Best days request time off.

• Position: YOUR LIFE - Brief article

Take vacations around the winter holidays, not during the summer. That is the message conveyed by 61% of employers--CEOs, CFOs, executives, and small business owners--in a study by MissTravel.com, a Los Angeles, Calif.-based travel-dating website. Employers disapprove of their employees taking time off in the summer season because it translates as lacking sincerity in the workplace. Many feel spring and summer breaks should be limited to children and college students.

The study found that employers thought better of employees who worked longer during the summer, but took time off during the winter holidays; many admit to basing the end-of-the-year bonuses on performance prior to November.

"Summer creates excitement. The thought of escaping to the beach or reuniting with old friends often blinds the most lousiness savvy or tenacious employee, who has been run down by the long winter...