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Most workers, lacking time or money, leave vacation days unused
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Tisa Silver-Canady, assistant director of financial education and wellness at the University of Maryland, has several unused vacation days from last year.
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Tisa L. Silver-Canady, who counsels University of Maryland-Baltimore students about loan repayments and runs financial education programs at the school, realized toward the end of last year that she had not used about a third of her vacation time.
Last year, the assistant director of financial education and wellness in the university's office of student financial assistance and education took two brief trips -- one for work, the other a vacation that included a conference related to her job. And two days off to move to a new house.
"I didn't have any huge plans, so I thought, 'Why waste it?' " Ms. Silver-Canady said. "You think about those emergencies and those 'what-ifs,' and something is telling you to hold on just in case."
Breaking away from work to take vacation can be one of the toughest parts of the job for many employees. That's one reason most workers didn't take all the time they had coming last year, according to one survey.
A whopping 70 percent of employees polled by Right Management in November and December said they did not take all the vacation due them in 2012. A survey last year by Expedia showed that Americans earn fewer vacation days than workers in most countries -- 12 days on average -- but leave two unused.
The trend, which became more prevalent during the recession, appears to be spilling over into the recovery.
When companies were laying off people in greater numbers and requiring more of fewer workers, many workers were reluctant or unable to take time off, said Katherine Ponds, a regional vice president and practice leader for Right Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of ManpowerGroup, based in Milwaukee. Ms. Ponds noted that the percentage of employees who failed to take all of their vacation did not decrease from the prior year's survey.
"It appears that more and more people are just simply not placing vacation as a priority, and it does suggest this might become more of the norm," Ms. Ponds said.
The top reasons workers cited for not using vacation were not being able to afford one, wanting to save time for future trips, and having difficulty coordinating time off with family members' schedules, the Expedia survey showed. Others said they feared important work decisions would be made without them or that taking all of their time would be perceived negatively by an employer.
Nothing in Right Management's survey results suggested that managers are discouraging employees from taking vacation, Ms. Ponds said.
Some employers said they offer vacation benefits to give employees time away from the job and encourage them to use it. Some said they allow vacation days to be carried over and banked from year to year, while others have a use-it-or-lose-it policy.
Tom Filippini, CEO of NextGreatPlace Inc., a membership-based online vacation shopping service staffed by travel experts, said several employers in the Denver area recently joined to offer the services to workers who need vacation-planning help.
Employers "are beginning to recognize if employees are not taking vacation, their performance suffers," Mr. Filippini said.
First Published January 26, 2013 12:00 am
