Over 450 employers responded to SHRM’s survey which found that the number of workplaces offering paid vacation time dropped in 2004 to 68 percent, down from 87 percent the previous year. Paid leave took an even harder hit: only 29 percent of employers said they offered it compared to 68 percent in the previous year.

Tom Casey, a principal at Mellon Human Resources and Investment Solutions, told BenefitsNews that the reason for the drop in vacation time offered could be that employers are attempting to get greater productivity from their workers. “Limiting vacation is one way to increase productivity,” Casey told the publication.

Casey could be hitting on a trend. In 2002, Australian Medical Association president Kerry Phelps noted that vacations might actually have a negative effect on a worker’s health, through the development of “Leisure Syndrome” -- where vacation downtime is often accompanied by headaches, cold or flu-like symptoms, and intense fatigue. Phelps said that Dutch research found that as many as three percent of all workers could be affected by such symptoms the minute they start their break.

And even when employers offer vacation time, for the past few years, workers in the United States haven’t been taking it. A 2003 survey by Management Recruiters International (MRI) found that over half of the executives surveyed weren’t planning to use their vacation time. The execs were choosing instead to stay at the office and tackle their increased workloads that came courtesy of corporate downsizing.

But while dropping paid vacation time may seem like a quick means of improving worker productivity, there’s a downside to the trend as well: 62 percent of workers, reported the New York Times, said their workloads increased in the past six months, while 52 percent of the workers also said their work left them overtired and overwhelmed.

In addition to an exhausted or burned-out workforce, squeezing more work from fewer workers may also have another negative side effect – increased employee turnover. A 2004 MSNBC report noted that turnover rates have been steadily increasing for much of the year and are expected to continue to rise for the next few years as workers who’ve labeled themselves “overworked” seek greener pastures.

So how can employers get more work from the same number of employees without driving the workers to leave their jobs? In a word, ergonomics – improving the fit between employee, task and workplace can mean that work can be accomplished more efficiently by each employee. Employees seem to agree. According to a Microsoft Hardware study, over 50 percent of employees believe that the best way their employer could show a commitment to their workplace success would be by providing employees with the proper tools to perform their jobs more efficiently.

Sources: BenefitNews; New York Times; Ergonomics Today^TM