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Comment by adventured | Hacker News Reader

Americans intentionally don't utilize a large number of paid vacation days each year. Work guilt may play a role:

"Americans left 768 million days of paid time off unused last year, according to research released by the U.S. Travel Association. The study found that 55 percent of Americans did not use all of their paid vacation time."

"More than half of U.S. workers ― 54 percent — reported feeling guilty about taking vacation time either sometimes, often or always, according to a survey of more than 2,000 full-time workers in the United States by TurnKey Vacation Rentals."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/travel/2019/08/28/what-does-a...

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> Americans intentionally don't utilize a large number of paid vacation days each year. Work guilt may play a role

It may, but America has relatively weak protections for paid or even merely job-protected medical, family, or other leaves and fairly weak unemployment; accruing vacation balances as a partial substitute is a common strategy; while it may not fully substitute for any of those, it a minimum provides an amount obligated to be cashed out at termination that can buffer the impacts of not having the other protections.

> More than half of U.S. workers ― 54 percent — reported feeling guilty about taking vacation time either sometimes, often or always

But is this “work guilt” or guilt about the impact on personal/family security?

> Americans intentionally don't utilize a large number of paid vacation days each year. Work guilt may play a role

That is a plausible but pessimistic view of the situation. The more optimistic reading is that american workers derive personal pleasure and fulfillment from the work itself. If you are happier working in a fulfilling job than sitting idly on a beach, then it would make sense you wouldn't use all of your vacation days.

Work guilt probably does play a role, as does corporate policies that subtly punish vacation, but I would also bet that some percentage of workers actually enjoy what they do.

> than sitting idly on a beach

Or spending time with family, learning a new skill, going on an adventure.

"Off-time" is not an adversary to great work life, productivity and innovation. Some would even claim the opposite was true.

> "Off-time" is not an adversary to great work life, productivity and innovation. Some would even claim the opposite was true.

I don't disagree, we're not talking about absolutes here. But it's reasonable to consider that, all other things being equal, someone who loves their job may be less inclined to take as many vacation days compared to someone who hates their job.

Advocating for longer vacations, leisure time, and simply being disconnected so folks can develop their interests outside of work are important. However, most people spend most of their non-sleeping life at work. Accordingly, making work itself more fulfilling can often have a far greater impact than simply requiring less of it.

As a manager I do not accept that team members skip PTO. We're not paying for it to be nice, we expect ROI. Happy, healthy people are generally productive, highly cooperative and inventive.

> As a manager I do not accept that team members skip PTO.

Sure, but as a manager, you should probably know that giving people engaging work, with meaningful impact, and significant personal growth opportunities is often a greater motivator than providing additional days off.

You misunderstand. Off-time provides benefits that are almost impossible to achieve in even the best work environment.

* PTO is not about motivation - it's about quality of work output.

I have combined PTO, vacation and sick leave, and like keeping a healthy balance.

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