation has positive effects
on health and well-being," the review states, but "these effects soon fade out after work
resumption..."

Other key statements in the published analysis are:

• "Time off is crucial for workers to recover from load effects built up at work.. [N]ormal load
reactions (e.g., accelerated heart rate and fatigue) can develop into more chronic load
reactions (e.g. prolonged fatigue, sleep complaints, high blood pressure) in cases of
continued exposure to workload and incomplete recovery during time off."
• "Recent studies have revealed that workers often recover insufficiently during time off
work due to, for instance, working overtime, and that day-to-day incomplete recovery may
have serious adverse health consequences in the long run..."
• "There was evidence for a small effect of vacation on health and well-being... [T]he
vacation effect was more prominent among outcome variables that were closer to the
core of the concept 'health and well-being', than among more distal variables. Thus
health complaints and exhaustion as proximal health indicators improved more than life
satisfaction..."
• The positive effects of vacation fade out two to four weeks following the end of vacation.
"Regrettably the available information was too limited to evaluate the precise cause of
fade out and hence the duration of vacation effects."
Commenting on the findings, deBloom stated that "sometimes people ask me, Why should we go
on vacation at all when effects wash out so fast? For me, this feels a bit like asking, Why do we
sleep despite the fact that we get tired again? Vacation is an essential recovery process and, as a
long and uninterrupted period of respite, a pre-eminent opportunity for employees to recover
more completely from work than during weekends or evening hours. Vacation makes people
happy and healthy and is, therefore, an effective, strong and natural way to boost the well-being
of employees."

In addition, deBloom noted, there are studies going back to 1992 that "show that infrequent or not
vacationing at all is associated with a higher risk of disease and even mortality. These findings
underscore the importance of vacation for health and well-being."

Study 2. When home issues interfere with work. Research led by Els Clays, of Ghent
University, Belgium, shows how home life stress and conflict increases employees' absence from
work. The study results appeared in the August 2009 issue of the Journal of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine.

The main conclusion of the study was that home life that interferes with work is associated with
what Clays terms "increased sickness absence duration and frequency."

Although the research does not directly deal with the relationship between home life stress and
employees' use of vacation time, Clay stated: "It seems a plausible hypothesis that longer
vacation time could lower stress-related absence from work. Our results definitely suggest that
family-friendly work policies, such as flexible work schedules or the possibility to work from home,
might be beneficial for the home-work conflict and hence also reduce sickness absence."

Key statements in the Journal article are:

• Work-family conflict – commonly defined "as a situation in which the role pressures from
the work and family domains are mutually incompatible" in some respect – "may have
dysfunctional and costly effects on individual work life, home life, and general well-being
and health."
• The study involved 2,983 male and female employees in seven companies and public
administrations across Belgium. The participants responded to such statements as: "I
spend time at work thinking about the things that I have to get done at home" and
"Because of the demands I face at home, I am tired at work."
• What's referred to as "home-work interference" (HWI) "was positively and significantly
related to both high sickness absence duration and frequency..."
• "The main implication of our findings is that issues of HWI should be taken into account in
the prevention of sickness absence. It has been suggested that family-supportive work
policies and practices might produce significant benefits in terms of employee attitudes
and well being."

Published by bizactions.com

At IPS, your satisfaction is our primary focus. That’s why so many of our
clients enjoy the one-on-one relationship they have with their IPS professionals:
we pride ourselves on our attention to detail and our proactive service on
your behalf.

Contact us:
Toll Free – at 1.866.320.5940, or call the IPS office nearest you, but for the best service, please
fill out the form below and we will get back to you very shortly.

New Jersey [Corporate Headquarters]

7250 Westfield Avenue, Suite M
Pennsauken, NJ 08110
Phone: (856) 380-5700
Fax: (856) 380-5701
Email: support@ipspayroll.net

Georgia
1201 North 2nd Avenue
Rome, GA 30165
Phone: (706) 622-3286
Fax: (706) 622-3287
Email: supportGA@ipspayroll.net

Texas
8699 FM 2673
Canyon Lake, Texas 78133
Phone: (856) 210-5115
Fax: (856) 210-1577
Email: supportTX@ipspayroll.net

Florida

1610 N Hercules Avenue

Suite E-F

Clearwater, FL 33765

Phone: (727) 474-0599

Fax: (727) 474-0590

Email: supportFL@ipspayroll.net

Pennsylvania

1420 Cleveland Avenue

Wyomissing, PA 19610

Phone: (484) 334-8001

Fax: (484) 334-8002

Email: supportPA@ipspayroll.net

Keywords

Free payroll service, small business payroll software ,small business payroll, payroll
software human resource consulting, online payroll service, human resources payroll,
payroll processing, payroll system, online payroll, payroll accounting, payroll tax, payroll
taxes payroll company, free hr software, business outsourcing, human resources,
human resources software