New study reveals 65 percent of working Americans are not using their vacation time

Sixty five percent of working Americans had unused vacation days at the end of 2011, according to a study released by Kelton Research for Radisson Hotels. Of those 1,0000 working Americans who were surveyed, nearly one-third said they do not use their allotted time because their to-do list at work keeps them tethered to their desks. In other words, to much work and not enough play.

Reasons Why Vacation Time Is Not Used The expense of a vacation is too high There are too many things that need to be completed at work There is never a good time to take off for vacation Didn’t have a good reason to take off Playing catch-up after a vacation would be to difficult Enjoys being at work more than on vacation People are fearful to take time off in today’s unstable job market People felt guilty about taking vacation time

While 65 percent of working American’s aren’t using their vacation time, the study did find they would give up something such as lunch breaks for a year to get five more days off. The kicker is, the polled workers had an average of 18.2 vacation days, but had only taken 13.4 by December 2011. Essentially, they would be giving things up for more days off that they would never use.

To Get More Vacation Days People Are Willing To Give Several Things Up: Nearly one in four said they’d give up their next promotion 5% of their salary to get five more days of vacation this year Office-sponsored events (52% of respondents) Favorite beverage (30%) An hour of sleep every day (20%) Listening to music (25%) Lunch breaks (23%)

Are you one of the 65 percent of working American’s who does not use their vacation time? What would you be willing to sacrifice for additional vacation days? And would you use those days?

Elaine N. Schoch has been traveling the world since 2006, sharing her adventures, travel tips, stories and mishaps on CarpeTravel. For more travel news, family travel and the occasional travel rant, visit CarpeTravel.. This article, New study reveals 65 percent of working Americans are not using their vacation time is released under a creative commons attribution license.