The average UK employee took 33.9 days off in 2024, People HR found. 

That’s almost a full work week down from 2020 (38 days) and a little less than 36.7 in 2022. 

Still, a Censuswide-run survey conducted by Timetastic found that almost half of us don’t use all our time off.

If you fall into the latter camp, recent research from the University of Georgia might convince you to change your ways. 

Speaking to Science Daily, Ryan Grant, lead author of the study, said: “The theme of the paper is that vacations create longer-lasting benefits than previously thought.” 

What does the paper say?

The researchers did a meta-analysis of data from nine different countries involving 32 studies. 

Per Grant: “We think working more is better, but we actually perform better by taking care of ourselves. We need to break up these intense periods of work with intense periods of rest and recuperation.”

The meta-analysis found that longer holidays were better for employees than shorter ones and that those who completely disengaged from work mentally while on holiday were healthier, more alert, and better at their jobs when they returned. 

With that said, those who returned after a long break saw dips in their wellness if they weren’t given enough time to re-acclimatise. 

So, the article reads, it may be a good idea to give yourself a couple of days either side of your actual break to get into, and out of, work mode. 

Why don’t people take all their time off?

Grant says part of the reason may be fear of losing out on opportunities or being seen as worse workers. 

“Job demands and job stress are on the rise. But people think that they can’t take time off because they don’t want to look bad or lose out on an opportunity for promotion,” he told Science Daily. 

Pew Research found that workers also felt bad for piling more work onto their colleagues or were stressed about getting fired for bad perceptions of their work ethic. 

Their data showed that women were more likely than men to worry about increasing others’ workload, while Black employees were more scared than their white counterparts of getting fired.