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July 26, 2013 at 06:01 AM
I sometimes like to use this forum to talk about vacation. Why? Mostly because I really like vacation.
It’s not just about the traveling part of it — though I love visiting new places (and of course, the same places over and over again). I also like the idea of escaping — from work, emails, phone calls (even when they don’t have anything to do with work. Sorry, friends and family.)
I just like putting things on hold and take a breather to focus on, well, me.
After all, vacation makes people healthier and happier.
I’m bringing this up this time because of a sad new survey of Americans regarding how they perceive their vacations.
Harris Interactive found that 61 percent of employed vacationers plan to work during vacation this year, up from 52 percent found in a similar survey in 2012 and 46 the year before that.
And it’s worse for Generation Y (that’s me): 73 percent of respondents aged 18 to 34 said they expect to work during their time off this year.
But there’s more to the problem than working just while on vacation — more employees are working on weekends, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a third of the highest paid workers worked on an average Saturday, Sunday or holiday, for an average of 3.6 hours.
To sum it up — work and busy schedules causes stress which isn’t good for you mentally or physically. And now it’s overflowing into our off-time, which we should use as a chance to unwind and recharge.
Blame technology. Blame our employers. Blame our reluctance to relax. Blame our overwhelming fear of losing our job.
