With summer fast approaching, 48% of the UK workforce are not planning their summer holiday, instead they are looking to swap their briefcase for a backpack and travel the world.
The survey of 2,000 workers in the UK, conducted by Inghams, revealed that travelling is the number one thing on workers' bucket lists. But with 22% feeling they don't have the annual leave allowance to do it, employees are wanting to quit their jobs.
Louise Newton, group head of marketing at Inghams: “It’s disappointing to hear that a fourth of the UK don’t have a suitable holiday allowance to take a holiday. Should people want to travel this may lead to taking days unpaid which ultimately has an effect on the overall cost of the holiday. However short excursions could be the answer, this allows you to take a short break to travel and hopefully leaves you with a couple of days spare for something else”.
Just under a fifth of people aged 55 over said they quit their job to take early retirement to travel (19%), compared to 6% of 18-24 year olds.
Interestingly, losing weight ranked higher than scaling the career ladder when respondents were asked what they had already ticked off their bucket list. Just over a third of men said they have scaled the career ladder compared to 28% of women and a further third of women said they were not interested in getting further up the career ladder (33%).
Why a holiday is important
Despite their desires to jet off around the world, an estimated two thirds don't take their full holiday allowance. But working nonstop without taking a holiday can really take its toll on your physical and mental health.
Holiday entitlement differs from whether you are contracted to full or part-time hours and some companies reward long standing employees with additional holiday days for every year they have worked up to a maximum of 10 years. Whether you're a manager or run your own business, it's important to get away and make sure your staff do as well.
In addition to the obvious health benefits to both you and your staff, there are business reasons why taking your full holiday allowance is important. This blog by Laura Hampton looks at some of those benefits.
