“Ugh, I need a vacation,” seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst many working Singaporeans today. In a recently published study, it was found Singapore ranked 32 out of a possible 40 cities in terms of work-life balance. Safe to say, it isn’t ideal by any stretch of the imagination. The study concluded that a large part of the reason lay with the fact that people working in Singapore dedicate most of their time and effort into their jobs. It wouldn’t be the first time if you’ve heard someone say, “I’m married to my job”.
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Certainly not helping the issue is a separate study revealing that 92% of Singaporeans are feeling stressed out. Hence, it isn’t all too surprising for people here to constantly clamour for a holiday, which yet again leads to the other issue of not having enough annual leave days. Expedia’s latest vacation deprivation survey released last month revealed that about 77% of people here would take a pay cut in exchange for another day of leave. If you consider that money is a primary motivation factor for working in the first place, that is a high percentage of people who are prioritising having a break at the expense taking less money.
So, what does this all mean for Singaporeans and people working in Singapore? Well, planning around long weekends and choosing when’s the best time to go for a vacation has become somewhat of a skilful art in Singapore. Burn through your leave days in the early half of the year and you’ll be left pining for another vacation by the time September comes only to realise you have to wait till January for any realistic sort of holiday.
Hence, for many, it all boils down to how can I take the least number of leave days to get the most out of my holiday? But that may not be the most effective way to have the best holiday. There are of course many factors affecting joy and satisfaction when it comes to a holiday, but according to Science, there is a set number of days that will constitute a perfect vacation.
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In a research study published by the Journal of Happiness Studies, it was found that 8 days is the ideal number to reach peak vacation joy. Researchers concluded that vacation joy sees a steady increase as the days go by, peaking at around the 8th day. According to the study, it takes a couple of days to place work out of your mind to truly unwind. With the first day and last day of the trip basically dedicated to settling in and packing up respectively, an eight-day trip provides adequate time to relax and acclimatise to a holiday.
This isn’t a constantly upward climb however according to researchers, with the law of diminishing returns setting in some time after the 8th day, when the vacation afterglow and benefits start tapering off. And hey, vacations can be expensive, so there isn’t much a point spending more days when there’s not going to be added happiness value.
Well, in any case, the research has been laid bare, so make with it what you will. I know it can be tough to plan a holiday for 8 days, what with work and responsibilities constantly hovering over you. But even then, interspersing a few short getaways here and there throughout the year can do wonders for your stress levels and productivity. It’s always good to get out once in a while, take some time off to relax and come back refocused.
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