Americans aren’t taking a vacation

Americans take fewer days off than their European counterparts: for example fewer than 17 days compared to 30 days in France.

54% of US employees 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 could not be carried over or reimbursed, meaning they were forfeited, costing the equivalent of $66 billion, according to Project Time Off. Although the group is funded by the travel industry, their findings reveal America’s reluctance to take time off.

Why Americans are forfeiting vacation

According to the survey of 7,331 working Americans, almost 60% of US workers who didn’t take their allotted vacation say they fear the amount of work they will have to return to. 46% say they don’t take a vacation because they believe no one else can do their job, or because they want to impress their bosses with their dedication (36%).

Why vacation is important

There is evidence that taking a vacation is good for workers and their productivity, because it restores their energy, improves their outlooks, and gives them a fresh perspective about their work and its meaning. Workers who forfeit vacation time end up with more stress and are less likely to be promoted.

Workplace culture

When workers do not take time off, it is often because their workplace does not encourage it. 81% of managers said vacation boosts morale and reduces burnout but only half of the managers surveyed say their company encourages vacation. Even fewer workers (30%) say they felt it was encouraged by company culture.

The link between happiness and productivity

Eugenio Proto, writing on whether happy workers are more productive, concludes, “The broad message from the link between happiness and productivity is that both positive and negative emotions have a potentially powerful economic effect. Experiments involving close to 800 subjects found that a rise in happiness leads to a marked increase in productivity in a paid piece-rate task.”