First of all, don’t worry, I’m not on a “real” vacation. I’m on a trip to the beach.
If you aren’t sure of the difference between a vacation and a trip, I’ll refer you to this wonderfully funny blog from 2015.
Some parents will be laughing out loud at this one. When you rent a house and still have to handle meal planning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, and lots of other logistics that come with not being an an all-inclusive resort, it is truly a trip. I don’t mind that this is how we are spending our week. It’s what we planned and what we wanted.
I’m also thankfully still in this honeymoon phase of launching my own business (March 2023) where I truly don’t mind, and actually even enjoy, working each day. Sometimes on the website, sometimes on new client proposals, sometimes with current clients, and sometimes just brainstorming and planning all that’s coming in 2024 and beyond.
That being said, there are many Americans who do not use their allotted vacation days. And my instincts are that those is sales rarely, if ever, actually shut it all down for a week or two, let alone a day or two.
- Only 48% of Americans say they use all of their vacation time
- Most American companies offer 11 paid vacation days a year after one year of service
- This world map graphic shows vacation days by country in all different parts of the world
- 52% of those with PTO say they’ve worked on time off
- In a typical American small business, employees will earn an extra three to four days of paid time off for every five years of service
Okay, this is just scratching the surface. Americans and their vacation days. What a rabbit hole on the internet. I’d much rather be talking about finding your career passion, watching for signs of burnout, supporting each other in our teams so we can take a few days off here and there (or even a few weeks), and feel like the business and our clients are in good hands when we are out.
As I’m clearly on a trip, and I do not plan to take my computer to the beach with me this afternoon, I’ll have to save other thoughts and opinions for other posts.
Later!
(Photo credit Rafael Cisneros Méndez)
