Tight economic times have caused many employees to skip their annual vacations, but it looks like a lot of their managers are finding time to get away.
According to a recent CareerBuilder study, 81% of managers took — or plan to take — vacation this year. Only 65% of the rank-and-file expressed similar plans.
That 65% is up from last year’s 61%, but it’s still well under pre-financial crisis levels. In 2007, 80% of full time workers went on holiday at some point during the year.
Money’s still an obstacle to getting away, the workers said. Nearly a fifth said they couldn’t afford to take the time off. There’s some good news, though: That’s an improvement over last year, when 25% said they couldn’t swing the cost of a vacation.
Other results of the study:
- Only 17% of workers took or plan to take a vacation of 10 days or more in 2012 — down from 24% who said they’d do so when polled in 2007.
- Nearly a third of workers have come kind of contact with work during vacation. More than a third of managers polled (37%) said they expected their employees to check in with work while they were taking the time off.
- About 15% of workers gave up vacation days last year because they didn’t have time to use them, down slightly from 16% in 2010.
- “Stay-cations” are a popular option — 38% of workers polled said they’d be hanging out at home during their vacation time.
- Finally, 23% of workers say they’ve had to stay home and work while the rest of the family went on vacation without them.
