{"id":2523,"date":"2019-08-15T14:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-08-15T19:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/?p=2523"},"modified":"2025-03-08T14:06:59","modified_gmt":"2025-03-08T20:06:59","slug":"vacation-all-i-ever-wanted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/vacation-all-i-ever-wanted\/","title":{"rendered":"Vacation, All I Ever Wanted"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Gregg Podolski
\n<\/strong>Director, Direct Hire Division at Emerson Group<\/h4>\n

Now that I\u2019ve got that song stuck in your head (and if you don\u2019t get the reference in the title, thank you for making me feel old), let\u2019s talk about vacation. Or PTO. Or whatever it\u2019s called in your \"\"organization. Much like salary, vacation time is one of those subjects that is important to every single person who has ever looked for a job, yet is rife with so much taboo that to even mention it early in the interview process is akin to reciting a gypsy curse.<\/p>\n

Why? Is it so horrible that someone might want to take a few days off at some point during the year? Does asking about PTO, sick time and holiday pay automatically mean that an individual cares more about themselves then she does about the company?<\/p>\n

Well\u2026yeah. Maybe. But here\u2019s the thing: There\u2019s absolutely nothing wrong with that. If a company sets out to hire 100 employees who all care more about the company than they do their personal lives, they\u2019re going to wind up with 10 workaholics and 90 really good liars.<\/p>\n

EVERYONE values a work\/life balance. \"\"<\/p>\n

Hell, even the guy who spends 60 hours a week chained to his desk because he just loves collating files needs some beach time every now and then.<\/p>\n

Forget the fact that vacations have been proven time and time again to be HEALTHY for employees. Forget that companies migrating to an unlimited PTO plan are seeing higher retention rates and, in some cases, LESS time off requests from employees than those with more traditional plans. Forget that the US still lags far behind other countries in terms of paid time off allowances for its workers.<\/p>\n

Forget all that.<\/h4>\n

You don\u2019t need any of that information to acknowledge one basic fact: Your employees are people, not machines. (Not yet, anyway, but that\u2019s a different post). And people need time away from their work. It not only makes them better mothers, fathers and friends, but the recharge makes them better workers as well. Win\/win.<\/p>\n

So, the next time a candidate asks what the PTO policy looks like, please don\u2019t play the game of, \u201cWell, let\u2019s talk about the company culture first.\u201d Or even worse, ask them, \u201cWhy does that matter so much to you?\u201d Especially considering the fact that the person asking likely has at least one week away from the office planned within the year.<\/p>\n

Employers, please don\u2019t balk the next time a potential hire asks for three weeks off to start instead of two. And if you\u2019re one of those employers who still offer just one week of PTO in the first year because you want your employees to \u201cprove their worth,\u201d get ready to be rejected by the top tier of talent on the market.\"\"<\/p>\n

Instead, whenever the subject comes up, be honest. Tell them what your company offers. Ask them if that works for them or if they need more. Treat them like, you know, a person. Maybe it turns out that you can\u2019t meet somewhere in the middle. Maybe it\u2019s company policy that all new employees get X amount of PTO in their first year and there\u2019s just no wiggle room there. That\u2019s fine. Sometimes salary is fixed too, but it doesn\u2019t mean a candidate should be judged harshly for asking for more. At the very least have an honest, human conversation on about it rather than treating the whole subject
\nas if you were discussing nuclear launch codes.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s worker values their personal life as much if not more than what they do on the job. Contrary to popular belief, this actually motivates them to work HARDER when they are at work.\u00a0 \u00a0What good is having 3 weeks\u2019 vacation if you don\u2019t have the money or job stability to enjoy it?<\/p>\n

So, as I get ready to trade in my desk for 7 days on a beach chair at the Jersey Shore, let\u2019s all raise an umbrella drink to vacation. It\u2019s what EVERYONE wants.<\/p>\n

\"\"Gregg Podolski<\/a>, is the Director of Emerson Group\u2019s Direct Hire division. Gregg works on positions in all industries including C-Level Suite, Sales, Account Management, IT and Manufacturing\/Operations\/Project Managers.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

#ProfessionalSearch #EmersonGroup #PTO #Retention<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Gregg Podolski Director, Direct Hire Division at Emerson Group Now that I\u2019ve got that song stuck in your head (and if you don\u2019t get the reference in the title, thank you for making me feel old), let\u2019s talk about vacation. Or PTO. Or whatever it\u2019s called in your organization. Much like salary, vacation time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,15,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-information","category-happening"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emersongroupinc.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}