A new national survey of American employees shows that nearly two-thirds of American employees believe they use too much paid time off or vacation, while they actually only used three-quarters of the amount of time off provided by their employers. Jobless showed that employees are less likely to take vacation, even if they're experiencing burnout.
American City Journal reporter Andy Medici joined KMOX to talk about his new article about the rise of burnout coupled with the decrease of vacations.
"Americans have for a long time gotten very used to always being on the job," Medici said. "And even when they're given vacation, a lot of times they feel like they can't use it, whether they feel like their boss won't want them to or they feel guilty about leaving their coworkers, but it's a real problem."
Medici said almost two-thirds of people have canceled a vacation in the past year. He said that Americans probably need to take vacation at this point, because burnout can lead to suffering in the workplace.
"Some people leave their jobs, because they don't feel like they can discuss that with their bosses. So they end up looking for another job," he said. "Sometimes people suffer silently. And it's hard on their mental health. And so Americans haven't really threaded the needle on taking a healthy amount of vacation."
He added that recharge is helpful to employers, because often times people come back from vacation feeling more hopeful about work. He said it's a distinct American problem, because in places like Europe, people have more job protections and don't fear retribution because they took time off.
Listen to the whole conversation from Total Information AM:
