http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0730edit2jul30,0,6614505.story

chicagotribune.com
Editorial
Vacation frustration

July 30, 2007

“180 Trillion Leisure Hours Lost To Work Last Year,” read a recent headline in the satirical newspaper the Onion. The story was fake news, which is the Onion’s specialty. But at least one advocacy group appears to be taking its reverse logic seriously. Its aim: Less work, more leisure.

Leaders of the Seattle-based Take Back Your Time challenge “the epidemic of overwork, overscheduling and time famine that now threatens our health, our families and relationships, our communities and our environment.”

Their remedy? Congress should mandate a minimum of three weeks paid vacation for all workers.

The campaign comes on the heels of a study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a liberal-leaning Washington think tank, that found the United States ranks dead last among the world’s 21 richest countries in the number of guaranteed days off for workers. The study found that one in four American workers do not receive any paid vacation or paid holidays, especially employees in lower-wage and part-time jobs and those who work for small businesses.

Government-guaranteed time off? Be careful what you wish for.

French workers are pampered with an average of 36 vacation days a year on top of 35-hour workweeks and a generously mandated potpourri of leisure-enhancing benefits. Nice work if you can get it. But lots of people can’t get it: Unemployment in France has been running as high as 9 percent in recent months and productivity has chronically lagged.

After years of saying “non, non” to the ambitious American-style work ethic, the French elected President Nicolas Sarkozy, who campaigned on a call for his countrymen to work harder. Critics rapped his ambitions as “too American,” but he won anyway.

U.S. employers do want happy workers. Four out of five American employers offer paid vacations, according to the latest survey by the Society for Human Resource Management. Just as workers compete for the best jobs, employers compete for the best workers, whether with cash or with vacations and other benefits.

Even when vacation days are offered, Americans don’t use them all. The average working adult American will fail to use three vacation days this year, according to the annual “vacation deprivation” survey by Expedia.com. That’s down one day from last year’s survey.

Various surveys reflect changes in workplace and family needs. Fewer Americans take long vacation trips, for example, and more take their vacation time as long weekends rather than full weeks. Their reasons: higher gas prices, unceasing customer needs and the difficulties faced by two-income couples in coordinating their vacation schedules.

Lest people in small business think they’re slaving away while the boss is sunning in St. Barths, be assured they’re not. A little more than half of the small-business owners in a Discover Financial Services survey took no more than one week of vacation last year, compared with 36 percent of the general population. No wonder the French think Americans are workaholics.

Now get back to work.

Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

Published by cypheroftyr

Tanya DePass is the founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago, which is dedicated to better diversification of all aspects of gaming. I Need Diverse Games serves the community by supporting marginalized developers, attendance at the Game Developer Conference by participating in the GDC Scholarship program, helps assist attendance at other industry events, and is seeking partnership with organizations and initiatives. Tanya is a lifelong Chicagoan who loves everything about gaming, #INeedDiverseGames spawn point, and wants to make the industry better and more inclusive for everyone. She’s part of the Rivals of Waterdeep actual play stream on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep, a partnered Twitch variety broadcaster; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics online, at conventions and as a public speaker.. She’s also contributed to publications at Green Ronin, Paizo and Monte Cook Games and is the co-developer for the Fifth Season RPG based on N.K. Jemisin’s three time Hugo award winning Broken Earth trilogy. She’s the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a Twitch supported RPG and Actual Play stream, airing weekly on her channel, twitch.tv/cypheroftyr. Additionally, she is a Senior Annenberg labs Civic Media Fellow at USC. She’s also the creator and Creative Director of Into the Mother Lands, a new sci fi afro-futurist RPG developed with a team of all POC and Black creators; live streamed on her twitch channel, /cypheroftyr. She’s named as one of The Game Awards Future Class 2020, a diverse group of builders, thinkers and dreamers whose voices elevate and diversify our artform. It recognizes individuals around the world who represent the bright, bold and inclusive future for video games. She was also named as one of Gamers of the Year 2020 by Kotaku along with three of her contemporaries. She was also invited to the Xbox MVP program in February 2021. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021. Tanya is the programming & diversity coordinator for OrcaCon and GaymerX. She also serves on the Board of Directors for OrcaCon and was named the Chair for Take This in January 2023. She often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. Her writing about games and games critique appears in Uncanny Magazine, Polygon, Wiscon Chronicles, Vice Gaming, Paste Games, Mic, and other publications. She’s the editor of Game Devs and Others: Tales from the Margins (2018, CRC Press) and contributed to The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox. (2019, CRC Press) Writer Bio for pubs: Tanya is the Founder and Director of I Need Diverse Games, a not-for-profit organization based in Chicago. She’s part of Rivals of Waterdeep, an actual play D&D show on twitch.tv/rivalsofwaterdeep; the programming coordinator for OrcaCon & GaymerX; and often speaks on issues of diversity, feminism, race, intersectionality & other topics at conventions. She’s on the Board of Take This as well as a Stream Ambassador, and was part of the inaugural cohort of The Game Awards Future Class. Her work to make the industry more inclusive has been highlighted in Game Changer, Directed by Tina Charles, WNBA star & olympian as well as filmmaker. The short documentary premiered at Tribeca 2021, as part of the Queen Collective; an initiative started by Queen Latifah, supported by Proctor & Gamble in an effort to get more Black women into film making. Game Changer was also featured as part of BETHer’s 2021 Juneteenth Programming on 19 June 2021.