by Brian Hudgins and Drew Ruble

Surveys conducted by the Robert Walters Group, a global talent solutions provider, found that 74% of U.S. professionals experience feelings of anxiety when using their personal time off (PTO), diminishing the down time.

To help lessen their anxiety, 66% of U.S. workers engage in “firefighting” tactics—doing tasks such as checking work emails—to help reduce the backlog they face upon returning to work, and 28% do so to stay on top of urgent matters.

The dynamics of work/vacation breaks have changed during the last decade thanks to the proliferation of ways to keep in touch even when a worker is hundreds or even thousands of miles away from an office. 

“Apps such as Slack and Microsoft Teams help to put work right at our fingertips 24/7,” said Sean Puddle, managing director of Robert Walters North America. “While useful, it can result in professionals’ feeling obligated to check in during their time off.”

How does the worry manifest itself when an individual returns to work? 

Falling behind on important projects, missing updates, or being handed heavier workloads are a just few of the issues modern workers stress about connected to the end of a vacation. 

“Personal time off should offer professionals a moment of relief and a chance to recharge—it shouldn’t leave them feeling more stressed than before they left,” Puddle said.

The Untold Story

Karen Tan, an assistant professor in MTSU’s Tourism and Hospitality Management program, grew up in Singapore and worked professionally in tourism and hospitality for a decade.

“Singapore is a tropical island close to the equator.    It has two seasons—hot and hotter,” Tan joked. “I have used up my entire lifetime quota of hot temperature. My favorite season now is actually winter.”

Growing up, Tan engaged in a lot of outdoor activities, especially sea sports, such as scuba diving and wakeboarding.

Yet Singapore’s densely built landscape prompts Tan to compare her home country to New York City.

“It’s a very metropolitan country,” she said.

After Tan earned her bachelor’s degree at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, she embarked on a career that called upon her to handle consultancy projects all over Asia-Pacific.  

TAN WONDERED IF ANYBODY WAS ADDRESSING A DIFFERENT ASPECT OF TRAVEL . . . THE DIFFICULT MOMENTS.

The travel and living requirements took her to exotic locations in China, Indonesia, and Japan, among other countries. She experienced diverse cultures and enjoyed interacting with diverse people.

“That 10 years was really a very exciting period of my life because I was living the dream and visiting so many different places,” Tan said. “I just saw so many beautiful places in the world that I could never have imagined existed. I got to see a lot of them before they became tourist spots.”

The ability to travel the world and stay in hotels or luxury resorts accounts for a common perk-filled perception of hospitality and tourism—a rainbows-and-unicorns effect. Tan said she certainly experienced that. 

But after she received her doctoral degree from Temple University in Philadelphia in 2022 and became a professor, Tan began conducting what might best be described as counterintuitive academic research on tourism and hospitality.

Surprised that most existing research emphasized a similar theme—the focus was always on positive psychology, positive experiences, and restoration—Tan wondered if anybody was addressing a different aspect of travel . . . the difficult moments.

“When you are a tourist, you can still experience negative emotions when traveling,” Tan said. “Like when you experience plane turbulence or when you experience bad service and all those sorts of things. I was actually surprised there was very little research on the dark side of it—negative emotions in tourism and hospitality.”

An Unyielding Workplace

Tan’s research has also centered on the sizable number of employees who feel they do not dare take paid time off for vacations, even though it is a job benefit they have earned.

“They feel they might be perceived negatively by their bosses and their coworkers,” Tan said. “They feel they are unsupported by their organizational culture in taking paid time off for vacations.”

One of Tan’s studies proposed that taking paid leave for a vacation is perceived as a “violation of workplace norms,” which could partly explain this phenomenon.

This violation, Tan observed, is presumed to pose a threat to an employee’s “social self” at work. The accompanying guilt is hypothesized to lead to lower vacation intention and more “reparative actions” (e.g., apologizing and decreasing vacation length). 

Even travel time, once a forced opportunity for workers to be “off the grid,” has become synonymous with availability and production.

“Airplanes used to be one of those places where you can completely switch off,” Tan said. “But now, we even have Wi-Fi on airplanes, so you can continue to check your emails and your bosses can continue   to get in contact with you. Your vendors, your suppliers, and your colleagues can continue to reach out to you even when you’re on a flight.”

THAT 10 YEARS WAS REALLY A VERY EXCITING PERIOD OF MY LIFE BECAUSE I WAS LIVING THE DREAM AND VISITING SO MANY DIFFERENT PLACES.

The COVID Effect

The COVID-19 pandemic and the work-from-home guidelines implemented over the last five years added a new element to maintaining a healthy work/life balance in the digital age.

Within the debate over work from home compared to physically being in the office, many companies have expressed there is organizational need for workers to be physically present—regardless of doing work or not.

By not being physically present and accounted for, stress forms on employees that they will not be seen as dedicated to their respective work tasks.

According to Tan, all of this is “unique given how much emphasis America puts on mental health and well-being.”

“It is surprising organizations are actually putting this sort of pressure on their employees,” she said.  “It just doesn’t jell with how organizations are actually perceiving PTO for vacations.”

Tan notes many people did “revenge traveling” when COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. The tourism and hospitality industries that Tan worked in for 10 years did in fact quickly recover because of the pent-up travel demand.

“This showed us how important travel is to individual well-being and happiness,” Tan said.

“That experience also allowed employees to realize how much PTO for vacations meant to them.”

Puddle with the Robert Walters Group said employers can help alleviate employee anxiety about taking vacations by communicating that used PTO does not reflect poorly on an employee’s capability or commitment to a company.

“Employers need to help staff truly disconnect during PTO, so they come back reset and ready to dive into their work,” Puddle said. “Business operations won’t halt just because someone is on holiday. It’s crucial for employers to reinforce and value the right to switch off within their company culture.”

A Global Perspective

Each country around the world has a different philosophy, usually built at national labor levels, regarding paid time off. 

The U.S. standard has typically been two weeks of vacation time per year. Meanwhile, Europe has been more generous by providing several weeks of paid time off.

Considering PTO can be used for numerous reasons—including medical procedures or vacation time—Tan said the amount of time given to employees has actually increased during the last couple of decades.

In addition, around the world, some governments have even taken steps to mandate a minimum amount of paid time off that companies have to  allow employees. 

However, the consumption of PTO by American employees has decreased over the same time period.

“America is still at a stage where there isn’t legislation protecting workers’ minimum rights,” Tan said. “Hopefully, America is moving in that direction where there will be more time for employees.”

Tan warns that the consequences of overworking are not confined to anxiety and feelings of letting the team down.

Karoshi, a term tied to overwork in Japan, refers to death from overwork. Strokes, heart attacks, and mental health struggles leading to suicide are a few ways a high-stress work environment can lead to fatal outcomes. 

Clearly, PTO is important. But it’s also clearly not en vogue.

A 2026 Forbes article by Jill Shedeck, human resources director for Bank Iowa, described PTO as “an egregiously underused benefit,” adding “always-on workplace culture has been amplified    by the blurred lines of working from home.”

Shedeck pointed to a 2024 survey by Eagle Hill Consulting that found around half of U.S. workers said they didn’t expect to take all of their allotted vacation days by the end of the calendar year.

For those employees who do break away, what is Tan’s advice for ultimately breaking the cycle of vacation anxiety? 

Tan said it comes down to a very raw and personal decision in terms of what you want as an individual. 

“Do you want that recognition at work, or would you rather have the strong mental health with family time with loved ones? The choice is really yours.”

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