Millennials shamed about taking holiday
According to Allianz Travel Insurance, one in four Americans feel nervous asking for time off work, especially among millennials. This has meant that nearly half of US workers between the ages of 18 and 34 did not take full advantage of the holiday days available to them.
The results were found in Allianz’s eighth annual Allianz Travel Insurance Vacation Confidence Index, which asked US workers whether they took all their vacation time and whether they felt nervous, guilty, afraid or shameful in doing so.
The baby boomer generation, those aged 55 or above, also do not properly take full advantage of their time off, with 42 per cent reporting that not all their holiday days have been used up. Those aged between 35 and 54 are most likely to take all their days, with 64 per cent doing just that.
“Many Americans, millennials in particular, are leaving vacation days on the table which could be the result of vacation shaming – the sense of shame, guilt or other negative feelings received from co-workers for taking a vacation,” said Daniel Durazo, director of communications at Allianz Global Assistance USA. “We were surprised to see that when compared to older generations, millennials more commonly succumb to these negative feelings by choosing not to take all their entitled vacation days. Meanwhile, Gen X’ers place the same amount of importance on vacations, but seem to have the system better figured out because they are the most likely to take all their allotted vacation time.”