Why aren't Americans taking PTO?

Welcome Back!

If you haven’t yet, check out my piece on the value of being a generalist in the era of Generative AI.

This week, I’m taking a lighter approach and talking about vacation. It’s Summer, everyone’s a bit slower, and I just returned from a stint of beach time that changed my perspective on it.

Enjoy!

-Welty

Wow… a beach vacation… how revolutionary…

Is probably what you’re thinking, and that’s fair. Aside from being lucky enough to be able to take a beach vacation with my loved ones, there’s nothing crazy about some time at the beach. However, a recent Pew Research Center study found that 46% of US employees take less PTO than they are allocated, which leads me to believe it’s more revolutionary than it should be. In fact, I fall into this category of taking less PTO than I am able to. Let’s dig into why I and many other Americans do this, and my change in perspective on the matter.

Why aren’t more people taking PTO?

In looking at the chart from Pew (Figure 1), I find it hard to believe the 52% claiming they don’t need to take more time off really don’t fall into another category within the results. Logically, this many individuals claiming they do not need more time off is surprising. The time off is paid, so there’s no income to be lost. Additionally, businesses in the United States tend to give fewer vacation days than most other Western countries, so the amount of time is already scarce. Given this, I view this statistic as a proxy for the cultural context of being an American worker. As Americans, we embody a strong culture of prioritizing work over most other aspects of life. In fact, some studies find that Americans work 25% more than Europeans (Source). It would then follow that a relatively limited amount of time off feels like “enough” to many American workers.

Additionally, the majority of respondents cited worries of falling behind, and guilt over passing off work to their colleagues during their time off. I believe there is also cultural context in this line of thinking, especially given the United States is a rigidly individualistic society. From the national myth of the American Dream, to Capitalism’s focus on individual ownership, to our laws about the right to defend yourself with violent force with firearms, our society prioritizes the individual. This is particularly obvious if you’ve spent time traveling to other more collectivist societies like those in Europe or Asia, where necessities like health care are included for all, and public transportation is more readily available. These are just a few anecdotal examples, but many sociological studies have been conducted on the higher level of collective societies across Europe and Asia. Personally, I have fallen into a similar pattern of thinking that I do not need much time off, and that if I took a break, my colleagues would be let down or upset. Recently, though, I believe my perspective has changed for the better.

How has my perspective changed?

At Assemble, I’ve been the busiest and most excited so far in my career. I have a great team, great customers, and an exciting mission to collectively work toward. However, the performance expectations of me are higher (well, I’m at least setting my personal expectations higher😉), and as a result I find it harder than ever to “turn off” my brain and disconnect from work. Overall this is a good thing since I enjoy thinking about work, but sometimes it’s difficult to be in the present moment in other aspects of my life. Given this tendency of mine, I historically have not taken PTO much longer than a couple of days. Recently, though, I took a slightly longer stint of PTO and it genuinely surprised me how great I felt about work coming back from it.

I felt I gained even more energy, became even more excited about my work and our mission, and my gratefulness for the positive things in my life increased. I think a large part of this is that I am lucky to derive energy from work and to be working toward a mission I genuinely believe in. I realize that not everyone who works is lucky enough to feel this way. But, this was the first time I truly understood the value of a break. It is not shameful to step away for a moment. My team will be fine, and I will be fine.

Moving forward, I hope to feel more comfortable taking PTO. It’s a healthy part of maintaining a work-life balance, and genuinely improves my performance. I hope that any of you who struggle with this feeling too can begin to feel more comfortable on your time off. You will thank yourself, and if you have a supportive team around you, they’ll be happy too!

Have additional thoughts? Connect with me on Twitter and let’s chat about it! Make sure to share with your friends too if you enjoyed.