It wasn’t long ago that many Americans took vacations and looked forward to them. Summer sojourns were very common — road trips, in particular. Swarms of families would take long driving excursions to the Grand Canyon, the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, and Yosemite.
For whatever reasons, perhaps more economic than anything else, fewer American workers are taking their vacation time. The 2008 Great Recession was nearly a depression and its after-effects lasted for years when the official economic downturn ended. The recession around the year 2001 wasn’t nearly as severe, but having two economic declines in a row didn’t help us Americans feel comfortable in taking time off.
In fact, there has been some research conducted demonstrating that too many American workers are not taking off the time they need to relax and rejuvenate. A survey
conducted by Kimble of 1,200 full-time employees who work for companies offering paid vacation time generated some concerning insights. One was that about 47% had not used their full vacation time last year. Slightly over 20% had more than five days of vacation banked. Some of the reasons for these behaviors identified by the survey were:
-Having too much work to complete to take time off (27%)
-Feeling pressured by an employer or manager not to take time off (19%)
-Fearing there will be too much work after returning (13%)
