According to Project: TimeOff, a survey they conducted in 2018 shows 55% of Americans did not utilize all of their FREE vacation time! When you do the math, that’s about 658 million vacation days that went untouched! To make matters worse, 222 million days of those vacation days won’t even roll over into the upcoming year, nor will they be reimbursed for the time in the form of money. People are literally giving away one third of their vacation time. Literally, employees are throwing away their Paid Time Off benefit, and working when they don’t have to.
The survey results suggest that Americans have a number of reasons why they are forfeiting their paid time off. 40% of the employees agreed it was because they were afraid of the amount of work that would pile up in their absence. While 35% of surveyors believe no one else can do their job while they’re off. The other 33% simply could not afford to go on vacation, so they would rather work than be idle at home.
While researching further, it became apparent that this is not a global issue. In fact, most Europeans do not sacrifice their vacation time because they see it more as a right. Not only do they not forfeit their time, but they also work less hours than Americans, and view the Paid Time Off benefit as a right. The economist writer Robert Samuelson believes the American culture embraces the “work martyr.” They fear leaving their work with their fellow coworkers as they believe they won’t be able to do the job as efficient as them, or they could possibly be replaced by someone else in the office. Having access to more advanced technology and different ways to stay connected, employees are constantly checking in on the workload even while they’re on vacation.
The majority of employers in the U.S. offer the Paid Time Off as a benefit, according to the Society of Human Resource Managers. Since the early 2000s the number of days taken for vacation has dropped from approximately 20 days per year to 16 days per year. This is particularly interesting because of the many ways we have to communicate with Managers while in or out of the office. Regardless of the many avenues your employer has setup for you to complete work-related tasks while outside of the office, please remember that your sanity is most important and when you can get an authorized break from the job, do just that, BREAK FROM THE JOB.
