Many U.S. Employees Working Instead of Vacationing this Year

“Vacation deprivation is at an all-time high,” says Sally McKenzie, vice president and general manager of the online vacation website Expedia.com. Harris Interactive and Ipsos were hired by Expedia to study U.S. vacation trends. Ms. Mckenzie continues, “there are incredible health and wellness benefits associated with time off from work.” It looks like Americans will be missing out on all the fun this year.What were the findings? U.S. employees this year will likely forfeit more than 574 million vacation days. That is an extra 150 million vacation days forfeited this year over 2005 levels or about 4 vacation days that go unused per employee.Why don’t Americans learn from foreign employees and enjoy the vacation days they have earned?There are many reasons. One of them is still our upbringing with the Puritan work ethic. Our country was founded on hard work and long hours. Taking days off is still looked upon by many employers as being slothful, lazy, and not being productive. With the downsizing that has been going on in corporate America, employees are nervously looking over their shoulders wanting to make sure they give no one any excuse to replace them. They all want to look like team players.Gasoline prices are out of sight. With some working families having to pay an extra $1500 to $2000/year for gasoline, right there their summer vacation has gone up in gas fumes.The Federal Reserve increasing interest rates is hurting vacationers. It is estimated that in 2005, almost 40% of mortgages were the exotic kinds with adjustable rates, zero interest, etc. With the Federal Reserve having raised interest rates for almost 20 quarters in a row, many families are seeing their mortgage payments jumping from an extra few hundred a month, to in some case over an extra $1000 per month. For some families it is a choice of wanting to keep the roof over their heads. Vacation time has gone out the window.A final reason Americans are not taking more vacation time is vacation resorts and destinations are not exciting people into wanting to take days off of work.A lodging magazine survey showed that the typical resort, averages around a 15% repeat guest rate. “That is a horrible number,” says Tom Mulhall, past president of the Palm Springs Chamber of Commerce. “That means the typical resort and resort destination is doing something to turn off 85% of its guests. We pride ourselves on averaging just over a 75% repeat guest rate ourselves.”Tom and his wife Mary Clare own The Terra Cotta Inn Clothing Optional Resort and Spa in Palm Springs, CA http://sunnyfun.com and Tom feels that today’s cookie cutter chain hotels are more interested in maximizing the revenue from a guest instead of a guest getting to maximize their fun. Chains need to understand that guests have to have a great experience at a resort and at a destination. When guests feel like they have to “watch their wallet” every time they walk into a lobby, they start to resent it. And charging hidden “resort fees, and outlandish parking rates” has probably cost more resorts lost repeat guest then anything else. Until chains understand that, repeat guest rates will still suffer.Tom concludes by saying,”last week, one of my guests told me he had accumulated over 50 vacation days at work. I asked him why he did not take more travel time. He said, outside of the 2 week vacation he spends with us each year, no other vacation resorts excite him and his wife. ‘I don’t want to waste my vacation time at some mediocre place,’ said the guest. ‘We did that when we were younger. Now I would rather save vacation days to cash out at retirement instead of using them now.’” Chilling words for the travel industry.This year it looks like travel destinations and resorts are going to have to work harder than ever to recapture the vacation time and hearts of the American traveler.

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The Importance Of Reference and Education In Your Getting the Right Job

Most of you job hunters out there might want to polish your reference and education in your resumes or curriculum vitae so you can up the chances of getting the attention of human resource officers. This is especially true to people who have been unemployed from their jobs due to their companies cutting downsizing.The number of people who have been re-trenched due to global recession has been rising in an alarming rate. Most of these out of employment people are suddenly put into a situation wherein their source of living is taken away so abruptly that they end up relying on the government monthly checks to survive. Many stories have been heard of these professionals still out of job because some job centers just cannot seem to find the right job for them that can match their skills, experience, and other attributes.You must know that competition out there is tougher with fresh graduates, young professionals looking for greener pastures, or the laid off middle age worker, and other job seekers flooding the job market. You may be one of the types of job hunters circling the job centers in town, surfing online job databases, and or looking at your community bulletin board or local newspaper. And so you know how it is to keep on searching without having any positive feedback from the companies you have sent your resumes or CV’s. What seems to be the problem?Well, there are two emerging important factors called reference and education that should be carefully mentioned in your profile or portfolio. Many human resource officers have been keen on these two factors because of the scarcity of the jobs that they can offer. Any of the companies wanting to hire a personnel would want someone who have been working credibly as stated in his references and also has the knowledge to fill in the job position that can be mirrored by his educational attainments. The higher the education, the higher is the expectation for you to get the job well done.So how do you get a good reference? This depends if you have any prior job experiences and the type of job seeker that you are. For fresh graduates, enlist all your summer jobs and part-time jobs and then pick out something that relates to the position you are currently applying for. For young professionals or laid off worker, consider your most recent company if they have good commendations regarding your work. Some of the companies that laid off workers readily hand out references or recommendations to laid off workers to help them find a new job right away. Send a reference request letter to your direct supervisor of your best work experience and then wait for their letter of recommendation. This factor can be readily checked by the human resource personnel by contacting your stated references so do not attempt to falsify any documents.For educational factor, this can be a limiting to those who do not have a degree, certifications, or other documented expertise. Universities, community and technical training schools can readily provide you with your scholastic records for your supporting documents. The government is also willing to shoulder your schooling expenses so that you can further your skills or education and therefore get a better job. Just look around for open programs or scholarships that you can use to make yourself more valuable with additional technical skills or higher education.The job market right now is having a higher demand for jobs than the available jobs being demanded. You do not want to be blacklisted or banned from any company or job center so refrain from tweaking the facts.

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The Importance Of Reference and Education In Your Getting the Right Job

Most of you job hunters out there might want to polish your reference and education in your resumes or curriculum vitae so you can up the chances of getting the attention of human resource officers. This is especially true to people who have been unemployed from their jobs due to their companies cutting downsizing.The number of people who have been re-trenched due to global recession has been rising in an alarming rate. Most of these out of employment people are suddenly put into a situation wherein their source of living is taken away so abruptly that they end up relying on the government monthly checks to survive. Many stories have been heard of these professionals still out of job because some job centers just cannot seem to find the right job for them that can match their skills, experience, and other attributes.You must know that competition out there is tougher with fresh graduates, young professionals looking for greener pastures, or the laid off middle age worker, and other job seekers flooding the job market. You may be one of the types of job hunters circling the job centers in town, surfing online job databases, and or looking at your community bulletin board or local newspaper. And so you know how it is to keep on searching without having any positive feedback from the companies you have sent your resumes or CV’s. What seems to be the problem?Well, there are two emerging important factors called reference and education that should be carefully mentioned in your profile or portfolio. Many human resource officers have been keen on these two factors because of the scarcity of the jobs that they can offer. Any of the companies wanting to hire a personnel would want someone who have been working credibly as stated in his references and also has the knowledge to fill in the job position that can be mirrored by his educational attainments. The higher the education, the higher is the expectation for you to get the job well done.So how do you get a good reference? This depends if you have any prior job experiences and the type of job seeker that you are. For fresh graduates, enlist all your summer jobs and part-time jobs and then pick out something that relates to the position you are currently applying for. For young professionals or laid off worker, consider your most recent company if they have good commendations regarding your work. Some of the companies that laid off workers readily hand out references or recommendations to laid off workers to help them find a new job right away. Send a reference request letter to your direct supervisor of your best work experience and then wait for their letter of recommendation. This factor can be readily checked by the human resource personnel by contacting your stated references so do not attempt to falsify any documents.For educational factor, this can be a limiting to those who do not have a degree, certifications, or other documented expertise. Universities, community and technical training schools can readily provide you with your scholastic records for your supporting documents. The government is also willing to shoulder your schooling expenses so that you can further your skills or education and therefore get a better job. Just look around for open programs or scholarships that you can use to make yourself more valuable with additional technical skills or higher education.The job market right now is having a higher demand for jobs than the available jobs being demanded. You do not want to be blacklisted or banned from any company or job center so refrain from tweaking the facts.

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