Vacation – it’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? Apparently not in the United States. ABC News reports that only 57% of Americans take all of their vacation time, compared to the French who use 89% of their vacation days. When I read these percentages, I wasn’t surprised. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been on vacation with friends who have assumed the hunched, round-shouldered position of typing into a Blackberry or laptop when they could be reclining on a beach chair soaking up the rays or hiking on a cool and refreshing mountaintop trail.

I, too, am guilty. The minute we see an email, text, tweet  or other form of correspondence from work, we immediately go back into “work-mode.” Those messages from the office start a chain reaction of worry and dread. With so many Americans concerned about the security of their jobs, it’s easy to understand why the old cliché “out of sight, out of mind” is so popular. If we are at least emailing and texting, we’re present and accounted for, right?  Seems that Americans will do whatever they have to in order to protect their jobs even if it means compromising their health and relationships. The popular trend right now is to take long weekends, but does this approach really allow us to relax and let go? Somehow I doubt it, but I guess it’s better than nothing.

But let’s look at the benefits of really taking time off from work and fully enjoying our vacation days:

• Reconnecting with family and those we love
• Reduced stress
• Improved creativity
• Improved job performance
• Burnout prevention
• Reestablishing priorities
• Creating vacation memories for our children
• Treating our customers better

As CEOs, managers, and supervisors, it is our responsibility to set the example for our employees. We need to let them know that it is not only okay for them to take time off from work, it is highly encouraged. If you haven’t had a vacation in a while, maybe it’s time you scheduled one. While you’re at it, schedule the next one, too. You’ll be ahead of the game and maybe even get a better rate for the flight.

Now if you’ll please excuse me, I need to hop online to see if there are any good vacation deals going on out there right now…I hear the beach calling!

In these tense economic times, job seekers are constantly told by experts to bring something extra, stand out from the crowd. “It’s the added value that’s the difference,” they’re reminded, between being hired and being forgotten.

Of course the experts who haven’t been “out there” have wacky ideas on standing out. One newscaster reminded job hunters to “wear a clean shirt” and “share your experiences about backpacking in the Amazon.” Wait, let’s write that down!

An enterprising job seeker had a better method. The company he’d targeted needed to launch a quarterly newsletter, but they’d left the post open for a year. “I’ll show you how I’d do it if you’ll give me a tryout,” he said. Dubious, the hiring manager agreed to the audition and was instantly impressed. The job seeker showed his immediate worth, drafting a newsletter format and suggesting ways to promote it. His bold move showed the company the value of its newsletter idea – which was upgraded to a weekly edition – and the value of having someone experienced to handle it.

“Show me the money,” Jerry Maguire yelled. More likely, show me the value…of a product, a service, or a better way to go. Your employees illustrate that every day.

Have you paused lately to consider and comment on their value, for the moment and for the future?

The credit card commercial’s catchphrase tells us to blithely charge all those pesky expenses like clothing, computer accessories, or even hot dogs at the big game – just pay right there with a swipe of this card. But it also reminds us that some things can’t be paid for with plastic, the “priceless” experiences like sharing the fun of that game with a favorite friend or beloved child.

“Priceless” – meaning you can’t put a dollar value on it – can apply to everyday experiences, too, from a double rainbow in the summer sky to a brilliant idea for making your business more efficient. Not every idea qualifies as priceless, but the flow of ideas and opinions is an asset no credit card can pay for. When a customer seeks you out with an idea for something he’s thought about, it demonstrates how much he not only values your service but wants to see you do better. An employee’s suggestion tells you she’s thinking on, and off, the job.

You may need to streamline and tweak the ideas you’re offered before putting them into practice, or you may find them naive or impractical for your business. No matter. The value of input by those paying attention to what you do is indeed “priceless.”

What ideas are you hearing that will keep customers, employees, and you smiling?

“What’s this worth?” It’s the question at the heart of Antiques Roadshow. No matter how junky or strange the item, no matter how useless it appears, everyone’s hoping they’ve scored a prize worthy of a giant price tag or a spot in the Smithsonian. The real value of anything is in the mind of the buyer or customer. A visit to eBay tells you the same thing. A buyer recently bought a vintage needlepoint design first manufactured in the 1970s. She’d stitched one for a friend while in college but always regretted not making one to keep. The original price on “Siamese Cat in Wicker Chair” was about $8, but she happily bid four times that amount as soon as she spotted it online. “I had to have it,” she explained. “It’s as lovely as I remembered and brought back the happiness I felt when I first saw it years ago.”

If value is intangible, especially in business, the memory of value is even more elusive, but is the key to success. A returning customer recalls that he’s been treated well and values the ease of today’s transaction. In a crazy-busy world, the value of that reassurance beats any treasure on Antiques Roadshow. How do your customers rate their repeat experiences with your business?

Have you ever had an idea you know others would applaud if they’d just take time to embrace it? And when their reaction is less than supportive, do you continue to nurture the idea? It happened to a determined author who’d created a new, offbeat character. She’d enjoyed success featuring a traditional male protagonist but wanted to branch out and write about a different kind of heroine and tried out her creation in a short story.

“That was the story that killed so many magazines,” the author recalls. Every time she sold it to another publication, hopeful that her clever prose would finally appear, it didn’t. Magazines, struggling in a tough economy, dropped fiction pages or ceased publishing. Wondering if perhaps her character was a bit too outrageous, she kept trying. Eventually the story did run in a small magazine. It featured a tall, red-headed private detective who moonlights as a Boston cab driver, plays volleyball and blues guitar, and is in love with a mysterious businessman. Carlotta Carlyle, the offbeat P.I., may have been a tough sell, but she instantly appealed to readers and became the star of Linda Barnes’ ongoing series of mystery novels. Even when a thread of doubt crept in, the author trusted her instincts and stuck with her idea.

When you’re focused on customer service, does uncertainty change your course of action or are you dedicated to letting your own ideas shine?