Why I don't take vacation

Chad Valchar
Project Manager
London, England

I am one of the Americans this year who will not consume his allotted vacation days.

I'm currently on a year-long assignment in London for a U.S. company. I'm allotted two weeks of vacation per year, and of that, I probably only take off about a week each year.

Over the seven years at my company, this means I have accrued over five weeks of vacation. Will I ever use them? Probably not.

That's a stark contrast to England, where our employees are granted 25 days of vacation per year, every year. They must use it or lose it.

As an American this is very odd, but seemingly fantastic. However, this equates to roughly two days every month the employee is away. For a lean company, itreduces productivity greatly when there is no one to pick up the slack.

Granted you can make a case for Londoners having more time for their families, reduction of stress, etc., but how is this perceived across the pond?

In America, it's a running joke that someone is always on holiday for a week or two in the U.K. Projects suffer and people scramble to temporarily fill spots.

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