In 2008, Houston janitor Rafaela Gómez took the first paid vacation of her life. “It felt great to finally get a vacation after all these years,” says Rafaela.

Rafaela, a mother of four, has always worked hard, with no break to rejuvenate. “I was a dishwasher in restaurants,” she says. “Then I started having pain in my hands from the extreme temperature changes from cold water to scalding hot water.” When Rafaela finally saw a doctor about her condition, the doctor was surprised she had lasted that long in the job.

For the past 10 years, Rafaela has worked in office cleaning—the last five at 3040 Post Oak Boulevard. In 2008 Rafaela took a week’s paid vacation—which Houston janitors fought for during their historic 4-week strike of 2006.

Vacations are important to not only family life, but also work life. Employees come back to work after vacations with more energy and renewed enthusiasm.

But over the last two decades, Americans have had less and less leisure time as many corporations have demanded more and more of their workers. Employees who are not able to take vacations experience stress, burnout, and reduced productivity. Stress-related ailments—depression, heart disease, or stomach ulcers—are also common.

This year, Rafaela, who is employed by cleaning company Pritchard Industries, completed 5 years on the job—earning the right to take two weeks of vacation. Rafaela decided to take her first week of vacation in the early part of the summer so she could spend time with her 8-year-old son. “Everything went smoothly until I returned to work,” Rafaela says. “Then they told me that my vacation wasn’t authorized and that they would deduct a week’s pay from my next paycheck. I don’t know why they were doing this. In 2008 I took a vacation with no problems and I’ve seen other people in the building take vacations this year without incident.” 

Rafaela has leaned on her union to help solve the problem. But Pritchard refuses to relent. “My supervisor even told me that I need to drop this fight because I might get laid off and that another worker was fired over the same problem,” she says. 

Afraid to take the second week of her vacation, Rafaela is even more afraid she’ll lose her job. She is still raising her 8-year-old and she is hoping that her 18-year-old will soon be in college.