More employers are offering workers time to chill in summer

Summertime and the living is easy — unless you’re stuck in an overly-air-conditioned office for eight hours each day getting bombarded with Instagram posts featuring colleagues lounging in the Hamptons or catching waves with their kids at the Jersey Shore

“I need more time off,” you want to scream. And while many employers offer an average of 10 to 19 days paid vacation, for most employees, that’s not enough.

A recent survey conducted by MetLife reveals that among emerging benefits such as wellness programs, paid sabbaticals or onsite free services, more time off ranks top of the wish list.

A survey of 115,000 employees conducted by Harvard Business School assistant professor Ashley Whillans also found that providing intangible non-cash benefits, like flexible work options or the ability to choose assignments, led to much stronger job satisfaction than straightforward cash.

The consultants who offer advice to employers are bringing it to their attention.

“Work is getting more flexible, and employers need to meet their employees where they want to be,” says Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, who specializes in human capital management. “This is becoming more urgent as the United States inches towards full employment and talent is ever harder to find.”

Forty-six percent of companies already offer summer Fridays, where, between Memorial Day and Labor Day workers take half days or even full days off. But some employers have taken this further.

LinkedIn’s New York offices now completely shut down during the week of July 4. It’s time that is especially valuable to working parents.

“The summer is a challenging balance because school stops but work doesn’t. Kids don’t understand that Mommy and Daddy don’t have summer break also,” says Courtney Pomerantz, a senior enterprise account executive at LinkedIn. As the mother of two young children, she uses time during the shutdown “to be fully present with my kids. I try not to stress about bedtime or rush to go anywhere.”

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Jennifer Ventrone, a senior manager at Ernst & Young and also a mother of two, echoes her sentiment.

“It was nice to know that there were no expectations for me to work or check e-mails,” she says of her summer time off. “The break gave me the opportunity to spend quality time with my two young sons, and we were able to visit the zoo, beach and water parks.”

But summer perks aren’t only about families. Some companies offer paid days to employees to volunteer in their communities. Unilever in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, has two events on its calendar — a beach cleanup in Asbury Park, NJ, and a tree-planting day.

Justworks, a rapidly growing human resources technology firm based in Chelsea, kicked off this year’s warm-weather season in the beginning of June with “Work From Anywhere Week.”

“It’s not vacation, it’s about getting a change of scenery [while you continue to do your job],” says Elliot Stephenson, a content marketing and public relations manager at the company.

And that is precisely what most of Justworks’ 457 employees did. Collectively, they traveled to 18 countries over four continents — including Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Israel and South Korea, among others. Most set up shop with laptops and phones in makeshift offices.

Stephanie Sudano, a product marketing manager at Justworks, chose Cartagena, in Colombia as her Work From Anywhere Week destination.

“It’s a 5-hour direct flight from New York, there’s a one-hour time difference and Wi-Fi is available,” says the Upper West Sider.

Plus, that’s where her co-worker Laïla Zouaki, a product manager at the company, was going. Once the two arrived, they scouted coffee shops so that they could find high-quality Wi-Fi for their Zoom video meetings. And while the women worked their regular hours, they spent the remaining time exploring the city, meeting locals and people-watching.

Co-worker Moses Balian, an HR consultant, high-tailed it to Portland, Ore., where there is a three-hour time difference (so office hours end at 3 p.m. local time) and the summer sun doesn’t set until nine.

“That gave us plenty of daylight to see things like the International Rose Test Garden and to spend time out-of-doors,” says Balian.

But some Justworks employees chose to work from home, allowing them to dart out the door to be present for their children’s activities. Camilla Velasquez, the company’s senior vice president of marketing, took the opportunity to attend her 6 ½-year-old’s final “School of Rock” concert rehearsal at the Gowanus Music Club.

Many Justworks employees posted pictures on social media. Velasquez thinks she spotted the company CEO Isaac Oates on a zip line in Ecuador.

And that’s something CEOs can probably get away with — but everyone else should probably think twice before posting on social media.