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Why Americans don’t take vacations? We hatecoming back to workby Bob Sullivan on June 24, 2014

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Americans have less paid vacation time than workers in most developed economies. Amazingly, 75 percent failto use the sparse amount of vacation time they get. The certain backlog of unanswered emails created by time offmight be to blame.

A new survey conducted by HR firm Randstad hints at one possible reason for this twisted truth — returning from vacation canbe downright painful. A full 77 percent of those who find something difficult about taking vacations said the dreaded first dayback in the office was their main deterrent. Older employees were even more likely to cite first-day-back woes. Workers wereabout half as likely to complain about a work crunch on the last day before vacation, according to Ranstand.

Preparing stand-ins is a big stressor too, the survey found: 43 percent said giving instructions to co-workers orbosses for an absence was a drag.

Eric Buntin, managing director for Randstad US, said it doesn’t have to be that way.

“It’s really a matter of organization and priority setting,” Buntin said. “Many of today’s employees may very wellhave more on their plates than ever before, but the pressure to

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pick up right where you left off before vacation is more timesthan not self-imposed. Unless you have a mandatory deliverableor immovable deadline, your first day back in the office can bequite productive if you use your time wisely.”

The firm then goes on to make the awful suggestion of usingyour last day of vacation to read through the email pile, theslightly less awful suggestion of arriving early on your first dayback to read email; and the unrealistic suggestion of taking yourboss to lunch on that day for a proper catch-up. Who has time forthat while digging out of an email hole?

We already know that a sizable number of US workers (38percent says Harris, 61 percent says another HR firm) read emailwhile on vacation, in part to avoid the email pile. That meansthey’re not really on vacation, a result that Randstad repeated. Inits survey, 22 percent of Generation X full-time employees saidthey were never fully in vacation mode.

It’s not all employers’ fault, however. In some cases, workersfeel a need to be needed, apparently — 14 percent of GenerationY employees said that finding out their absence was not missedwas a difficult part of taking time off for vacation, Randstad said.

You are, hopefully, planning a vacation soon. How will you dealwith the dreaded email pile?

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