Ever find yourself finally starting to truly relax and forget about work — just as your week-long vacation ends?
State Transportation Secretary Pete K. Rahn, who took over the agency in January, said requiring his leadership staff to take two consecutive weeks off ensures that they’ll recharge enough to be more productive the other 50 weeks of the year. Most longtime employees have at least several weeks of vacation time, and many have unused time saved up, he said. They can take the rest of their time off in smaller chunks.
“They have to disconnect for two weeks solid,” Rahn said Thursday. “In my opinion, it takes two weeks. That first week, you just really sort of get to a nice, comfortable level. Only in that second week do you really recharge.”
Rahn, best known in the Washington suburbs as Republican Gov. Larry Hogan’s point man on the recent decision to move forward on building a light-rail Purple Line, said he’s believed in the two-week vacation concept for years. He noted that a growing number of studies show that Americans take less vacation time than workers in other industrialized nations, which can lead to burnout.
In fact, of Americans who get paid vacation time, 40 percent don’t use it all, and most say they work when they’re supposed to be off, according to reports.
Rahn said he had the same policy, which applies only to staff who report directly to him, as a transportation chief in New Mexico and Missouri.
“You’d have thought I was punishing people,” he chuckled. “They’re intense jobs. People have the vacation time, but it just stacks up.”