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Relax, refresh, and recharge: Time away from work offers mental and physical health benefits.
In March, University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) President Bruce E. Jarrell, MD, FACS, urged employees to begin using their accrued leave that had piled up during the pandemic-scarred year of 2020, when many people opted not to travel due to COVID-19 restrictions and health and safety concerns.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has been overwhelming in many aspects,” Jarrell wrote in a letter to the UMB community. “One that we can’t ignore is the difficulty in creating a division between work and personal time. I want UMB employees to know that it’s not only OK to take time off, but that I also expect our workforce to do so.”
The message worked. According to Susan McKechnie, CPA, assistant vice president and University controller, the total hours of accrued leave used by employees between the first pay period ending in June and the last pay period ending in August was similar to pre-pandemic 2019.
In 2021, a total of 231,879 hours of leave were used between those pay periods by 4,406 employees for an average of 52.6 hours taken, which is comparable to 2019’s numbers: 239,224 hours, 4,529 employees, and 52.8 hours. By comparison, the 2020 numbers for that time span were 119,177 hours, 3,233 employees, and 36.9 hours.
UMB continues to urge employees to use their accrued leave — whether it’s a vacation, a staycation, a long weekend getaway, or a simple day off — because taking time away from work to refresh and recharge is seen as a critical way to improve your physical and mental health.
UMB’s Human Resource Services (HRS) has been promoting Jarrell’s charge with a “Take Your Leave” campaign. The message: Using your leave time is good for you and aligns with the University’s efforts to foster a healthy work-life balance.
“Please remember that work-life balance is extremely important,” Jarrell says. “Part of that balance is knowing when to put work aside and take a break. Please make sure that you are taking the time you need — that you have earned — and that you are being respectful of others’ time off. Vacation time doesn’t have to include travel, but it does need to include time to unplug and recharge.”
Michelle Pearce, PhD, a professor at the University of Maryland Graduate School and a clinical psychologist, applauds the University for working to create a workplace culture that supports employees taking time away from work.
“Our brains and bodies were not designed to be ‘on’ all the time,” Pearce said. “I liken vacations to recharging our phone batteries. We all know that our phone has to be charged regularly in order to function. If we don’t take time to charge it, we won’t have a phone to use. What we forget is that we need to treat ourselves the same way. Vacations allow us the time to disconnect from work and recharge our batteries.”
According to UMB policy, a maximum of 400 hours (50 work days) of annual leave can be carried into a new calendar year by all regular, full-time employees. Because of the pandemic, that number was lifted to 480 hours (60 work days) under a University System of Maryland exception. Staff members have until the final pay period of the 2022 calendar year to use any leave over 400 hours, or else it will be forfeited; faculty members have until the final pay period of the 2021 calendar year.
Having a large amount of unused leave is detrimental to the University because it serves as a debt on UMB’s ledger, McKechnie said.
“These hours represent unused vacation that will be used, paid out, or lost,” she said. “Any hours that have been earned but not paid out must be treated as a debt to our employees that UMB records as an expense. So the higher the number of unused hours, the larger the debt, and the bigger the expense.”
HRS reminds employees to follow their unit’s guidelines on requesting accrued leave, coordinate with their supervisor on vacation requests, and check out UMB’s Leave Administration webpage for more information on accrued leave. Also, employees can find their current and projected leave balances on the eUMB Human Resources Management System website.