Americans still don’t take enough vacation

As the summer travel season approaches, it might be a good time to nudge workers about using their PTO.

The rise of remote work may have made it easier for some workers to skip town for a bit, but most travelers still feel “vacation deprived,” according to travel fare aggregation platform Expedia’s annual study, released last month.

Melanie Fish, Expedia’s head of global PR, described vacation deprivation as the “physical, mental, and emotional condition” that results from not taking enough—or feeling like you’ve not taken enough—vacation.

Well, of course, Expedia wants us to feel less vacation deprived, so we (cough) use Expedia to book some more trips, but the report still sheds light on some interesting trends. Also, we like vacations.

Sixty-three percent of US respondents reported feeling vacation deprived, up from last year, according to Expedia, which surveyed more than 14,500 people globally between February 9 and March 3 and found that vacation deprivation overall is at a 10-year high. They cited financial challenges such as inflation, staffing shortages, and busy schedules as impediments to taking adequate time off.

Respondents in the US took less time off than those in any other country, logging 11 annual vacation days on average in 2022, 8.5 days less than the global average.

Mixing work and pleasure.

Those determined travelers may well be mixing work and vacation if their employers’ policies allow for it.

Travel industry analysts have pointed to the rise of “bleisure,” or the practice of mixing business and leisure travel, as a downstream effect of flexible work arrangements born out of the Covid-19 pandemic. Nearly one-quarter of full-time US employees told analytics firm Qualtrics last year that they devote three or more hours a day to work while on vacation.

Companies are also starting to plan “workations,” HR Brew reported last month, giving employees the opportunity to gather in more exciting locales, but for work.

“There’s value to employees being able to experience other cities and countries, and also being able to collaborate with colleagues that they might not see on a regular basis and in person,” Lisa Sholkin told HR Brew, VP of people at Teampay, an expense platform, which has organized workcations in Mexico City and Panama City.

Giving time off when it’s due. Even as it’s becoming easier to work and travel, true vacations still have benefits, and research has shown employees need to unplug for over a week to see them.

If it seems employees aren’t taking enough time to recharge, reviewing PTO policies might be a good idea. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of Americans said they’d like to see their company improve its time off policies, according to Expedia. Workers with “unlimited” time off took an additional 3.5 days off in 2022 compared to the national US average. While research has suggested employees take less vacation under more lenient policies, this is changing, according to HR software company Namely, which published a study last year that found workers with unlimited PTO now take slightly more time off than those on traditional plans.—CV