Glassdoor Vacation Survey

The word “vacation” seems to be losing a lot of its meaning. A new survey by the on-line “career community” Glassdoor suggest that a huge percentage of American workers are not taking the paid time off they are entitled to. Glassdoor’s Scott Dobroski says that the average employee only uses half of their vacation time, and plenty keep working while on vacation.  “Six in ten employees say that they have worked while on vacation, so employees are definitely not disconnecting from work, the way they used to.” Almost half of the employees surveyed said they do not use their paid time off each year, adds Dobroski. “The number of employees who are taking 25% or less of their vacation that is actually 40% of employees, so this is really showing that employees really need to focus on disconnecting and using their PTO.” Dobroski says that family members have actually had to tell some employees to stop working while on vacation. “You’re on the beach, your enjoying the ski slopes and you’re on your mobile device working and so one in ten employees have actually had a family member say ‘stop it, put that down, you are working and you are not supposed to be.’” Fear is the greatest motivator to keep working while on vacation, says Dobroski. “Many of them are sitting fear that they will get behind, fear that they will feel like they are disconnected, fear on loosing their job and fear of not meeting their goals.” The survey found that 15% of employees said they took no vacation time at all last year. Three in five employees who took time off admitted to working at least some while on vacation, and one in ten said they used their time off to interview for another job.