Are YOU Vacation Deprived?

Expedia recently released the findings of their big annual survey to find out who among the world are the most vacation-deprived, vacation-rich, and just getting the right amount of R & R.Here’s the result. Green countries are considered “Vacation-Rich”, the Yellow ones are “Vacation-Moderate” and the Red countries are deemed “Vacation-Deprived” or “Vacation-Poor”.

They base the result not just on the number of given annual leave days, but the number of leave days people actually take out of it.

Now we’ve always known Europeans know how to enjoy and relax. France gives 30 annual days per year. That’s 6 weeks of vacation in a year! And the French who participated in this survey ALL took the entire 30 days to go and relax.

It’s not really surprising too that Asian countries lead the “Vacation-Deprived” club. Japan is the most deprived according to this survey, taking only 5 out of the 13 given days per year.

More than half of Singaporeans reported that they find their bosses unsupportive of them taking time off. And most alarmingly, 11% of Singaporeans claimed in the survey that “work is life” for them. It’s also very cultural. Most of the Asian participants of the survey thought that wanting to take time off would reflect very negatively on them in the workplace.

As for Americans, they earn a little over 10 annual days a year yet the survey found most have 2 extra days unused. When I first found out about the US average annual leave I was shocked. But I theorised that this is “balanced” by America being a country of such convenience–where everything has a drive-thru, there’s always an “instant” version of pretty much everything there. Americans may find life here in Australia more “backwards” in the sense that we don’t have super-sized or super-fast stuff.

Now Australia is in the “Vacation-Moderate” classification. I personally get 4 weeks of annual leave a year. And if there are annual leave days unused, I can roll this over to the following year / next vacation hence I am able to take more than 4 weeks off.  Zombie, on the other hand has 5-6 weeks of annual leave a year due to the nature of his job. How do we find this? If you ask me (a travel-obsessed person) , of course it can never be enough. I’d move to France in a heartbeat for the annual leave alone. But objectively though, I find that Australia REALLY IS Vacation-Moderate. I think 4-5 weeks is just right. 

Always on vacation? Not. Always in motion? YES.

“You’re always on vacation!” , “Do you ever work?”

These are just some pestering constant remarks I get from family and friends. I assure you it’s NOT TRUE that I’m always on vacation. The only thing that’s true is that I’m vacation hungry all the time so even if I live in a country that’s named “Vacation-Moderate” there still are times when I feel “Vacation-Poor”. When I’m not on vacation, I always feel like I’ve got this nagging  pain that can only be relieved when I get away!
So here are some things you can do when you get into a “woe-is-me, I-get-no-break” mode.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE VACATION-DEPRIVED (or just feel like it, anyway)

1.) Local Break-cations! Take advantage of long weekends and just go out of town. The effort of going on a long drive for just 2-3 days may seem troublesome, but believe me your soul will thank you for it. You will come back to work energised. You just need that escape from your usual surroundings to rev you up.

2.) Stay-cations! I have never done this, but I think it’s a good idea for those who can only take 1 or 2 nights away from their busy schedules. Again it’s just about physically uphaulling yourself from the usual surroundings (this includes your house!). Check in at the local Crown Plaza of your town. Even if it’s just streets away from your house, being in a different setting will clear your head even for just a few hours.

3.) JUST DO IT. don’t think too much about the “repercussions” of buying that ticket. Just click that “Pay Now” button for your dream holiday. Things that you think may go awry when you go on leave can normally be fixed anyway (money, schedules, piled up work when you get back). But your sanity won’t be salvaged once you breakdown from too much work and no play.

The most important thing to remember….

Travel is the only thing you buy that makes your richer. So no matter how short your annual leave is, JUST DO IT.

Always look on the bright si-ide of life--even if you were given ONE day off, that’s reason to celebrate — take it, leave, and NEVER return!

just take the plunge.