Majority Of U.S. Workers Leave Vacation On The Table: Report

American workers, we’re speaking to you. You’re not trying hard enough and are failing miserably in one area: You’re not taking enough vacation. And, in many cases, your bosses want you to stop that. If you don’t, you’re cheating not only yourself, but also America, according to a new report that shows U.S. workers left 705 million vacation days on the table in 2017.

Of those unused vacation days, 212 million days did not roll over to the next benefit year and were sacrificed, resulting in $62 billion in lost benefits, Project: Time Off, an initiative of the U.S. Travel Association, said in its 2018 State of American Vacation report.

The report says that if Americans took all the time they’re due, the nation’s travel industry would get a $236 billion boost. Workers could see more of the United States and the world, and they’d be happier and more productive workers, the study said.

Though 52 percent of U.S. workers didn’t take all of their vacation last year, the trend is improving. That’s 2 percent better than in 2016, and 3 percent better than in 2015. Still, the study showed the average American worker takes only 17.2 days of vacation a year, much less than the average of 20.3 days they took from 1978-2000.

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Michael Steinitz, who has a global role as the head of staffing firm Accountemps, a Robert Half division, told Patch that the United States stands out among other developed countries for workers’ failure to take all of their paid time off.

“Historically, you do see in the United States a mentality where people do take less of their vacation,” said Steinitz, who wasn't involved in the Project: Time Off study. “In Europe they take their vacation time and it’s well understood that when they’re on holiday, they’re on holiday. It’s certainly different culturally.”

So, why aren’t American workers using all the vacation they’re due?

One reason is that employers have become more generous with benefits and workers simply accumulate more paid time off, according to the results a Jan. 4-23 online survey of 4,349 American workers 18 years and older.

The more telling reason is workers’ fear they will be seen by their bosses as replaceable, a reason cited by 61 percent of respondents. But they may want to rethink that, according to the study, which showed that 88 percent of managers said employees who plan out their vacations are being responsible. Among those managers, 85 percent said they are making it easier for their staffs to take their vacation.

Project: Time Off said in its Power of Planning report that 91 percent of managers want to approve vacations, but 43 percent said they aren’t always able to do that because employees don’t give enough notice.

“If it’s well planned, it will actually make you more productive and companies recognize that,” Steinitz said.

Among survey respondents, more than half — 56 percent — said their workloads are too heavy and there’s no one to do their jobs when they’re absent. There’s a price for that, too, burn-out being one the main ones, Steinitz said.

In some cases, that translates to an inability to delegate responsibilities or “a desire for control that will hurt them in the long run,” Steinitz said. “For any business professional, a skill they need is to be able to delegate.”

The study also noted a rise in the “workcation,” where people work remotely from another location. The report noted some have a desire to travel elsewhere, but don’t want to lose their vacation days. For others, it’s “work martyrdom.”

There are some generational differences: 39 percent of millennials and 28 percent of Generation X workers are interested in traveling to other destinations while they work, compared with 18 percent of Baby Boomers.

The appeal of workcations among younger workers could reflect that they’re just beginning their careers and may not have earned as much vacation as Boomers, the report said, or it could be the start of a trend.

In some cases,workers just don’t completely unplug during their scheduled vacations, a byproduct of technology, Steinitz said.

“People are still checking in during that vacation,” he said. “Some people will literally say, ‘I’m gone for a week and I’m not checking on anything,’ but if a person has a hard time unplugging, what we recommend is setting boundaries, and checking in at only certain times in the course of the week.”

One of the barriers to taking vacation cited by respondents to the Project: Time Off survey was the cost of travel. Of the 17.2 vacation days they took on average in 2017, only eight were spent traveling — despite 84 percent saying it was important for them to get away somewhere else during their vacations.

But the “mega travelers,” those who use all or most of their vacations to travel, report more ebullience overall. Among them, 57 percent reported happiness with their jobs and 79 percent said they were happy in their personal relationships.

The biggest difference noted between mega travelers and homebodies was in happiness with physical health and overall well-being, 61 percent for the first group, compared with only 39 percent for the second group.

The mega travelers may also be more successful on the job, according to the report. They reported a higher likelihood of receiving raises, bonuses or both than homebodies. Those employees who reported using little or no of their vacation time were 5 percentage points less likely than the mega travelers to receive those benefits.

It’s not that American workers don’t want to travel more. Among those surveyed, 86 percent said they hadn’t seen enough of America.

Let’s do better, shall we?

Photo via Shutterstock / NadyaEugene