Survey finds nearly 70% of workers are 'holiday deprived'

Image: www.freedigitalphotos.net

With most of us at breaking point it seems absurd that 61% of those polled will be taking even less time off these holidays than last year and that a staggering 46% have only put in a mere five days' vacation time - leaving an average 86 million days of unused paid holiday untouched.

This is according to a recently released mental health survey conducted by Pharma Dynamics, generic pharmaceutical provider of anti-depressants.

The company polled over 1,000 working men and women in South Africa during the past month about work stressors and vacation time, to get behind the worrying trend.

Mariska van Aswegen, spokesman of Pharma Dynamics, said that what makes matters worse is that almost half (49%) of those that will be taking an end-of-year break, won't be doing so without checking and responding to work emails and phone calls whilst on holiday, which is a sure-fire recipe for burnout.

Detrimental for one's health

She warned that too little time off and not taking a proper break from work is detrimental for one's health, mental wellbeing and relationships.

"The amount of information employees have to manage in their jobs continues to increase at an alarming rate. As things stand, South African professionals spend an average 9.5 hours of their day in the office, more so than their counterparts in the US and the UK who, respectively, spend 8.8 and 8.2 hours in the office daily.

"When you live in a chronic state of unresolved stress and anxiety your brain starts to mildly freeze and that's when indecisiveness or 'analysis paralysis' starts to set in. You struggle to think straight and it becomes increasingly difficult to make the right calls when it comes to even the most mundane tasks. The brain requires substantial downtime to remain industrious. Taking a proper holiday is as indispensable to the brain as H2O is to the body," said Van Aswegen.

Even though 75% of respondents wholeheartedly agreed that taking a holiday greatly affects their overall happiness, why then do South Africans take so little time off to recoup?

Pharma Dynamics found that 60% of those polled haven't asked for more year-end holiday leave because work simply demands too much of their time; 26%, however, complained that their leave allocation was the bare minimum and that they therefore have to be selective about taking time off, while 14% said their employers discourage them from taking more time off - leaving 68% of respondents feeling holiday deprived.

Something does give

Van Aswegen cautioned that whatever the motivation for overwork, eventually something does give. "No one can run at full capacity all of the time. We all get tired, pressures build up and people get anxious. These tensions affect more than the individual employees and the office environment. They also come home. Family members and friends must endure the stresses and problems that arise from work as well as from personal and family life. If you don't pit stop on your own, life has a way of forcing you to take a break.

"The survey was done in an attempt to start a conversation about why South Africans need to take, if not all, but most of their holiday leave annually, for their own physical and mental health. Holidays help us to relax, recharge, reduce stress and enable us to build closer relationships with family and friends, which makes us happier."

When asked about how much annual leave would satisfy survey participants, the majority, 37% said 30 days would make a significant difference, while 63% cited anything between 18 and 27 days as reasonable.