Surveys and studies galore talk about how stressed out American workers are these days. Some of you reading this fit in the stressed out category. Others just know a half-dozen or so people that are stressed out.
That’s not all that hard to believe. Many of us sit daily in offices packed with people hanging onto their last rope.
Yet — and here’s the shocking part of the whole stressed out thing — a poll from Pew Research Center finds that just 48% of workers in the United States say they use all of their vacation days.
Here’s a list of reasons why:
- Don’t feel they need to — 52%
- Worry they’ll fall behind on work — 49%
- Feel badly about coworkers — 43%
- Might hurt career promotions or prospects — 19%
- Might risk losing their job — 16%
- Boss discourages the use of all time off — 12%
We all hear of the Great Resignation and the push by employees for better benefits, and if they don’t get better, and deeper benefits, they’ll quit and go elsewhere. But, with inflation and huge problems with the economy, employers are now starting to lay more people off, hiring has slowed, and perks and other costs are being cut.
Workplace consultant Christy Pruitt-Haynes of the NeuroLeadership Institute said the reason for current company cuts can be boiled down to it being too hard to see what’s going to happen down the road.
“Throughout the pandemic, we saw a surge of people leaving their jobs because of burnout and stress,” she said. “We have also seen a steady decline in employee engagement.”
In other words, “Vacation time is more important than ever!” Pruitt-Haynes added.
But the real culprit — she said — is fear. “US employees have been conditioned to believe if you aren’t at work, you are lazy or at risk of being replaced,” she said. “We also have been taught that to get more you have to work more, and since we all want more, we tend to prioritize active work over other things in our life.”
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) tracks things like vacation days and days off and said the average number of vacation days for a private-sector employee per year is 15. It goes up to 20 days after a couple of decades on the job. Close to 80% of private-sector employees are given vacation days by their employers.
Source link: Insurance Journal — https://bit.ly/3mJEV1i
