The reason one week vacations don’t feel long enough is because they’re not. Out of 365 days 175 are spent working provided you don’t get called to work on the weekends. For those that don’t have to there always seems to be something to do on your supposed days off. Whether it’s chores, or general home maintenance there’s always something that needs to be done. Because of it you never really get that time to recharge. Not even when you’re on vacation.
My Experience
One week vacations don’t feel long enough because staying home isn’t much of a vacation and a lot of time is put in to traveling. During my trip to Miami half of the day was spent on commuting alone. The other half was spent unpacking. I ended up canceling dinner reservations because I just felt exhausted. Throughout the week there were so many plans to keep up with I lost track of time. Before I knew it, the vacation was over, and I didn’t even go to the beach. By the end, the final days were spent packing and planning the commute back home. When I arrived home, I felt like I didn’t really get the experience I was hoping for. This happened every year. Seven days of vacation and two to four are spent getting settled and settling to leave. When I didn’t travel it just felt like an extended weekend.
The Statistics
Unfortunately, this is the standard in America. On average the majority of the workforce gets one week off with some PTO and “sick” days. The longer you’re with a company the bigger your chance are of getting two weeks or more. That can however take years depending on the company. This isn’t the case in other countries. The standard in Europe is about a month. This is the same for Brazil, and that’s not including their national holidays. This brings me to believe the American vacation situation is pretty grim especially those with families. According to statistics gathered from glassdoor in America the average employee only takes about 50% of their time off. Even when their taking time off three out of five of those included in the statistics admit to having done work. 15% of Americans do not take any time off while only 25% of Americans reported using all of their vacation time with 10% reporting they have used that time to interview for other employment opportunities. While on vacation many reported that they were contacted by co-workers and upper management about work related matters. With all this being said it’s hard to believe that the standard one week vacation is enough for the average American. Despite this there are ways to improve how much you enjoy your one week experience. Lower expectations, plan less, and allow yourself to really disconnect from work.