Summer—traditionally a time when workers schedule time off and plan trips to exotic or relaxing locales—may have entered a new era. It’s an era of contradictions: As some studies show workers value generous paid time off policies, others indicate that employees are increasingly willing to leave their hard-earned time off on the table. 
Some workers feel too busy to take off, others just don’t want to break away and possibly miss something important. But a recent study identifies another reason people give up the chance to rest and recharge—“vacation shaming.”
Alamo Rent A Car released its 2016 vacation survey this spring examining American attitudes and behaviors related to vacation, and the survey found that vacation shaming—the practice of making coworkers feel a sense of shame or guilt for taking vacation—has become prevalent, especially among millennials.
The study shows 59 percent of the millennials polled reported feeling a sense of shame for taking or planning a vacation compared to just 41 percent of those 35 or older. Also, millennials are the ones most likely to shame their coworkers, according to the study.
Millennial effects
Those findings are a bit surprising to Jimmy Daniel, talent management strategist at human resources consulting firm F&H Solutions Group. His work has given him the chance to study work habits and attitudes of young workers, and he says millennials value flexibility and freedom, so if shaming is going on, they’re going against what they believe in.
One explanation may be that young workers love collaboration. “These millennials, they like to sit down in a room and make decisions together,” Daniel says, so they may fear missing out on the action if they take time off.
Daniels cautions leaders about discouraging people from taking time off since workers benefit from disconnecting periodically. A leader in an organization where vacation shaming is going on “can gain tons of motivation” by encouraging people to take vacation, Daniel says. Bosses should be excited about workers’ vacations and tell them to have a good time.
Sometimes bosses don’t look happy when employees talk about vacations they have planned. That reaction can make employees feel like they’re letting the boss down by taking time off. They also may think they’ll hurt their relationship with the boss if they take time off. “But how long is that relationship going to last anyway?” Daniel says. “Sooner or later, that’s all going to come tumbling down.”
Daniel expects the attitude that leads employees to forfeit time off to change eventually because millennials value their freedom so much. Also, a shaming culture is an “awful culture to develop,” he says.
Millennials will leave an organization if they don’t feel valued, unlike those in the baby boomer generation who are accustomed to staying with an employer for a long time, Daniel says, adding that leaders who allow vacation shaming are “going to drive their workforce away sooner rather than later.”
Era of “vacation depravation”?
The U.S. Travel Association, an organization of travel-related businesses with a mission to increase travel to and within the United States, has launched Project: Time Off, an initiative whose research shows that what it calls the nation’s vacation deprivation era isn’t over and may be getting worse.
“The way Americans work has irreversibly changed,” the Project’s 2015 report on vacation time states. “We are connected like never before to each other and to the office.”
Project: Time Off reports that 55 percent of Americans didn’t use all of their vacation in 2015. Why are so many workers giving up so much time? The Project’s findings say fear of returning to a mountain of work is the top reason, followed by having a job no one else can do, and not being able to afford a vacation.
Indispensability syndrome
Sometimes people forgo vacation because they consider themselves indispensable. James R. Bailey, a professor at the George Washington University School of Business, wrote a post on the July 1 PostEverything feature of The Washington Post in which he urges people to guard against the “indispensability syndrome,” which he defines as “a fallacious emotional urge rooted deep in our desire to be wanted and needed.”
Bailey concedes that “humankind didn’t progress via sloth,” so it’s important for people to work hard and develop strong work relationships. “But why don’t we apply the same thinking to our families?” he asks. “What makes us think our colleagues can’t function without us, but our families can?”