The Find: With the average U.S. worker getting just 8.1 paid vacation days a year, one blogger and author has diagnosed a case of “vacation startvation.”- The Source: The Escape from Corporate America blog.
The Takeaway: With summer upon us, the sun out and the days long, its natural for managers’ thoughts to drift towards lazy days at the beach. But how many Americans are actually getting out of the office this summer? Pamela Skillings, writing for book blog Escape from Corporate America, rounds up some statistics that suggest Americans are suffering from “vacation starvation:”
- American companies are stingy on their vacation allotments — the average US worker gets just 8.1 days a year. In the
EUUK the legal minimum is 28 days a year including public holidays. In Germany employees get to kick back for one whole month- they get 30 vacation days a year. - 25 percent of Americans receive no paid vacation at all and half of those that do get an allotment don’t take the time they’re given. In 2005, that added up to 421 million vacation days.
Skillings argues that this dearth of down time leads to stress and burn-out among American workers and even suggests that failing to take a vacation can increase your risk of heart attacks and depression. Still there’s evidence that Americans might have take some workoholic pleasure in their vacation-less summers (or at least accept the situation). In its State of the American Worker report, the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, found that 54 percent of workers are completely satisfied with the amount of vacation they receive and 27 percent describe themselves as somewhat satisfied. And all these hours in the office may be one reason U.S. workers are the world’s most productive.
For those looking for more global statistics on vacation time, human resources consulting firm Mercer has ranked countries by the amount of vacation time given.
The Question: Is “vacation starvation” an accurate diagnosis and if so, what’s the cure?
(Image of surfers relaxing on the beach by Lili Vieira, CC 2.0)
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