British Airways Holidays recently published a study examining how British and U.S. employees use their vacation days and how time off impacts overall wellbeing.
The study found that roughly 40 percent of full-time employees in the U.K. use all their allotted vacation days each year, compared with about 33 percent of full-time employees in the U.S. On average, full-time British workers took around 22 days of vacation annually, while their U.S. counterparts averaged about 14 days.
Among American respondents who carried over unused vacation time at the end of 2015, 42 percent said the primary reason was simply having too much work to complete. Another 21 percent cited concern about disappointing their employer if they took time off. Approximately 23 percent of those who left days unused felt that not taking vacation had a negative effect on their health.
Regional differences were also evident across the United States. Denver-based full-time employees made the most consistent use of their vacation time, with 60 percent reporting they used all available days. By contrast, workers in Los Angeles and New York typically lost about six vacation days per year on average.
The research also measured on-the-job productivity. Both U.S. and U.K. employees reported similar productive output, averaging about six productive hours during an eight-hour workday. Productivity varied by sector: U.S. employees in medical fields tended to remain productive for more hours than the overall average, while those in sales and marketing reported slightly more than five productive hours per day.
The survey polled 2,045 respondents in the United States and 1,009 respondents in the United Kingdom.