It seems like every day there is a story published somewhere about how the American worker has gotten lazy on the job. Well, I can neither confirm nor deny that accusation, but what I can tell you is we certainly don't take our vacation days that we've earned.

A recent Bankrate.com study indicated that over half of American workers will not use all of their earned personal time off this year. The figure, 52%, suggested that most workers "don't have time" to take time off. In fact, the majority of that 52% will leave more than five paid days of personal leave on the table at the end of the year.

Not everyone, but a lot of people do work hard and I think they take their job seriously and I think some people love what they do.

Melissa Elliot is the owner of Express Employment Professionals in Baton Rouge and Covington. She spoke to the Louisiana Radio Network about the phenomenon. The figures for Louisiana workers are slightly above the national average.

Here is the irony of the days off and days not taken off conundrum. Employers value hard working employees. They want those employees to take their time off so they won't become burned out on the job. The irony is that these employees feel very compelled to be at work.

They enjoy their work and it is something that provides them a lot of fulfillment, so maybe time off isn't what they want.

Another factor in time off has to do with when kids are out of school and the family financial situation. A lot of people have trouble taking "staycations" because they're too close to work and will eventually wander back into the office to take care of a situation or get ahead on a project for when they come back to work officially.

 

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