Add to the pressure of e-mails and 24/7 operations management pressure to stay on the job, including this statement I actually heard from my own manager:

"If I can do without you for two weeks,I can do without you forever."

Try thinking about a vacation in that atmosphere.

Corporate America has definitely become insane in the last two decades.

There is no effective management, and the managers pass on this inability to set and maintain deadlines on to their workers. They want 24/7 access for every last minute contingency, but are only willing to pay you for 8/5 of that time.

That's ridiculous and is also completely untrue. Your manager is a moron, and I wonder how such a person got to be a manager in the first place. It is true that ultimately we can ALL be replaced, our delusions of indispensability notwithstanding. However, the costs of letting you go & replacing you with another employee (and I'm assuming that you would have to be replaced) are much greater than any cost that would be imposed by you taking a vacation.

If your job is truly so useless that your position would not be missed, then your manager is right. Otherwise, he/she is completely full of crap.

Re: "That's ridiculous and is also completely untrue. Your manager is a moron, and I wonder how such a person got to be a manager in the first place"

He is (was actually).

However he got to be a manager by "getting results" at the lowest possible costs. And he considered replacemt costs to be zero since he just spread the work around to others, still demanding the same results, and threatening to fire anyone who did not "produce".

He did less well in the booming 90's when his employees had someplace to go, and lots of us did. However in the 80's he made it up to VP/General Manager of our division by his "results". And, with rising unemployment rates now, he is likely doing very well again.

Fear is a potent weapon, whether you are shouting "9/11", or "I'll fire you". And to believe that it is not being exploited is to ignore the facts of current American Society.

Sadly, I suspect there are many managerial-types today who don't see that it is far more efficient, and less expensive, to make sacrifices or appreciate the quality workers they already have, than to pick up and train someone new.

At least, that has been my experience. I work in a salaried position where my employers constantly require more production than is possible. If you are working 50 hours, they'd rather have 60. If you are working 60, they will tell you all about how, in your position, they would be working 70.

Ultimately, the only real reward/sense of satisfaction must come from within. If I can feel good about the work I do, that has to be enough. Typically it is. My employer's requirements are laughable. If I have vacation time available, I use all of it. Some people might see that they are replaceable (they make it pretty clear, at least where I work), but I believe it they wish to replace me, I can certainly find another job where I am underappreciated.

I like what I do, but I don't love how my company does it.