If you take a vacation, your prospects of climbing up the corporate ladder aren’t very probable…or are they? According to a research initiative known as Project: Time Off, those who used up all their vacation time had a better chance of promotion or pay raise than those who had leftover free time.

The study also found that Americans are taking less vacation time than they have in forty years because of the notion that being absent from the office is detrimental to your career. However, Project: Time Off is proving this fear wrong. As Shawn Achor of the Harvard Business Review puts it, “To be truly engaged at work, your brain needs periodic breaks to gain fresh perspective and energy.”

Achor says that a vacation is more positive than one would think as it improves productivity, which will be noticed by your boss. Moreover, he points out that if you earn a salary, a vacation is part of the deal. Not taking advantage is equivalent to a pay cut in his book.

So don’t be afraid to take off. Book those tickets, hotels, and jet skis because you may be in for some good career-related news.

Info-graphic courtesy of Project Time Off