FinanceGlossy

How many times have you uttered, “I need a vacation,” in the past year? With 2015 winding down, many American workers are still sitting on unused vacation days.

Americans are increasingly reluctant to take vacation, despite the negative consequences, including fatigue, stress, poor morale, reduced productivity and strain on family life.

In an effort to curb employees from becoming workaholics, some companies require that their workers take their vacation time, CNN Money reports. Balsamiq is one of those companies.

Giacomo Guilizzoni is the founder of Balsamiq, which makes rapid wireframing tools for web design and app mock-ups. He told CNN Money that the company’s U.S. workers weren’t taking enough time off, so he implemented a mandatory vacation policy.

“We expect people to take at least 20 days of vacation, in addition to nine national holidays,” said Guillizzoni, who along with half the company is based in Italy, where vacation days are “written into the contract, and pretty much sacred.”

Jobs site Anthology is trying out a mandatory vacation policy. Its employees get all major holidays off, two weeks of paid vacation and five flex days, according to CNN Money.

Although some companies have unlimited vacation policies, they aren’t always effective in getting workers to take time off. Anne-Marie Slaughter, president of the nonpartisan think tank New America and author of “Unfinished Business: Men, Women, Work, Family,” told TechRepublic that she implemented a use-it-or-lose it policy with vacation time when she first started New America.

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