Should employers encourage staff to take time off?

Employers may wish to outline the benefits of taking a prolonged break from work to their staff, as this could see their employees returning with more skills and could help increase retention.

Indeed, Tom Hall, travel editor of Lonely Planet, said people taking time away from their job may in fact be doing their boss a favour.

He added that asking a manager for time away could turn out to be a more promising conversation than many people would anticipate.

"You may actually be doing them a favour at the moment by saying: ‘[I am] proposing to take a few months off and get off your pay roll, what do you think? Will you hold my job open for me?’," Mr Hall explained.

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It could be said managers who encourage members of their workforce to take time off could avoid making redundancies as they take steps to recover from the recession.

According to First Rate Exchange Services Limited, 58 per cent of UK adults are planning to take at least one holiday overseas this year.