Imagine my surprise when I came across this article today that said 41% of American workers let their paid vacation go to waste! 41 PERCENT!!! That means if they are 100 people at work, 41 of them don’t use all of their PAID vacation time given to them by their companies! As an avid traveler, I feel as though I never have enough vacation time so people failing to use theirs baffle me to no end! I once worked at a company that allowed employees to purchase an additional 40 hours of vacation time. The cost was about $850 to do so but I purchased it each year and used every single hour! Most companies have a “use it or lose it” policy so this means that American workers are giving these companies their money back each year. And guess what? Your boss loves it when you don’t take vacation time because they get the necessary work out of you to get the job done and they don’t have to pay you for NOT being at work. Additionally, they don’t have to pay someone else time and a half to cover your absence when you’ve gone on vacation – GENIUS (them, not you)! You give these companies 40+ hours of your time each week. For God’s sake, take your paid vacation time.
Don’t have money to go somewhere? Who cares? The term “staycation” was created for a reason! Book yourself a nice hotel on hotels.com or through one of the deal websites such as Groupon or Living Social! Spend the day lounging at the pool and having someone else clean up after you. Have a night out on the town and not worry about having to be up early the next day for work. Allow yourself the opportunity to take a physical and mental break from work for more than a couple days at a time. I cannot stress the importance of taking the time to unwind. Your mind, body & soul will thank you for it 🙂
Check out the article at http://tinyurl.com/p8xzdse for some additional insight on the topic. How about you? Do you take all of your paid vacation time from work? If you’re one of those that don’t use their time, why don’t you? Let me know in the comments below. I’d love to hear what others are doing with their time!
Until Next Time,
Q
Q the Cruzan Foodie
Anquanette Gaspard is a food and travel entrepreneur, freelance writer, blogger, and social media influencer, based in St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. Anquanette uses her blog, CruzanFoodie.com, and social platforms to share her experiences in a way that is authentically Caribbean.
AMEN SISTA! I’m constantly SO confused by the amount of people I know that have so many “use or lose” days. What is that?? I do all I can to stay out of the negative(leave balance) because I always need to go somewhere to unwind, at least every few months. Mind you, my current job isnt very stressful at all, but being in the same place 8 hours a day, 5 days a week…I go stir crazy. I need my vacations mehson…San Diego next week! They ain’t keepin my hard earned vacation time/money.
I used to be one of those people. I worked so many hours that I carried over in the new year at least 100 hours of pto time. At some point I realized that I was giving the company so much of me that I started taking ‘staycations’ and called them my mental release days.
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The only good thing that came out of it for me was when I was laid off after 16+ years of service to a company that I truly enjoyed my time with, they paid me for all my unused vacation time. That will probably never occur for me again, so TRUST me this chick is using her PTO time just because I have them to use.
Glad to hear you’ve changed your method of taking your PTO time. You’re extremely blessed to have had a company pay you for that unused time. That is certainly unheard of!
Great piece. I definitely don’t have that problem. I take time to replenish. Even Jesus took time away from healing and helping.
In other countries not only do they pay you to go on vacation, it is mandatory. You have to go because they understand the need for having a happy, well rested employee. I hope people will take the time and enjoy their lives.
Thanks for the reply! I need to move to Europe! You have 4 day work weeks and enough vacation time to keep you sane. One day, one day lol