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Critical Thinking Paper: Revised

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Critical Thinking Paper: Revised
Shaun M White
Renee Pistone
PHI 210 – Critical Thinking
June 10, 2012

Critical Thinking Paper: Revised “God bless America, land that I love. Stand beside her, and guide her through the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, white with foam God bless America, my home sweet home…” If you were raised anywhere within the borders of the United States of America, you have heard these lyrics of “God Bless America” multiple times throughout your years. Just as the lyrics suggest, we should stand by our country, but we are also charged to guide our country. There would be no need to guide, if there wasn’t an area in which the country is lacking. The area in which America needs some guidance is in the area of employment benefits, specifically vacation mandates by the great America herself. America is the greatest place to live, don’t get that wrong, but there are some changes that need to be made to reward the people who contribute to making America the greatest country there is. The biggest change that needs to be made is to incorporate more time away from work. According to The Everything HR Kit, a person should be rewarded for their continuous hard work. The text believes that after 25 years of service, an employee should receive a total of five weeks paid vacation. Coming from an individual who is but 25 years old, five weeks does sound pretty nice, which is until statistics of what other countries mandate in regards to vacation comes into play. The 25 years that an individual must work before receiving five weeks of vacation in America is 25 more years than any French employee must work before receiving five weeks of vacation (citation). This difference is astounding! According to nationmaster.com, America is one of three nations that do not require vacation, a fact that is surprising. Out of the 52 listed countries, there are only three that do not have minimum requirements for vacation offerings, that is a little shy of 6%, and America makes up 1/3 of that 6%! According to Merriam & Webster, workaholic is defined as a compulsive worker. If it is not required in America for one to take time away from work, then America is breeding workaholics.
A compulsion is an irresistible persistent impulse to perform an act (citation). Merriam & Webster gives an example of compulsive behavior, excessive hand washing. Let’s take a moment to visualize a person who washes their hands excessively. Sometimes, they wash and wash until their hands are completely raw. I’m not sure what you have pictured in your mind, but my mind tells me that this is very unhealthy. So if hand washing is an unhealthy compulsion, and there are people who compulsively work in America, than clearly American’s work ethic can be an unhealthy one.
WebMD creates a very real picture depicting American workers; they describe how some 33% of American workers do not take their vacation, and 23% of American workers that do take vacation actually work while on vacation. Okay, at least those 23% are trying, but what does vacation truly mean? Merriam & Webster defines vacation as, a period of exemption from work granted to an employee. The key phrase there is FROM WORK. So, what is the effect that this workaholic nature has on our bodies? According to WebMD, a compulsive worker may suffer from: burnout, reduced productivity, diminished creativity, failed relationships, stress, or stress-related ailments such as depression, heart disease, or stomach ulcers. So clearly, a lack of time away from the American sense of productivity may affect not only the mental & psychological aspects of an employee, but it may also eventually affect the physical health of the individual as well.
Now, you may be taking all of this in and thinking that this is all nice, but so very impersonal, so I will introduce the findings of a survey I took a little while back. The summation of the survey was that out of the selection of 12 surveyed, one person had taken a vacation away from work without working in the past year, two people had taken a vacation from work but went into work at some point in their vacation in the past year, one person was unemployed, and the rest of the eight individuals either were not offered vacation, or did not feel that they were able to take any of their allotted vacation.
Part of America’s success is that it does function around the clock, many business do work around the clock 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year. Some may say, if America mandates vacation like France does, giving seven weeks out of the year -five of vacation and two of government allocations, 13% of the year, then we may lose our position as super power of the world. I can see and appreciate this point, but I would make a counter argument.
If giving mandated vacation lowered America’s productivity, there would clearly be a need for more man power. A need for more manpower would lower the unemployment rate, which was recorded at 8.2% by the Bureau of Labor for this past May. Unemployment is always a hot topic, and anything that could help in lowering that rate would be a welcomed solution.
Vacation is a cherished prize that a person will often inquire about when applying for a new position at a new firm, but vacation is also an intangible object that often gets lost in the daily ins and outs of the professional world. Deadlines are demanding, and bosses are unforgiving. If we as employees choose to not partake in what is offered by the goodness of the companies that we work for, then only we are to blame for the consequences that will eventually surface when exhaustion sets in. If the great American government would step in and mandate vacation time as they do with the other labor laws, then the burden would be removed from employer and employee, and all would be forced to enjoy what life was truly made to be, in the end increasing employee morale thus increasing productivity overall.

References
Compulsion - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compulsion
Dulce, Z. (n.d.). No Time for Vacation? Why We Skip Vacations and Why We Need Them. WebMD - Better information. Better health. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/balance/guide/help-for-the-vacation-deprived
God Bless America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_America#Traditional_lyrics
Month. (n.d.). Bureau of Labor Statistics Data. Databases, Tables & Calculators by Subject. Retrieved from http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000
Putzier, J., & Baker, D. J. (2011). Preemployment/Recruitment. The everything HR kit: a complete guide to attracting, retaining, and motivating high-performance employees (p. 132). New York: American Management Association.
Vacation minimum vacation time around the world statistics - countries compared - NationMaster Labor. (n.d.). NationMaster - World Statistics, Country Comparisons. Retrieved from http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/lab_vac_min_vac_tim_aro_the_wor_leg_req-time-around-world-legally-required
Vacation - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vacation
Workaholic - Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary. (n.d.). Dictionary and Thesaurus - Merriam-Webster Online. Retrieved from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/workaholic

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