In the United States, people work on average 2000 hours per year.  The average person in the United States takes 10.5 vacation days per year.  Most people do not take any vacation, instead continue working.  Then once people go on vacation, they will bring a cell phone, PDA or laptop on vacation, thus never really checking out of work. 

The US is number one in productivity, surpassing the number two county, France, by more than 300 hours per employee.  The interesting part is that France ranks fourth in the world for total average hours worked, but second in productivity.  Isn’t that powerful?  In France, employees take, on average, 25-30 vacation days per year and have a 35 hour work week. 

Knowing the statistics about France and how vacation has worked in relation to productivity, I think it is safe to say that higher productivity is not necessarily derived from more hours worked.  As Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”  If I am sitting at my desk working or in meetings all day, how much creativity and business thought gets accomplished?  None! 

One of the reasons I think this is an important topic, especially now with all the “recession” drama we deal with at our office, in the media and with our banks, because now is the time to be thinking outside the box about how to make your business outstanding.  I recently went on a short cruise, which means no access to internet or phone (without paying a hefty fee).  I will admit, I had BlackBerry withdrawals but it turned out to be a blessing.

I was able to read books I had not been able to get to. I was also able to just hang out and do “nothing.”  What a fantastic feeling to not have a schedule or agenda for the day.  When I got back I realized that the time away, although short, did wonderful things for my creative thinking process.

I was recently reading a blog post from Paul Orfalea, the founder of Kinko’s, and one of his comments was that he used to take three weeks off at a time.  He quickly realized that if you take one week off, you have one week of work on your desk when you return.  If you take two weeks of vacation, you have two weeks of work on your desk.  But, if you take three weeks of vacation, people find a way to get the work done without you. I think it is a great idea, simply for the fact that every Executive should have procedures and plans in place, so that if she was not around, the company would still be able to function.

So, forget about how bad everything seems to be right now, take a long weekend and recharge your mind.  I am sure your company and employees will benefit in the long run!