ASSIGNMENT # 2 HRM 605 WEEK 5
Motivation for Leisure
“When I have time I don’t have money. When I have money I don’t have time,” says Glenn
Kelman, CEO of Redfin.132 He is not alone. While many employees find themselves faced with
60-, 70-, or 80-hour weeks (and sometimes more), others who are unemployed can find
themselves with too much time on their hands. Take Dennis Lee, a sales associate whose
girlfriend is unemployed. She has time to spare, but he says her unemployment makes it
“financially impossible for me to support the both of us, even if we just go on a small trip, and
get a small hotel and stay for a couple of days.”
Those who are employed and who may have the financial means to take a vacation often leave
those vacation days on the table. The average Canadian employee receives almost four weeks of
vacation time a year, and 76 percent take their full vacation time. The average US employee gets
2.6 weeks of vacation a year, yet only 43 percent take that time.
The challenge of taking leisure time does not seem to be a problem for employees in many
European countries. Take the French, who get 30 days of vacation and say they take all of them.
Employees in Spain, Italy, and Germany get about the same time off. Moreover, if you work in
the European Union and get sick on vacation, the European Court of Justice states that you are
entitled to take a make-up vacation.
Questions
1. Do you think North American employees are less motivated by vacation time than
employees in other countries?
I certainly believe US workers are indeed less motivated by vacation time because of the simple
reason that their vacation duration is not long enough. As per data, the average US worker gets
only 2.6 weeks of vacation in a year. This itself sounds demotivating enough. It is imaginable
that many people do not want to make the effort of going somewhere for such a short duration of
time, especially keeping in mind most of these workers would need some days for their personal
commitments and tasks in a year apart from going on vacation. This means that a common
worker never takes that 2.6 weeks off in a row but instead spreads it out across the year.
Additionally, the quantum of work is also very high for an average US worker. The workers are so
bogged down with their work that they do not have any ‘time’ to use their vacation days. Some
indeed are very serious and dedicated, that they feel obligated towards the work and do not want to
spare time for a vacation.
2. Why do you think Canadian workers often do not take all of their allotted vacation time,
even when they may lose the benefit?
Because employers often not flexible with approving the vacation requests. Even if the
employment laws stated that vacation is one of employees right, the culture looks to it as a
luxury thing. People also hesitate to request the vacation because they possibly will loss their
job or some of their job incentives. When looking at paychecks in most companies, it’s
showing the vacation balance as a certain amount of dollars instead of number of days,
which means they push you to take the money and ignore about the vacation time
3. If many unemployed people spend around two hours per day looking for work, as some
research indicates, how would you evaluate the impact of unemployment on work
motivation? How would you spend your days if you were unemployed?
This will be negatively impacting the overall work motivation because the unemployment which is
leading to searching of jobs for 2 hours is reflecting that jobs are not available in the economy and it
is leading into a negative impact onto the overall working motivation of the unemployment.
It can also be understood through different perspective that those who are employed will be likely to
focus more on their jobs and they can we maximizing the rate of return of company because they
feel like once they are unemployed, it is not easy to get a job and hence they are trying to do more
than their capability in order to maximize for their job security for company.
if I would have been unemployed, then I would have tried to create something which could have
value in the long run like I would have written something or I am more focused towards coding then I
would have built an app and try to sell it to make a money
PLEASE USE SOME OF YOUR OWN OPINION(BACKED BY FACTS) IN EACH ANSWER.
1.Yes, I think. Because the social life style is not encouraging people and families to go in vacation.
Also, the length of the vacation which is four weeks is not attractive and enough. People prefer to
take couple days off and relax at home, then go back to continue their duties at work.
2.Because employers often not flexible with approving the vacation requests. Even if the
employment laws stated that vacation is one of employees right, the culture looks to it as a luxury
thing. People also hesitate to request the vacation because they possibly will loss their job or some
of their job incentives. When looking at paychecks in most companies, it’s showing the vacation
balance as a certain amount of dollars instead of number of days, which means they push you to
take the money and ignore about the vacation time
3.The cost of living is increasing in all sides. Rents, transportation, groceries and all needs prices are
going up. Unemployed person will find it difficult to afford the life expenses and the need for money
will enforce him/her to work for any job. Another thing, government programs for unemployed people
is planned to activate their job search activities, provide training and development for their skills. If
I’m unemployed I will focus on volunteering, education and training, I also will take the chance to go
for vacation if I have saving!
