posted by Naka, source: media.australia
Intense working conditions prevent Australians from taking leave
30 April 2009, Australia
New research has revealed that workplace barriers are preventing one in four Australian employees from taking their entitled annual leave and that Australians have accumulated 123 million days leave, equating to $33.3 billion in wages.
According to the research, undertaken by Tourism Australia for the launch of its No Leave, No Life program, 57% of stockpilers – people who have 25 or more days of leave accrued – say work barriers prevent them from taking leave.
Concern about workload before and after leave (30%), lack of resources to cover (26%) and difficulty of scheduling leave when desired (21%) or around projects (21%) are the main factors.
Australian Human Resources Institute CEO Serge Sardo comments: “Many organisations fail to acknowledge that the financial impact of an over-worked and over-stressed workforce can be far greater than providing additional resources to cover for employees’ leave absences.”
Tourism Australia’s No Leave, No Life program aims to address this issue entrenched in the workplace by offering employees and employers the support tools and resources necessary to win the work/life battle by encouraging Australians to take their entitled annual leave and explore Australia.
The program’s website www.noleavenolife.com provides regular, up-to-date information and resources for Australians and their employers as well as practical tools to help them plan and take holidays. To further assist employees in taking leave, an Aussie holiday is being given away every week for eight weeks, through www.noleavenolife.com.
Here are some tips to help Australian employees prepare their workload so they can not only take leave but enjoy it:
Plan leave as early as possible to give managers, clients and anyone who may take on the workload as much warning as possible.
List your regular responsibilities and, if you can’t complete them before you leave, delegate them to someone else.
Ensure all important documents and/or files are accessible to workmates.
Make sure you copy others into emails in the weeks leading up to leave so they are across what needs to be done.
Postpone any meetings that are in your calendar while you’re away and don’t reschedule them until after your first day back.
Be sure to set up your out-of-office reply on your email and divert all phone calls to someone else to manage.
Clean and tidy your desk, so everything is in its place when you get back.
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