The Great American Vacation: Vanishing Into Thin Air?

Aug. 23, 2006 — -- For Joan Mannix, an attorney in Chicago, finding time for vacation has become something like the quest for the Holy Grail.

Last year she managed to take just four days off. Another year included a trip to Cancun where, upon arriving, she walked into her hotel room to find the phone ringing -- and her boss on the other end of the line.

This summer Mannix and her husband and 8-year-old daughter planned a rare weeklong vacation, renting a house near Lake Michigan with her brother and his family. But it wasn't much of a break.

"I worked Saturday through Wednesday -- and we left the following Saturday," she says. "I'm sure it's bad for me. [But] it's just one of those things, a sacrifice I have to make to support my family."

Dwindling vacation time in the United States is a well-documented trend that, according to a host of surveys, is only getting worse. A Gallup poll taken in May found that only 43 percent of Americans had summer vacation plans.

And even those who make vacation plans devote less time to them: A survey taken earlier this year by CareerBuilder.com found that while 84 percent of workers planned to take at least some time off this year, 32 percent were taking five days or less, and one out of 10 were limiting themselves to a long weekend.

In some cases, workers have little choice. Americans earn on average just two weeks of vacation time each year -- far less than the Germans, who receive an average of 27 days, or the French, who get 39.

But increasingly, Americans are not even taking the days allotted them. A May survey by Expedia.com estimated that workers would give back to their employers more than 574 million unused vacation days this year.

"People don't know how to take vacations anymore," says Jennifer Sullivan of CareerBuilder.com.

Part of the problem may be a sense of job insecurity. Many people worry that if they go away, their bosses will quickly discover they're replaceable. For other workers, it's the opposite: They assume no one can do their job while they're gone.