Increased regulation (at least in my home state of California) is such that employers face class-action lawsuits if their employees are not required to take their legally-enforced break periods.

While I would never, NEVER, suggest any sort of increased regulation on the part of lawyers. It might do all of us some good to have our respective professional associations start issuing ‘best practices’ reports that encourage–in the strongest possible terms–law firms to keep track of vacation days taken.

Perhaps this could undo some of the ‘machismo’ surrounding “no vacation days” taken in law firms. I’m sure this sort of “I’m so tough I don’t need vacation” attitude permieates the rest of US corporate culture, but it is particularly rampant in law firms.

Of course, there is a HUGE myth to “no vacation days”–and that is that there is no lost productivity. The more primitive parts of our mind will kick in when the conscious mind refuses to take care of the organism. There is a very great number of hours being squandered in law firms in water-cooler talk, blogging (oops!) and other casual surfing–and also, alot of just plain staring blankly at briefs and on-line legal opinions as we wait for the badly undercharged brain cells to start firing. Perhaps we really do need a new culture that enforces official, sanctioned downtime.

In the interests of full disclosure, I haven’t taken a day of vacation time in three years.

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