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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%).

9 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 Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Word. I get a lot of time off, but when I try to use it my boss is always "oh, we don't have coverage (BS), or "you are using it too fast/often" (also BS). Of course it doesn't roll over or get paid out at the end of the year, either.

    2. 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
    3. Re:Of Course by geekmux · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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........

      Companies need to respect vacation. Otherwise, what in the FUCK is the point of issuing it out to every employee? Managers need to respect that their human employees need some time away from the high-stress workplace every now and then.

      And no, I don't agree with companies having a policy of letting you cash out on unused vacation. That's just an excuse to keep you at your job. You need to take some time off every now and then. We ALL do.

      In this particular aspect, the Europeans GET IT. And we Americans have completely lost that concept, to the detriment of our minds, our bodies, and the working society as a whole. FUCK simply dismissing this. American workers need to start demanding that their employers respect the concept of vacation. Taking vacation is not a sign of weakness. It is a sign of sanity and common sense.

    4. 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.

    5. Re:Of Course by garcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I work for a company that offers unlimited vacation. I use it, extensively and, as a leader, I encourage my entire team to use it extensively as well. Last year I took more than 8 weeks of vacation and I'm already expecting 7 this year.

      From the article:

      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%).

      You know what impresses me? People who are refreshed and excited at work, not those who are so self-righteous to believe no one else can do their job (that's total and unadulterated bullshit) or who think I'd be impressed by slogging through half-awake at work.

  2. Re:Europe vs. US by kilfarsnar · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In the US, we reward hard work with promotions and higher salaries. In Europe, they just tax the wealthy while the six hour work days and bans on checking email outside of work decrease productivity. It's hard work versus socialism taxing successful people. One of these leads to a strong economy, the other to massive debt. 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.

    - snruter rotsac

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

    --
    "What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
  3. Americans define themselves by their work. by jellomizer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    (This is a generalization, I don't want to see hundreds of posts stating that they are the exception)
    In general Americans will define themselves on what they do. When meeting a new person, one of the first questions asked is what do they do for a living. We use the answer of this question to help define and place themselves in society. Before you realize how unfair this is, other cultures, will make the same judgments based on family, religion, race, political standing, their dress, their car...
    Being that what we do for work is a key part of our identity, we prefer to spend a good portion in enforcing and strengthening it. While the numbers show the opposite, taking time off, we get the perception that we will be considered lazy, not a team player, and not productive if we take too much vacation. So we usually keep these vacation days, not as vacation but as emergency time off days.
    Also we subconsciously control our work environment so we necessary as an individual to the institution, and poorly sharing your information with other workers. So if you take time off, you get back with a weeks worth of work that you will need to do, being an other intensive to not take time off.
     

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  4. 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)