In some industries, especially the financial sector, periodic vacations are required as part of the employment agreement. Periodic, or mandatory, vacations are a security measure. If an individual in a highly sensitive position is doing something dishonest, requiring that person to take 1 or 2 weeks off from work provides time for evidence of dishonesty to surface.

Another benefit of periodic vacations, which isn’t often considered, is that they can reduce the success of social engineers. When an individual holds a high-stress position for a long period of time, that stress can create a sense of burnout or constant crisis. Both of these states of mind are easy for a social engineer to exploit, because they prevent the victim from seeing a situation clearly. To combat this, a required vacation period is sometimes necessary.