Confessions of a Travel Junkie

Site of my next vacation - Costa Rica

{DCR News}

I want to confess to you all that I am a travel junkie...which is unfortunately an oxymoron in the US since we Americans get basically zero vacation time in comparison to other countries around the world - in my case, a measly 10 days (and 2 personal days woo!).

Let's look at the basic facts. In addition to a few national holidays, the average American gets two to three weeks off per year. But (and there is always a but), a recent poll from Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 57% of workers use all of their vacation days, compared with a 89% of workers in France. [CNN]

This concept BOGGLES my mind. Here are my facts. I get 12 vacation days and a handful of long weekends off from work. I'm going to use all those days to get to as many places as I possibly can. In 2011 alone, I have traveled already to New Zealand and just purchased a ticket to Costa Rica. Why? Because I have vacation time and I plan to use it.

To me, it's all about time budgeting. I'm lucky enough to live near my family so I don't need to take time off to fly anywhere for Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc. But my family and I do sometimes go away for the holidays. In which case, we usually don't take time off to do so. Holiday weekends are perfect for traveling around the US, Canada or Mexico. Just this past Thanksgiving, my family and I went to Toronto for 4 days just to explore the city and do something different than sit at home and carve a turkey. Last Memorial Day weekend, my Dad and I took my sister to Nashville for her birthday.

We save the big vacations for taking time off work. My trip to New Zealand cost me 5 days of work, my trip to Costa Rica will be 4, and then I will take an odd day off here and there for weddings.

And at the end of the year, I will have zero (maybe even some negative) hours left to take off. But it will be worth it because I will have seen new parts of the world and taken days away from my desk. Because honestly it's not just about seeing the world and experiencing new things. It's about taking time away from the people, the office drama, the work piling up on your desk. It's about getting away for a while and not thinking about it. And everyone needs time to do that.

It is your right as an employee to take your time off. And even if it's just to sit at home and watch TV, I seriously get heated when I hear people say they have time rolling over to the next year because that means that they spent almost the entire year chained to their desk. And that's just not healthy.

WG1 actually sent me this article from CNN on why America is the "no-vacation nation". And it quoted John de Graaf, the national coordinator for Take Back Your Time, a group that researches the effects of overwork and he is quoted as saying, "There is simply no evidence that working people to death gives you a competitive advantage." Apparently the US came in 4th in the World Economic Forum's 2010-2011 rankings of the most competitive economies. 4th! We were outranked by Sweden - a country that offers workers 5 weeks of paid vacation!

This to me is proof enough that we need to take back control of our vacation by simply taking vacations where we don't need to answer the phone or check our email or be in touch with people at the office.

Either that, or move to Sweden.

Cruel Summer

by Working Girl One

Remember summer vacations?

I don't think I've had a proper summer vacation since the summer between my junior and senior years of high school. But even when I was working my Working Girl tush off to earn money for college, I at least had a full week off to spend at the Jersey Shore with my family.

(And no, where we go is NOT AT ALL like Jersey Shore you see on MTV.)

This summer, no such vacation will be happening for this girl. At my new company, I have two weeks vacation that earn over the course of the year. And I haven't earned much of it yet. At my last company, I had earned three weeks. I tried to negotiate for another week but being unemployed and all didn't really give me the upper hand. To top that off, at my new job we have two busy seasons and one happens to be during the summer.

So instead of enjoying a full week off, I'll spend the two weekends that cover my family's trip with them and the boyfriend and I have a wedding to attend and a short weekend trip planned. A few mini-vacations in better than nothing, right?

Open 5 Days A Week

by Lawyer Working Girl

I hope all of you Working Girls had a great holiday break. I had 5 wonderful days off from work (including the weekend) and I enjoyed every second of it. However, all day Monday all I could think of was, "I sure don't want to go back to work tomorrow" (but in the same breath, I did give thanks for having a job to go to). Do you guys do that too? Usually, it's Sunday evening when it hits me that the weekend is almost over. Since I was off Monday, I just knew that I would have the post-holiday blues this morning. Well, imagine my surprise when I walked into the office today and I was in a very cheerful mood. It's funny that I thought that having 5 days off would put me in a bad mood upon my return to work, when in actuality, it was the exact opposite.

This made me think about how much we work in the U.S. I think we work WAY too much and I think that more days off would do wonders for productivity and moral (I personally found myself a lot more productive today than I'd been the last couple of weeks). On average, Americans get 17 vacation days a year. 17. The French get the most vacations days a year, averaging about 37.5. Wow! At first I thought, "we should be given more vacation days." But then, I remembered always hearing how many people don't use all of their vacations days because they are too busy at work or because they feel like things will fall apart without them. (Let's be clear. This will never be an issue for me. I'm taking every day that they give me.) So, giving more vacation days doesn't really help if people aren't going to take them.

So, what's my solution, you ask? I say we should have 4 day work weeks. 4 days to work, 3 days to rest. Think about our current weekends. We get off Friday evenings and have that evening and night to rest and unwind. I tend to find that I'm exhausted when Friday comes and enjoy an evening at home. Saturday comes and you try to cram a lot in that one day (errands, cleaning, etc.), because it's the only true full weekend day that you have (Sunday night you have to get in bed at a decent hour for work the next day). When Sunday comes you're already thinking about work on Monday. Am I right or is this just me? I think the 3 day weekend would allow workers to truly rest, relax and stay mentally sharp for the work week. Working Girls, what do you think? And who do I talk to about implementing this idea?

Taking a Step Back to Breathe

Like every working girl out there, I desperately need a break and am anxiously awaiting the holidays like there's no tomorrow. All I need is just a few days off to wind down, refuel, take some much-needed R&R and enjoy a little "me" time.

Thankfully ladies, I'm this close to taking time off and couldn't be more thrilled about spending it at the beach. Yep, that's right--bring on the sunny vacay complete with an endless supply of frothy beverages, beautiful sand, reading, lounging, sleeping in, staying up late, and lots and lots of fresh towels.

While I'm away, I fully intend on weaning myself away from technology. For those who know me, this is quite a feat. In fact, I always promise that travel is not the time to tweet, check e-mail, blog and surf the Web... but it never actually happens.

And I know I'm not the only working girl with this terrible problem. Why don't we take the time we need to relax? We are constantly working our little tails off without taking a step back and breathing.

So this time, I'm going to focus on me and my vacation. No phone, e-mail, blogging, tweeting, Foursquare-ing, etc. And although the holidays are about spending quality time with family and friends, we working girls also must concentrate on ourselves.

This holiday, I am making the promise to keep my promise. No technology. Just the beach and me.

What are you going to do to rewind and relax during the last few weeks of 2010?

Put yourself first. You deserve it.

Yes, We're Alive!

Eek. So, you might have noticed that WG1 and I have been absent for a while (and by a while I mean almost 1 week and a half, but who's counting?!?). So we wanted to let you all know that we're alive.

Also...

...We are still recovering from our trip to Las Vegas last weekend where we partied like ballers, spent money like crazy people, and saw Britney Spears in concert (which was amazing and highly entertaining!).

...We're both super swamped at work with events, events, and more events. They take over lives. Seriously.

...Not only that but we're both busy in our after-work lives too! WG1 was apartment hunting and moving in with her boyfriend and WG2 has been helping plan an event for a board she is on and yes, just maybe she's been job searching (but don't tell!).

So we're sorry that we've been MIA. But we promise we'll be back in full force this Monday. And if you need a little Working Girl fix, you can always follow us on Twitter!

Happy Fourth of July!

We hope you WG's have the day off to celebrate the 4th of July early!

(This is the first time WG2 has had a day off for the 4th of July so she is ecstatic to be poolside today and WG1 is currently on the beach enjoying the Jersey sunshine with her fam.)

We love having days off to celebrate being American! Yay!

Can I Be Transferred to Europe?

Lately all I can think about are vacations.

I think this is for a few reasons. The first being that I feel like everyone is going on vacations lately - WG1 is taking the week of 4th of July off to go to the Shore, one of my friends just got back from Miami, and another one of my friends is off to Disney World in a few days.

Second, I have my own very exciting vacations coming up. One is a trip in August to go visit my sister who is studying abroad in Spain. My family and I are going to meet her in Venice and then take a cruise to Croatia, Turkey, and Greece (don't let my calm facade surprise you - I can't stop thinking about this trip). AND in addition, WG1 has planned this fantabulous trip for us and all our college friends to go to Vegas at the end of September. Yes, color you jealous.

Third, and finally, one of my bff's just got engaged (eek! yay!) and asked me to be one of her bridesmaids (double eek! double yay!). And even though the wedding isn't going to be until next year, I still have started thinking about how I'll have to take a significant chunk of vacation time to be in the wedding since she's English and will be getting married in England...which translates to me taking like a week off for hen parties and dress fittings and tea parties (haha probably no tea parties, but it's just so English).

Which was the longest introduction ever to let you know that I would like to go live in Europe.

Yes, readers, I need to move there. Mainly, I would like to move there so I can have more vacation. Did you know that the average European gets 6 weeks paid vacation?

According to a commentary piece on ABC News's website, the average British worker gets 28 paid vacation days a year, Germans get 35, the French get 37, and Italians get a whopping 42 days to lay around in the sun (or just a few days off to do laundry if they feel like it).

In contrast, Americans get about 10 paid vacation days off a year and America doesn't have a set vacation policy for the country, unlike some European countries. (Which is most likely why last year at my first real job out of college in NYC, I got 5 paid vacation days, 1 sick day, and 1 floating holiday).

And I have to mention that those 10 paid vacation days are a starting norm for a full-time job. Part-time employees usually don't get any paid vacation at all. And even when people DO get full-time vacations, they can hardly find time to take them with conflicting schedules or they just take their computer/Blackberry with them so they can put in some "weisure" time.

According to the National Survey of the Changing Workface, US employees in 1997 were "working 3.5 more hours a week than they did 20 years earlier". Meaning, Americans work harder, do more overtime, bring more work home, and go on more business trips than ever, yet they still don't have enough time to get things done and still have to take work on vacation with them.

Juliet Schor makes a good point when she says, "American corporations seem downright ungracious about vacations when viewed in this light, or when we consider that they give their European employees the same month to six weeks that European companies do."


Which is so true! WG1 and I have one friend who works for a European company that is based in New York, and she gets the same amount of vacation that their European counterpart does. Why, oh, why can't we make this an American lifestyle change?

It makes sense! Europeans see the value in letting their employees take time to relax, unwind, and recover from working. We Americans like to burn out to the point where we are forced to take vacations - and Juliet Schor points out that even when we are on vacation we use the opportunity of vacation to "consume more" by staying at expensive hotels, spending absurd amounts of money, or going on adventurous treks to exotic locations because we only get one vacation a year so we may as well go big or go home!

In conclusion, I'm moving to England where they work just as hard as Americans but get vacation like Europeans. Sounds like a perfect solution to moi!

Summer Friday Envy

Summer Fridays. Have you all heard of this glorious invention? It's when a company lets their employees leave early on Friday afternoons during the summer (Memorial Day to Labor Day typically). Some companies even let their employees pick a number of Fridays that they can just take off. And these are in addition to the other days you get off throughout the year.

When I moved to Chicago this past year, I had no idea this was an East Coast idea. Yep, my company doesn't support the Summer Friday cause. Apparently I will be chained to my desk until 5PM every summer Friday evening.

Granted, even when I lived in NYC I didn't have Summer Fridays. But sometimes I could ditch my desk a little earlier (say 3:30 or 4PM) to catch a train out to the Shore. Sidenote: can I just say I already have Shore envy?! I miss my house like crazy.

And now that I live in the Midwest, I can kiss the idea of ever having the luxury of getting out at 2PM or 3PM the weekend before a holiday or just taking a Friday off for no other reason than that it's summer and I want to get to Manasquan before nightfall.

Not that I have anywhere to go. Some people go to Michigan or Wisconsin. But I will probably spend most of my summer at my dad's pool. I can't decide if I love that idea or loathe it. I also realized fairly quickly that people who live in Chicago stay in Chicago during the summer - because I mean when else do you get this nice weather? Never. That's when.

So as my friends pack up their desks early and retreat to the Shore, or the Hamptons, or the Cape - I'll be here.

I have a case of hardcore Summer Friday envy.

No Shots For You

Last week, I jetted down to Key West for a long weekend of working, coordinating, and being an all-around travel agent to a hoard of salespeople. 

If  you happened to catch my post from two weeks ago (yea, I have been a major slacker, my apologies for zero posts last week), you might recall my mentioning my Spring Break-esque trip down to Florida to celebrate a few of our top salespeople's achievements this year. The trip went almost perfectly (there was one snag - the hotel lost one of my very, very important boxes and my boss was not pleased). 

I did have one fear going into the trip and that was consuming alcohol. The most drinking I have done around co-workers has been at going-away parties and cocktail parties. But I'm not exaggerating when I say I would abstain from drinking more than two glasses of wine/beer. Getting drunk and telling off my boss scared me sober. At my old company, it was easy to avoid drinking. Usually when I was working events, drinking a few glasses while on the job would be deemed tacky. And when I was in social settings, it was easy to nurse a glass of wine. 

My new job, however, has led me into a land of temptation where our sales team will moan and groan if they aren't given more than two drink tickets at a work happy hour function paid for by our company. This trip was especially tricky because it involved being "off" the job on a tiny island where it was highly probable that I would happen upon my co-workers and my boss at bars on Duval Street. And gasp I might be drunk.

And happen upon them drunk I did. I saw one co-worker unsuccessfully try to pick up girls by buying them Jell-O shots. One co-worker, when asked if he had had a good night responded with, "Yes, and a great morning" - yea ew. And another co-worker drunkenly followed me and my friend back to our room (stopping only to thrust his pelvis a few times while in front of our boss's hotel room) to only realize that he had gone two floors too high when he couldn't find room 235 on the fourth floor. Over-served is an understatement. 

The whole purpose of this trip of course was to relax. And when I say relax, I mean the salespeople who had won the trip were there to kick back. I was there to work. So I was naturally nervous to consume one too many beverages when I was off the clock. Which was confirmed, when as I was about to shove a Jell-O shot of my own down my throat, one of higher up salespeople told me I should veer away from any kind of shots. Apparently, my boss loathes them. Which he then followed up with, "Don't worry, I won't tell him I saw you take one." Which of course caused me to have a minor panic attack.

So I threw out that shot of raspberry Jell-O and vodka goodness, and ordered another beer. Any other shots that were bought for me by co-workers that night, I would pretend to take and then throw out. I was being overly cautious, but let's just say I was glad I didn't have to lay on the floor of my hotel bathroom the whole next day. 

While I can't say that I wasn't a teensy bit inebriated most nights of my work vacation, I can truthfully say that I didn't embarrass myself in front of my boss (though I have to admit I made one of my co-workers pretend to be my older brother to ward off a 40-something drunken tourist with a tongue ring who just would not leave me alone).

I was really proud of the way I was able to enjoy myself and not overdo it. I had a great vacation and I met some great people. Oh, and I got a little, itty bit of a tan.

Take Your Tie Off 2009

Around this time last year, I started itching for Spring Break. So me and two of my friends decided to keep alive the tradition of ditching all responsibilities for a week and headed off to Las Vegas. That vacation was great and included one very drunken night at the only Irish pub on the strip that left us hungover for the rest of our time in Sin City, lots of sing-alongs to "Damaged" by the band formerly known as Danity Kane, and one very interesting experience at Cirque du Soleil. 

This year, I don't have the funds (not like that stopped me last year) and it turns out that instead of planning my own Spring Break, my company has done it for me. On Thursday morning, I will depart for Key West for a long weekend of sun, sand, and Kenny Chesney on repeat on my iPod. 

Explanation for this little getaway: each year my company has a sales incentive competition. Last year, the top 10 salespeople won a long weekend away in Puerto Rico. This year, it is a long weekend in Key West, Florida. And since I had a hand in planning the excursion (aka all the flights, all the meals, all the hotel arrangements, the shuttle service, and even the guest's beach activities), I get to tag along. Yes, I am pretty much their travel agent. 

But I am more than over the moon about this trip. Not only is it 80 degrees right now in Key West (and it's about -13 here in Chicago), but I get some free time while I am there as well. The first few days we are there we have dinners and meetings that I have to deal with, but come Sunday I have free time to lounge by the pool, drink strong margaritas, and add some more freckles to my already over-freckled skin. 

And that's not all! My company is allowing me to bring a guest, so Thursday night one of my best friends from college is going to be flying in from New Jersey so we can hang out and maybe convince a few of my colleagues to take their ties off. 

I'm sure this trip will inspire a story or two, so stay posted for an update on my excursion down south on Monday! 

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's hard for me to believe that only two years ago I was a senior in college, drinking studying my way through finals and then making the drive to Jersey to spend four weeks at home during semester break.

This is my second holiday season as a Working Girl. I still haven't felt like I've gotten out of the routine that has been embedded into my system since I was five: start school, fall break, school, Thanksgiving, school, Christmas/semester break, school, winter break, school, spring break, summer and start all over again.

Over the weekend, my boyfriend and I went to Massachusetts for (my first) Hanukkah and to visit his family and friends. I had Friday and Monday off and because the office has been so slow lately, I didn't feel the need to check in. It felt like a real vacation celebrating a holiday, having home-cooked meals and relaxing. With his brother and cousin home from college, I kind of felt like I was on break too.

My boyfriend, for the past two years, has taken most of his vacation during the month of December for this very reason. He likes to have his own semester break. While I constantly beg him to take some time off in late winter or early spring so we can go someplace tropical (because in my head we can totally afford that), I understand why he likes December vacation so much.

Next week, I'm using three of my vacation days and I'll be off for the whole week. Some other magazines at my company get the week off for free. Not us, our publisher loves to work. I'll go home, celebrate Christmas with my family and enjoy a mini-break from work. My own little semester break.

I just wonder if I'll ever get used to this lifestyle, working five days a week with only 15 vacation days (I'll go from 10 to 15 days in 2009). Something tells me that I may not.