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New and traditional ways of exploring the globe, and your own backyard.

Monday, August 12, 2013

Why Don't Americans Take More Vacation Time?

This man's article covers an interesting topic - one that is probably more complex than you'd think which makes it hard to answer.

Why don't Americans take more vacations?

Google the topic and a bunch pops up:
~ that we should take more vacation since it improves productivity at work.
~ that in the current economic times we, Americans, are scared to take vacations for fear of seeming like we're not doing our job to the fullest.
~ that we get very few vacation days - compared with other countries - and yet we still don't use them all (we gave up $67 billion worth of vacation days in 2010 and, meanswhile, workers in France got 37 vacation days last year and used 35 of them while the average worker in Great Britain received 28 vacation days and took 25, according to Expedia)



And then  there's the financial aspects with many people believing they do not have enough money to take a trip. I guess that comes down to priorities and values of differing countries. Americans don't prioritize time away from work. In fact, our capitalist ideals promote being at work. And when we do get time off it is spent with friends and family - just like any other country - but we're OK with spending that time on a staycation (I still hate that word).

On top of all this, some people in some parts of the world aren't the biggest fans of Americans which adds one more fun glitch in the formula of travel.

It's a conundrum.

Will this ever change? Maybe. I run into people all the time who say they love to travel. I even had an American friend who took a honeymoon that lasted more than a month, consecutively. But, then again, that friend does live and work in Australia.

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