India: World's 4th most 'vacation-deprived' nation

Indians come on the top when it comes to preferring work over vacations and they tend to either cancel their holidays for urgent assignments or to indulge in office work even on off-days, a new survey says.

Such holiday habits have made India the world's fourth most 'vacation-deprived' nation, even as more than two-third of Indian bosses (also fourth highest globally) approve of their employees' vacation plans, found the survey by holiday service provider Expedia.

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PTI & Agencies

As per the survey, the top reasons making India a 'vacation-deprived' country include a tendency to accumulate leaves, inability to coordinate with travel partner, holding

back the leaves for money, work pressure and fear of important office-related developments when absent.

In the past one year itself, the average vacation period undertaken by an Indian has fallen from 25 days to 20 days. Last year, India was world's fifth most vacation deprived country.

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Globally, France comes on the top in terms of number of vacation days (30), while Japanese takes the minimum (five). Meanwhile, American and Mexican workers take 10 days each.

Europeans treat vacation as a "duty rather than a perk" the report said as workers in France and Spain report taking the full 30 vacation days off. Germans take 28, while British, Norwegian and Swedish workers take all 25 days they are given.

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In a sharp contrast, Asian workers take the fewest days off and work the longest weeks.

Korean, Singaporean and Taiwanese workers report a median of 44 hour work weeks. Americans work 40 hours, the most common figure. The Dutch work 35 hours a week, the fewest among the 22 nations surveyed.

"We conduct this study each year and I am consistently surprised to see how differently each nation treats vacation time," Expedia.com general manager John Morrey said.

Morrey further said that "studies consistently show that an ideal work-life balance leads to happier and more productive employees."

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Many workers lug their job with them to the beach. Brazilians report connecting with work most frequently while on vacation, with 66% of workers claiming they "regularly" check in.

Indians, at 55%, were the next likeliest to remain tethered to the office. However, a full 62% of German workers claim to "never" check in while on holiday, as do their peers in the UK (58%) and Denmark (52%). Americans were split evenly: 34% regularly check in, 34% sometimes do and 32% never do.

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Vacations are frequently postponed due to work issues. More than 7 in 10 Taiwanese employees have cancelled or postponed vacation due to work reasons.

Fewer than one in four workers in the Netherlands (23%) and the UK (22%) have done the same.

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Mean bosses are everywhere. More than 50% of workers in Italy, Taiwan, Korea and Japan believe their bosses are not supportive of vacation or they're not sure if their bosses are supportive.

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Italian and Japanese workers leave the most days – 8 – on the table. Brazilian, British, Canadian, Danish, French, Norwegian, Singaporean, Spanish and Swedish workers take every single day they're given.

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An inability to coordinate vacations flummoxes many workers. "Coordination with family & friends" was the most-cited reason for failing to take vacation days, as was the option to roll unused days over to the following year.

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Monetary worries rank highly. Workers in five countries – the US, UK, Canada, Japan and Ireland – say that the main reason they don't use all of their vacation days is because they believe they cannot afford to take their entire vacation balance.

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Nice bosses: who supports vacations?

Norway (86% supportive)
Sweden (84%)
Brazil (83%)
India (76%)

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The top vacations, by category:

Beach holiday (35%)
Romantic holiday (19%)
City holiday (12%)
Outdoor holiday (12%)

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Why we skip vacations?

Banking days for the future: 23%
Coordinating family schedules: 23%
Can't afford it: 19%
Have to schedule too far out: 18%

The study is an annual analysis of vacation habits across 22 countries and was conducted online by Harris Interactive among 8,687 employed adults in September and October 2012 on behalf of Expedia.com in North America, Europe, Asia, South America and Australia.