American workers are having trouble relaxing. Even when they go on vacation, many feel guilty about it, according to a new survey.
The poll was conducted by Alamo, the rental car service, which clearly has an interest in encouraging Americans to take more vacations.
It finds that 49 percent of U.S. employees report feeling shamed for taking time off work. Young workers are the most likely to feel guilty about vacation: 68 percent of millennials say they have felt shamed for requesting paid time off.
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Young employees are also more likely to say that the fear of shame can prevent them from going on vacation: 40 percent vs. 17 percent of other employees. They are also more likely to shame their fellow employees for taking vacation: 33 percent vs. 14 percent.
As an apparent result, nearly two-thirds of workers say they feel pressure during vacations to do work.
It's not clear whether millennials will continue feel shame about vacation as they grow older. Their hesitation to take vacation might have more to do with junior employees often feeling they have not yet earned a break from work, or worrying that their contributions to the organization have gone unnoticed.
In line with previous research on the subject, Alamo's survey finds many workers do not take all of their available vacation. Only 47 percent take all of their allotted vacation days and only 18 percent use all of their PTO for actual leisure, rather than running errands or caring for kids.
The U.S. lags badly behind the rest of the industrialized world when it comes to vacation. It is the only developed country that does not legally mandate a certain amount of paid time off for employees.
Every country in the European Union, for instance, requires companies to provide a minimum of 20 days of vacation for full-time workers. In contrast, the average U.S. worker gets only 16 days of vacation and a quarter of Americans get no vacation.
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