Vacate to Lead: Why the Best Leaders Take Vacation, and Make Sure Their Teams Do Too

In theory, no one would argue against the benefits of vacationing. Whether that means unplugging at a cottage or exploring the cobblestone streets of Rome with gelato in hand. Undisputed bliss. Yet there’s a cruel paradox at play, both for business leaders and employees alike: we simply aren’t doing it.

More than half of North Americans leave vacation days unused each year, and in the nonprofit sector, the numbers are even more bleak.

If you’re in a leadership role, stepping away (fully and unapologetically) is one of the most beneficial decisions you can make for your cause, your team, and the people who depend on both. Here’s why.

The Sad State of Vacation

We live in a culture where, whether intentional or not, busyness has become a badge of honour. One that nobody officially endorses but everyone unofficially rewards. It creates the unspoken societal pressure to always be on and appear dedicated. Vacation? That can wait. We have a promotion to get. Or colleagues we can’t let down. Nearly one third of workers also worry time away will only intensify the burnout they’re already feeling. And so yet another year passes with days left on the table. 

But even among those who do get away, taking vacation and actually being on vacation are two very different things. Nearly half of workers include their cell number in their out-of-office, essentially volunteering to be interrupted before they’ve even left the office. And considering it takes two to three days to decompress enough for rest to register, most people spend their vacation on the proverbial runway, never fully taking off.  

As a leader, your relationship with vacation sets the tone for everyone around you. And the consequences of ignoring that are significant.

The Real Cost of Burnout

When your team is facing burnout, chances are you can feel it. The energy in the room might shift, decisions take longer, and creative thinking dries up. What you’re witnessing is just as much a cognitive problem as it is a morale one. Studies confirm burnout leads to fatigue, difficulty concentrating, forgetfulness, and impaired decision-making. And in the nonprofit world, where every person, every program, and every dollar counts, a team operating at diminished capacity can have real consequences.

Burnout costs the Canadian economy more than $200 billion annually. At the organizational level, burned out employees typically don’t quit dramatically. Instead, they gradually stop caring, doing enough to get by until they reach a breaking point, or a new opportunity comes along. According to Harvard Business Review, a disengaged employee may actually be more expensive than one who quits.

The Benefits of Leaving by Example

The good news? As a leader, the most powerful tool to mitigate team burnout isn’t about budgets, headcount, or any benefits package. It’s your own behaviour.

According to the research, the most effective thing a leader can do is model restorative time away themselves. Because if you’re sending emails poolside or skipping vacation altogether, you’re unintentionally setting a precedent. And your team is taking note. 

So what does modelling actually look like? It means announcing your vacation publicly and with conviction. It means an out-of-office that doesn’t include your cell number. It means being genuinely unreachable and trusting your team to handle what comes up. And it means coming back and talking openly about what the time gave you: the clarity, the perspective, the idea that arrived when you finally took a break.

The data on what happens when leaders get this right is compelling. An Ernst & Young study found that for every additional 10 hours of vacation employees took, their year-end performance improved by 8%. Those who vacationed more frequently were less likely to leave. And using all of your vacation time is even shown to increase your chances of a promotion or raise. When one organization made vacation mandatory, they saw measurable increases in creativity, happiness, and productivity.

Need even more convincing? Lin-Manuel Miranda conceived the groundbreaking Broadway musical Hamilton on vacation. Explaining in an interview: ”It’s no accident that the best idea I’ve ever had in my life came to me on vacation. The moment my brain got a moment’s rest, Hamilton walked into it.” Your staff’s next transformative idea needs the same room to arrive. They won’t find it sitting alone in their cubicle.

The Gender Gap We Don’t Talk About Enough

When it comes to empowering employees to take intentional time off, there’s still an unspoken barrier at play more leaders could better acknowledge: women (who make up the majority of the nonprofit workforce) often take less vacation time than men.

According to a 2024 report by the Gender Equity Policy Institute, women in the U.S. have 13% less free time than men in general, a gap that widens to 23% among women aged 35 to 44. This is driven largely by a disproportionate share of unpaid household and caregiving responsibilities that don’t clock out when work does. And critically, there’s no evidence this gap has narrowed in recent years. 

Of course, this isn’t the case for many households, where responsibilities are often shared equally or otherwise, but the reality is, the disparity still exists.

What this means in practice is that many women (whether on your team or you yourself) may not be taking vacation because the mental load of planning it, on top of everything else, feels like one more thing to manage. And for those who do get away, there’s a higher risk they’re in reactive rest mode, recovering from depletion rather than investing ahead of it. As a leader, simply being aware of this can change how you show up for yourself or your team.

When Getting Away Feels Impossible

Let’s be honest: for many nonprofit leaders, a two-week absence isn’t just logistically complicated, it can feel genuinely irresponsible. Understaffed teams, tight budgets, and relentless program delivery don’t pause because the calendar says vacation. That’s real, and it deserves a real answer.

The good news is that rest doesn’t always look like two weeks away from the office. Take, for example, the four-day work week. In the largest study of its kind, organizations that piloted a four-day week saw productivity hold steady, with workers accomplishing as much in 33 hours as in 38 by cutting inefficiencies rather than lengthening days. Revenue increased by an average of 15%. Sick days dropped 65%. And the likelihood of an employee quitting fell by 57%. Not a single organization that took part wanted to go back to a five-day schedule.

If a compressed week isn’t feasible, smaller interventions still matter: Summer Fridays, flex start and end times, protected lunch hours. While none of these options should replace a real vacation, they send a clear message to your team about what it is you value, and the type of organization you’re looking to build.

The Bigger Picture

The work will always be there. The question is whether you and your team will be too, showing up fully present, energized, and still believing in it. So make the investment. Book the time, close the laptop, and encourage your staff to do the same. Real, intentional, unapologetic time off. That’s the job.