As luck would have it, he called me. My vacation was cut short as I made the trek back towards home so I could go back to work.
It’s nice to know you’re needed, right? However…
…it sure is nice to be on vacation. Sigh. The word brings strong emotions: Anticipation, relief, release, joy, adventure; to name a few. And there seems to be a little issue with it. Americans just aren’t big on taking them. Just look here (red shows vacation deprived countries):
Pretty darn mind blowing no? A recent study from Expedia compared vacations characteristics of people on a country basis. Lots of interesting facts can be extracted from the data made available online.
The U.S. average for vacation days available is 14 and the days actually used is 12; a sharp contrast to Brazil, Denmark, France, and Spain where the response was 30 vacations days and ALL days were taken.
The U.S. boasts the highest percentage of workers citing financial concerns as a reason not to vacation; just slightly over one-third stated this. Ireland was a close second.
The data also shows that folks in European countries tend to take more days for a vacation, thus making them lengthier. Hard to leave that beach, huh?
Seasonally, the majority takes a vacation when it’s warm outside.
The data that’s available on-line consists of simple frequencies; it would be great to see cross-tabs, for example showing how much the financial situation affects the number of days vacating. Yes, we know it influences, however, wouldn’t it be nice to know what the break-even point is, especially if you’re a hotel manager, for example? Having that information could help with planning getaway packages.
I'm not complaining about the lack of information published; however I’d love to dig in a little more!
41% of the U.S. respondents stated that they never check their email on vacation. Sure hope they were telling the truth on that one. On the other hand, just over a tenth of respondents in India said never.
An article on Monster.com reveals that most folks (let’s assume they’re referring to the U.S. here) take work with them on vacation. The article further states that less than a forth of those people that work in corporate jobs don’t even take vacations!
Those are some scary statistics.
Simply put, we all need time for play. Call it a recharge if you will. We need time to forget about all those things causing tension that are work related, whether it be the boss, a co-worker who takes credit for everything, work load, or perhaps the work itself.
This is V for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Here's T and U.
The Go-Go's needed a vacation when their second album came out in 1982:
6 comments:
We sooo need time for play!
Yes we do and most of us forget how to do it.
As a result of reading this unbearable news (lol) I have to now decide where I am traveling to next, Brazil or Denmark. What country has the most vacation days per annum?
That is too bad. It looks like the other countries know how to have fun and make sure they do! When I lived in Puerto Rico it seemed like we were taking days off frequently as they honor the U.S. holidays and their own too. Fun, fun, fun!
They were both pretty high I think (the data is there in the article in a link). Denmark is really nice; haven't been to Brazil so can't tell you much there. Enjoy that vacation!
I've been very connected to Sweden over the years and there's an emphasis on quality of life there. The culture is quite different. In the long run, U.S. companies would likely get more production in the long run if we could get a little more R&R!
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