Journalists are among the world’s most vacation-deprived demographic

When was the last time you went on vacation? Not just a holiday vacation but the kind where you block off a week to get away from everything, relax, re-align, and disconnect? If you can’t remember, you might have to consider filing one now.

A global survey of 30,000 working adults in 30 countries concluded that journalists, advertising executives, and urbanites belong to the world’s most vacation-deprived demographic.

The survey also showed that millennials receive the least vacation time (66 percent) and are most likely to cut their trips short due to their looming workload. The primary reasons they gave for not taking a time off include money (43 percent), the plan to save vacation days for a longer holiday (30 percent), and not being able to disconnect from work (22 percent).

On a global scale, people from the media and the marketing industry have the highest vacation deprivation levels. The top three most deprived countries are Seoul (85 percent), Mumbai (76 percent), and Paris (70 percent). It’s a surprising one for Paris considering that French workers are entitled to 25 days of paid vacation per year.

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Staying connected keeps millennials from taking a vacation

24 percent of millennials in the U.S. are having a hard time disconnecting from work while they’re on vacation, an increase from 2016’s 20 percent. We wrote an article about why the younger generation can’t stop working even when they’re supposed to. Read it here.

But it’s not only the millennials who are at stake here. Almost half of the people around the world (48 percent) said they had to cancel a vacation because of work.

The debate on mental health

77 percent of Americans believe mental health days should be filed as sick leaves instead of vacation time. Other countries that resonated with the same logic included Norway (90 percent), Canada (77 percent), Australia (77 percent), and New Zealand (77 percent).

However, the same cannot be said for Asia. 80 percent of Taiwanese respondents see mental health days as vacation time. Hopefully, the importance of mental health in all parts of the world can encourage others to view time off as a right and not a “luxury.”

Photos courtesy of Unsplash