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Many U.S. Employees Skipping Vacation and Staying at Work

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Each year, numerous employees don’t utilize each of the available vacation days. The more vacation days an employee has, the greater chance, it seems, of that person missing one or more of those days.  According to an article appearing on CNN Money’s website, recent surveys have confirmed that vacation days are getting left behind, and these days are adding up.

A survey by Expedia found that the majority of workers in the U.S. have 14 days of vacation every year but this year has only managed to use 12 of those days. That means that the employees are wasting 226 million days of vacation this year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics clocks the average employee working full-time at an annual salary of more than 39,000 dollars. Keeping that in mind, an excess of 34 billion dollars of vacation time is going right back to the boss.

According to the Expedia survey, many employees choose work over going on vacation because they cannot afford the traveling expenses. Another reason given by participants of the survey is a “lack of planning.”

Jennie Dede, Vice President of recruiting for Adecco, a job placement firm, said, “Now that companies are doing more with less, people have a hard time taking vacation because there’s so much work to do.” However, “most managers believe you should take the time to enjoy your family, enjoy your life and come back refreshed. Vacation is a time to decompress and get your head out of the water.”

Likely due to the current economic state of affairs, a great number of workers avoid vacations in favor of saving money to cut debt. They also may fear losing their jobs if they aren’t impressing employers. Managing director at TD Ameritrade Stuart Rubinstein said, “People feel that they need face time in the office. They worry that being out of the office might make them next on the list.”

A survey by Hotwire found that, on average, U.S. workers are abandoning 6.2 days of vacation days every year. Yet another survey, this one released by JetBlue, put the average at 11 days for this year, which would put the total at over two weeks. JetBlue’s survey additionally found that more than half of employees won’t use all of their vacation days. Furthermore, some employees were worried about asking their bosses for a vacation.

The survey from Expedia listed countries other than America that easily managed to find time for a vacation. The average worker in France was awarded 30 days and used all thirty. British employees is able to use all 25 of their available vacation days, and workers in Brazil and Spain likewise expunged all vacation days. Asian countries were similar to the U.S., with Japanese employees averaging five days out of 11 available.

Clem Bason, president of Hotwire, noted that “too many Americans are getting caught up in their everyday routine and are either forgetting to use their vacation or assuming travel for the remainder of the year is too expensive.”

Many U.S. Employees Skipping Vacation and Staying at Work by
Authored by: Harrison Barnes