Americans are too afraid and stressed to take vacation days, yet we spend more time planning vacations at work than other nationalities, according to a recent survey from TravelZoo.
The Travel Secrets survey polled more than 9,000 adults from five countries to analyze cultural vacation habits. It found that 69 percent of Americans have done vacation research during work hours, which is more than any other nation in the study. But the sad part? While we spend the most of our work days researching trips, we don't actually go on them. 42 percent of Americans didn't take a single vacation day in 2014, according to a poll from Skift.
That's a LOT of planning, and not much actual traveling. Womp, womp.
It's not to say that planning goes to waste. Research shows planning a trip boosts your happiness more than actually being on one. But it's indeed a commentary on the sad state of American vacation culture: we want to travel, but we can't seem to pull ourselves away from our desks long enough to do so.
The good news? Once Americans make it to a vacation, they don't hesitate to live it up. The TravelZoo survey also found that almost one in four Americans has called in sick to work so they could extend a vacation one more day.
Clearly, we need to unplug and unwind.