Toshi Tiwari
This year a survey was conducted by a US-based travel agency Expedia on work culture and holidays. According to this survey, up to 75% of Indians said that they were vacation-deprived. As per previous data, this is the highest in the world and also significantly more than last year’s 60%. In comparison, on the other hand, the least vacation-deprived countries, Spain, and UK which are only 47% and 48%, respectively, felt that they were missing out on holidays.
The Expedia’s annual survey of vacation habits covered about 11,144 adults in 19 countries.
The survey said that about a third of Indian respondents typically go six months to a year without a holiday, while most (41%) stated that they had taken between one and 10 days off this year. Meanwhile, most respondents in Spain (64%) said they had taken between 21 and 30 days off, while in the UK over half had done the same.
The usual perpetrators to blame for the sorry state of Indian workers is too much work and less payments.
The story does not end here, many of the Indians worry about missing important work decisions or being seen as less dedicated to their jobs if they went on a holiday. In fact, 18% of the respondents believed that successful people don’t take vacations at all. The worst case is that, while being on a holiday break most Indians tend to work.
Also Read: Overwhelmed at work? Frequent travel can help you handle stress better
To have a better understanding to know reasons which keep Indians away from taking vacations, Manmeet Ahluwalia, marketing head of Expedia dug deeper and realised that Indians are the least to get a free pass while vacationing. They are likely to be available to their colleagues (34%) and supervisors (32%), making 34% (of) Indians check their mails at least once per day.
During the survey, up to 40% of Indian respondents strongly agreed they had a hard time leaving work behind and a most of them tended to carry work along on a holiday break.
Possibly, all this is no wonder in a country where only a privileged few can claim work-life balance. The employers are gradually becoming more thoughtful however the vast majority of employees are still stuck working thousands of hours a year, including over the weekend. While in the few spare hours, they struggle with long, stressful commutes and household responsibilities.
