Less Vacation Equals Less Balance

By David B. Bohl | April 26, 2007 | One Response

Why don’t workers use their established vacation times? Fear accounts for it. Read what Market Watch had to say.

According to a Hudson Highland Group survey, many workers don’t make use of their established vacation times. The report found the following:

56% of employees do not use all of their vacation days (30% of those use less than 1/2 of their days).

20% of workers only plan on getting away for long weekends this year instead of taking a full vacation.

30% of employees called in sick when they were not actually ill to “play hooky.”

What accounts for this? In a word: FEAR.According to MarketWatch: “Employers can afford to be more magnanimous with time off than other benefits because generally work is just shuffled off on someone else as it is on you when someone else is off. This is productivity. But there is also a big Fear Factor in play here. Employees don’t take the time they’re due because they are scared of what they might find when they get back - like their career prospects in shambles or even their job gone.”

In this increasingly-competitive world, if one is afraid of keeping up with his co-workers and being compared to them - when it comes to being considered for a raise or a promotion, not being considered a team player, or, worse, being viewed as someone who puts personal time ahead of work - this study seems to illustrate that vacation time is one thing that is sacrificed to show he boss that one is “company-focused” above all things.