Nearly Half Of U.S. Workers Feel Guilty For Planning A Summer Vacation
Everyone needs time to truly recharge.
Vitalii Matokha / Shutterstock Summer’s arrival brings visions of sunshine, ice cream dates, and beach trips.
Kids get a break from school, but adults don’t get the same respite from daily tasks, including their jobs. Yet even when people schedule time away, they can’t seem to escape the pressure their jobs bring.
Summer vacation guilt is very real for nearly half of U.S. workers.
An article in Fortune Magazine highlighted the specifically American sentiment of feeling bad for taking time off of work.
47% of workers reported feeling guilty about going on summer vacation.
53% of adults in the U.S. are planning a break from work as the heat index rises, yet their time off isn’t entirely stress-free.
The majority of vacationers remain haunted by their overflowing inboxes and the Slack messages that they haven’t read, even when they’re sipping margaritas on the beach.
Being constantly connected isn’t always a good thing, especially when the aim of taking time off is to tune out the surrounding noise, at least for a little while.
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63% of people said they feel anxious if they ignore work-related messages while they’re away, and 59% said they have trouble switching their work brains off.
That high level of anxiety has led to a rise in the workcation, which is a word that really shouldn’t exist and actually doesn’t exist anywhere outside of the U.S.
54% of people work on vacation, undermining any relaxation they've allowed themselves.
People gave varying reasons for why they work on vacation, with 34% reporting they do so because they love their jobs, which, honestly, isn’t a very good reason.
No matter how much passion you have for your work or how committed you are to the team, everyone needs time to recharge.
Employees who don’t give themselves space to breathe outside of the workplace are more likely to feel burnt out. It isn’t easy to heal from extreme burnout.
Workers are doing themselves and their co-workers a disservice by not taking a well-deserved break.
Still, 47% of people reported feeling guilty if they don’t work during their vacation. 26% said that their bosses require them to work when they’re technically off the clock, and 29% of people work while they're on vacation because they’re scared they’ll lose their jobs.
Being motivated by fear never reaps the benefits that an overbearing boss might expect. That type of tension creates an unhealthy work environment, upheld by upper management's toxic attitude.
Even in the midst of summer vacations, workers are more anxious than usual due to the stressors of being overworked.
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43% of people reported having increased anxiety from overworking. The negative aspects of work-related anxiety often go beyond mental health to affect people’s physical health, too.
Anxiety can lead to high blood pressure, insomnia, and a general sense of exhaustion, something that taking a true, laptop-free vacation could mitigate against.
In an ideal world, people would feel safe enough on the job to express their concerns about being overworked, and managers would reimagine how they approach mental health issues during the summer and beyond.
Yet the fast-paced, all-or-nothing attitude of corporate culture is so deeply ingrained that it’s hard to imagine those changes being implemented anytime soon.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.