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More Than Half of US Workers Didn't Use Up Their Time Off Last Year (qz.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-we-live dept.

An anonymous reader shares an article: Americans, famously, take far less vacation time than their European counterparts: less than 17 days, on average, compared to 30 days in France, for example. But for many Americans, that's apparently all the time they need. More than half of all US employees (54%) didn't use all their days off last year, working a combined total of 662 million more days than required. Of those days, 206 million couldn't be rolled over or cashed out, meaning they were forfeited, costing the equivalent of $66 billion, according to a report (PDF) from Project: Time Off, a group funded by the travel industry. While it's a group with a strong interest in promoting more vacations, their findings are still revealing about America's unhealthy reluctance to take time off. Almost 60% of US workers who don't take their allotted vacation say they fear the amount of work they'll have to return to, according to the survey of 7,331 working Americans. Others (47%) say they stay put because they believe no one else can do their job, or because they want to impress their bosses with their dedication (36%).

12 of 464 comments (clear)

  1. Of Course by segedunum · · Score: 5, Informative

    US workers are absolutely terrified of taking time off lest it gets used against them in a review and they get fired and replaced at a moment's notice. How many people really think anyone at Netflix or elsewhere takes advantage of the ludicrous notion of 'unlimited holidays'? But hey, the American dream........

    1. Re:Of Course by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 5, Informative

      The company I work for frowns on workers who do not take time off. Management puts out on a regular occasion that paid time off is to be used, not stored.

      And there is a legitimate reason management should do this. Perhaps they have studied the science behind this.

      Numerous studies have shown that worker productivity increases with regular time off. The worker who takes 6 weeks of vacation in a year is going to get more done over the course of a year than a worker who takes 2 weeks. They may be out the office for an extra 4 weeks, but productivity increases enough that they get more done total.

      Despite companies in the US resisting to increase vacation time, it's actually in their best interest to do so.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    2. Re:Of Course by QuietLagoon · · Score: 5, Informative

      US workers are absolutely terrified of taking time off lest it gets used against them in a review ...

      My manager told me that I could not use my vacation time so long as there was work to do on the project I was assigned to. It was a three year project;. HR was useless, telling me that I could take the vacation but refusing to tell my manger the same thing. I waited until a lull in the project (another department was the critical path for a while), gave a month's notice, and took a week vacation. A year later, I was included in the layoffs.

    3. Re:Of Course by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Nah, it is probably because paid time off is a liability on the financial books.

    4. Re:Of Course by ganjadude · · Score: 2, Informative

      me too, we are encouraged to use our time and use it often.

      --
      have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
    5. Re:Of Course by mu51c10rd · · Score: 3, Informative

      This is common in companies whose paid time off is a liability on the accounting books. Not everyone knows there are different ways of accounting for paid time off. Beware of companies that gives you all your annual time off up front or in large increments periodically. Those are typically not considered a liability and are not paid off if you leave or are terminated. A place that gives you accruals, means they are accounting for the time and will want their employees using it, not having it balloon on the balance sheet. Basically, any time that PTO is accrued, it is a liability to the company and there is a builtin incentive for management to encourage employees to take time off. That is a good thing.

    6. Re:Of Course by JonnyCalcutta · · Score: 3, Informative

      This doesn't make any sense - unless I'm completely missing your point. US government spending is lower than most countries with more 'socialist' labour laws. Including France, Germany, UK and most of Scandinavia. https://data.oecd.org/gga/gene...

      The worldwide average salary is dragged way down by countries with much worse labour rights than the US (e.g. none), not by those with better labour rights.

  2. Cashing in Time off hours by Danathar · · Score: 4, Informative

    A lot of other people (and myself) have combined leave (sick and vacation) hours. I don't use all my leave because you never know when you might be sick, and if you get laid off it's nice to have some extra money that you get by cashing in your excess PTO hours.

  3. Re:Europe vs. US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    >In Europe, they just tax the wealthy while the six hour work days and bans on checking email outside of work decrease productivity

    Nope. Having worked in both Europe and the US, I can confidently say that the high-performing people are equally productive. In Europe they actually go on holidays and take time with their families too.

    My personal observations have led me to conclude that this american productivity thing is a total myth. It seems to me more about some fucked up 'I work harder than you' competition. When in reality you don't.

    Not to mention the countless studies showing that working too many hours burns you out and decreases productivity in the long run.

    http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/12/working-hours

  4. Re:I wonder how much is from the PTO "benefit" by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Informative

    Fortunately that's not the case (yet) around here. And the very LAST thing I need is a sick person coming to office and infecting the rest of the people here. I made it clear that if you're sick, you stay home and you better not even try to put a foot into the office before it's certain that you won't make the rest stay home for the next week.

    I can do with one person being sick. I can't handle 5 people staying home because someone thought that the world stops revolving if he doesn't "push through". If you're sick, stay the hell away from me and anyone else in the office! If you feel like going to an office, try that of a competitor! ;)

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  5. Re:Europe vs. US by kilfarsnar · · Score: 5, Informative

    Either this post is ironic, or you are so deep in the tank you don't even know there's a tank.

    Not that you could be troubled to even hint at why he's incorrect, and instead lazily attack the messenger.

    No, I indeed could not be troubled. I gain no benefit from futile attempts to disabuse strangers on the Internet of their ignorant beliefs. But, since you bothered to respond, I'll count them down.

    In the US, we reward hard work with promotions and higher salaries.

    This is patently ridiculous. I hope I don't have to demonstrate the myriad examples of hard-working people not being promoted or getting higher salaries. Look at the people who clean your office, or pick your lettuce for examples.

    In Europe, they just tax the wealthy while the six hour work days and bans on checking email outside of work decrease productivity.

    Obviously Europe does more than tax the wealthy, and people work more than 6 hours a day (Yes, Sweden experimented with a 6 hour work day). Slightly reducing productivity (if a ban on after-work email even resulted in that) is not really a huge deal.

    It's hard work versus socialism taxing successful people. One of these leads to a strong economy, the other to massive debt.

    This is quite simplistic, I hope you would agree. Europe has a strong economy and the US has massive debt. I'm not saying Europe is better, or has no debt, or that the US is not hard working or does not have a strong economy. I'm just saying the OP has a very simplistic view of a complex interplay between business, labor, the social contract and the role of the state.

    There's no incentive to be successful in Europe, anyway, because the government will just take your money away with taxes to pay for ridiculous social programs that would be unnecessary if people just had jobs and worked 40 hour weeks.

    Again, this is ridiculous. There are many wealthy Europeans. This idea that taxation keeps people from being productive and building businesses, that they will just sit on their hands because taxes are just too damn high, is not borne out by evidence. The poster also ignores the fact that Capitalism has manifestly failed to provide for the majority of the population. Many people work 40 hours a week and still need social assistance. So the assertion that employing people at 40 hours will eliminate the need for social programs is just plain flat wrong.

    As I said, the post is either sarcastic, or just stupid. I hope it is now more clear as to why.

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  6. Re:Europe vs. US by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Don't forget that's also 510M people Vs 325M people so per capita the US debt is about 2.6 times the EU.