With the advance of computing power and the ability to detect biometric stressors in voice and mannerism, one could develop a "vacation index" for individuals based on scanning them at their cubicle. If one added in data from medical sources (say, weight plus pulse from a fingerprint scan or blood pressure from a retina scan plus bloodwork from a DNA security scan) and from psychotheraputic evals, one could develop a sliding scale for vacations, say, a day off one week up to six months another time until physical health & weight/mental health returned to normal, etc. Of course, a boss might also say, "you need a vacation" without this system, but I guess what I'm proposing is developing a systematic approach to the process: The science of Vacationology. (Vacationaitry?)
-- cloudface, Aug 21 2003

I need to go back to work for a rest :)
-- po, Aug 21 2003


I think I'd prefer to stick to capitalism: I'll take as much vacation as I can afford.
-- DrCurry, Aug 21 2003


I think this is a neat idea. There are things like stress level that are associated with increases in certain chemicals in the system. There are a number of non-physiological inputs that you could include, like work load over time, interval since last vacation and so on.

We need to do more preventive medicine, this is a step in that direction. I'm guessing if this is effective, the health insurance costs for the company would go down, and you'd have less employee turnover.
-- krelnik, Aug 21 2003


So if you don't get (measurably) stressed at work, you don't get vacations?
-- angel, Aug 21 2003


That's not the only measure. As the author says, this would be a whole science of figuring out ways to best estimate when people need to take a vacation, not just a simply physiological meter.
-- krelnik, Aug 21 2003


OK, so you only get vacations when some scientific measure determines that you "need" them?
-- angel, Aug 21 2003


//you only get vacations when...//
Oh no, I wasn't assuming that. I was assuming this was used as a release valve for folks who aren't taking their vacation time, those "Type A" workaholic types.

You would have a normal vacation accrual system like you do now, but instead of a simplistic rule like "you can't accrue more than 25 days....use them or lose them" you use this system to advise people when they really ought to take some time off.
-- krelnik, Aug 21 2003


Most people take vacations when it is timely to do so, eg. the kids are out of school, the weather is nice where you're going, etc. It's fine to have some test result tell you you need a vacation in February, but that doesn't mean it's a good time to take one. Don't think this would be very useful.

Besides that, stress levels are probably not a great indicator. Depending on the nature of the business, high stress levels might accompany high productivity cycles, a period where vacation availability is limited or perhaps not available at all (take US H&R Block January to April for example).
-- waugsqueke, Aug 21 2003


That would all be factored into the "science" of Vacationology, naturally.
-- krelnik, Aug 21 2003


I read the title to this idea as Vaticanology. Which would be something very different indeed..
-- Taika, Aug 21 2003


Could be a helpful system to detect people who are not up to the job at the moment and help them early before the make a big mistake and get fired. A problem will be that the system can reveal a lot of medical data and that many bosses will misuse it to sort out the ones they consider loosers.
-- kbecker, Aug 21 2003


How about 'anergonomics'?
-- n-pearson, Aug 21 2003


Is Monica too busy for you? You seem tense
-- theircompetitor, Feb 12 2004



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