American Workers Forfeit $272 Billion Worth of Time Off

NBC News ^ | Oct 14 2016, 7:44 AM ET | Martha C. White

[Olog-hai]

American workers collectively leave $272 billion worth of vacation time on the table, according to a new study — and it’s a drag on worker productivity as well as companies’ balance sheets.

“There are no winners when people don’t take time off,” said Katie Denis, senior director of Project: Time Off, a travel industry group that explores how people use (or don’t use) their vacation time.

A new Project: Time Off report says that employees in the private sector left a total of 658 million vacation days on the table in 2015, and previous research the group has conducted found that 55 percent of employees leave behind at least some of their vacation allowance at the end of the year. A 2014 Glassdoor.com survey put the percentage even higher, at about three in four.

Experts say there are a few culprits for our vacation-avoiding tendencies, including our always-connected devotion to electronic devices, lingering job insecurity held over from the Great Recession, and managers not cultivating a corporate culture where taking time off is the norm. …

[Chode]

everyplace i've worked the other people in the department covered for those on vacation etc

that or hired a temp for when girls went out for being pregnant

those with unused time at the end of the year got paid for their unused days off if rolling it over to the next year wasn't allowed

but i do get your point

[tbw2]

For many employers, the use it or lose it policy kicks in when they realize the financial liability of it piling up. “You leave and get six months of unpaid vacation when you leave?” Then it gets changed to two months carryover max, then one month, etc.

[Mr. Jeeves]

I guess it’s all of those evil small business owners, stealing from their employees again. We had better tax them more, in the interest of fundamental fairness. :)

[tbw2]

Reasons they don’t take it:
* it is sick time and you don’t meet the threshold
* take too much paid time off of any type, get a bad review and put on the next list for cuts - especially true if the company is pushing overtime on people
* employer has teams down to minimum headcount, and if you take time off beyond two or three days, work is severely disrupted - so you risk a bad reputation for taking much time off
* rules for permission to take vacations mean you can get a Friday before a three day weekend off but not a whole week elsewhere, so you can’t use all the PTO
* if you use a month of PTO and it isn’t maternity leave or another medical reason, the employer learns how they can do without you and has someone likely trained now in HOW to do your job ... and they can replace you

[jcon40]

Sounds like a good place to work

[tbw2]

The ones I hate are the days off / holidays with demands for interruptions.
“You can have the day off, but check X every 15 minutes (IT monitoring) and fix if necessary - that’s full pay for that time.”
“Check in on X for an hour on Sunday. You get paid for that hour. If you have to fix it, full pay for that time to fix it.”
Management didn’t understand how demands for weekend and evening activities interrupted personal life and limited options. Yes, I could be home with the children those days within reason, but you can’t GO anywhere.

[Greenpees]

I’m short by $50k, but I’ve only got a 2yr degree, so...