Cutting Back on Vacations....Boo!

This is what's wrong with America, and I've always thought this. Americans DON'T take enough vacation time and suffer from huge burnout and now an article today in the

NY Times

says that Americans are cutting back even more.

Women who take vacations frequently are less likely to become tense, depressed, or tired and are more satisfied with their marriages. In a NIOSH-funded study published in the Wisconsin Medical Journal, principal investigator Cathy McCarthy said, "This study proves vacations are good for your mental health and may help you do a better job at work. Employers should be supportive of time off because they benefit from having relaxed, happy employees." The investigators analyzed research conducted between 1996 and 2001 involving 1,500 women in central Wisconsin. They compared psychological stress, quality of marital life, and home-life disruptions due to work among women who take vacations twice or more per year, with those findings among women who took off only once in 2 years.

Sadly, the month long European vacation is soon to be changing as the governments there realize that society cannot sustain an aging population with social services programs with a declining population afoot, so the EU is out to re-do the vacation structure in those countries too. We'll see what happens there as the last time France tried to do this, it ended up in days long riots and demonstrations. Good for the Europeans I say. Vacations are important for everyone including a family's well-being and making good memories.