Aussies still not taking holidays
On the eve of Australia’s largest travel industry event, a report in the Courier Mail says that research has revealed that Australians are working harder than before, no longer allowing themselves the time to kick back and enjoy the sunshine.
This is the transformed image of the bronzed Aussie to emerge from a global survey on holidays – that shows Australians rank last in the western world when it comes to taking their full leave allowance.
The new findings follow last year’s Tourism Australia research which revealed work pressure was to blame for the nation’s employees having accrued about 70 million days of annual leave.
That study led to the establishment of the No Leave, No Life program – aimed at helping employers and employees plan for, and take, holidays.
But it appears the message isn’t sinking in.
The seventh annual Vacation Deprivation Survey, taken in March and April, further undermines the popular perception of the laid-back Aussie lifestyle, filled with beachside barbecues and beer.
It said 37 per cent of workers in Australia did not use all of their annual leave in 2006-07 – beating the US, where the figure was 35 per cent.
Australians receive the second-least number of holiday days each year – an average of just 18 days off.
The only employees recorded as getting a worse deal are those in the US, who receive a mere 14 days off each year.
The survey sponsor, online travel company Expedia, says the findings “explode” the myth that Australians are laid-back and holiday-loving.
“Perhaps the results will encourage Australians to take more holidays in line with the rest of the world,” Expedia managing director Arthur Hoffman said.
Ben Searle, an occupational psychologist at Sydney’s Macquarie University, said evidence was emerging that working for extended periods without taking time off “to recharge” could lead to mental and social problems, “and in extreme cases even death”.
The survey found the French to be the most holiday-rich – on average receiving, and taking, twice as many days off as Australians.
Employees in France, noted for their willingness to strike en masse in order to protect conditions, get a generous 36 days of leave a year – and they aren’t letting them lie on the table, on average taking 34 days off to smell the roses.
But when it comes to taking full advantage of what they are offered, Germans lead the way.
Seventy-nine per cent of employed adults in Germany used all their annual leave – a not ungenerous 26 days – in 2006-07.
Britain is the most holiday-deprived country in Europe, with 24 per cent of employees failing to use their full quota of 24 days a year.
Report by the Mole and the Courier Mail
John Alwyn-Jones
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