Question

Introduction

1) Do you think U.S. workers are less motivated by vacation time than workers in other countries? Why or why not?

2) Why do you think U.S. workers often do not take all their allotted vacation time, even if they may lose the benefit? Are these personal choices, or are they driven by society, or by organizational culture?

3) If many unemployed are spending around 2 hours/day looking for work as some research indicates, how would you evaluate the impact of unemployment on work motivation? How would you spend your days if unemployed?

Answer 1

Answering question 1 only

I certainly believe US workers are indeed less motivated by vacation time because of the simple reason that their vacation duration is not long enough. As per data, the average US worker gets only 2.6 weeks of vacation in a year. This itself sounds demotivating enough. It is imaginable that many people do not want to make the effort of going somewhere for such a short duration of time, especially keeping in mind most of these workers would need some days for their personal commitments and tasks in a year apart from going on vacation. This means that a common worker never takes that 2.6 weeks off in a row but instead spreads it out across the year.

Additionally, the quantum of work is also very high for an average US worker. The workers are so bogged down with their work that they do not have any ‘time’ to use their vacation days. Some indeed are very serious and dedicated, that they feel obligated towards the work and do not want to spare time for a vacation.