44% of Brits not taking their full holiday allowance – and why they need to

Overtime is something that inevitably comes hand in hand with some jobs. However, an investigation by tombola shows that 46% of Brits are working unpaid overtime on a regular basis.

A holiday is a chance to break away from the realities of everyday life and get some much-needed relaxation. Yet tombola’s findings revealed that 44% of Brits didn’t use all of their holiday allowance last year. In fact, 23% of Brits ended the year with 5+ days holiday not taken – meaning almost a quarter of Brits worked an extra work week for free.

So what’s causing this situation?

tombola’s research has uncovered the top 6 reasons why UK employees aren’t taking their full holiday allowance.

  1. Too busy at work (38%)
  2. Had nowhere to go (23%)
  3. Don’t need that much holiday (19%)
  4. Enjoy work too much (8%)
  5. Boss doesn’t approve (7%)
  6. Colleagues would feel that they weren’t contributing (5%)

When you consider that UK employees are too busy at work (38%), their bosses aren’t approving their holidays (7%), and peer pressure from colleagues (5%) it shows that 50% of Brits feel too ‘holiday shamed’ to take a break from work.

If that wasn’t bad enough tombola also found that working on holiday is becoming expected of some employees during their much-needed breaks away. 33% of UK workers said that they are contacted by their workplace whilst on holiday, and 44% regularly check their emails on holiday.

See the full research here: https://www.tombola.co.uk/pages/britains-holidays

 

Why Brits Need to Take a Break

Evidence shows that holidays could extend your life, especially longer breaks and should be taken as seriously as following an active lifestyle and a healthy diet.

A recent 40 year-long study found that taking a holiday helped to reduce stress and the longer the holiday, the better. A section of the men involved in the study were given diet and lifestyle advice throughout the 40 years, to help them stay healthy. Yet Professor Timo Strandberg, of the University of Helsinki, Finland, stated

“In our study, men with shorter vacations worked more and slept less than those who took longer vacations. This stressful lifestyle may have overruled any benefit of the diet and lifestyle advice given.”  

Harvard economist Juliet Schor says,

“The pace of work has increased quite dramatically. We are working much faster today than we were in the past. And that contributes to our sense of being overworked and frenzied and harried and stressed out and burned out by our jobs.”  

About Lisa Baker, Editor, Wellbeing News 4212 Articles
Editor Lisa Baker is passionate about the benefits of a holistic approach to healing. Lisa is a qualified Vibrational Therapist and has qualifications in Auricular Therapy, Massage, Kinesiology, Crystal Healing, Seichem and is a Reiki Master.