As the summer vacation season comes to a close, a large share of Americans reported not taking vacation time, often due to the high costs if travel.
According to a new survey conducted by Eagle Hill Consulting, 42% of American workers said they have not taken a vacation during the last 12 months ”“ and that number was higher among younger workers (50%) and lower income employees (56%).
Among those polled, the biggest obstacles that prevented their taking a vacation was the expense (47%), a self-imposed pressure to stay on top of work (31%), a heavy workload (27%), no paid time off from their job (25%) and no colleagues available to cover their workload (25%).
Sadly, many of these people could use a vacation ”“ 49% of the survey respondents said they are feeling burnout at work. And as for those who are able to get away, 28% said they check work email and messages while they are supposed to be taking time off and 6% said they continue to work during vacation.
“Employees really need time to disconnect from work, especially as we continue to see high burnout levels across the U.S. workforce,” said Melissa Jezior, president and CEO of Eagle Hill Consulting. “And ideally, employees should fully disengage from work rather than constantly checking email and responding to messages.”
The findings are based up a survey of 1,000 adults conducted from Aug. 11-16.
