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Australian Workers Suffer From FOTAL: Fear of Taking Annual Leave

A new survey hasfound that most Australian workers struggle to completely unwind while onholiday, with eight out of ten workers admitting they feel guilty when theyrelax - and a third confessing that even the thought of relaxing stresses themout.

According to thesurvey, two-thirds of Australian workers use their annual holidays to handlepersonal obligations such as family emergencies, attending medical and dentalappointments and running errands.

And while Australiahas one of the world’s highest levels of annual leave, with a minimum of fourweeks’ holidays a year for full-time workers, the majority of workers (58 percent) say work commitments have prevented them taking their full entitlements.

Conducted among 1250Australian workers, the first Princess Cruises National Relaxation Survey foundthat almost two-thirds of workers suffered from FOTAL – a Fear of Taking AnnualLeave – and would take more time off work if they knew there wouldn’t benegative repercussions.

And while 78 per centof workers feel bad about relaxing, Gen Y workers suffered the worst, with 86per cent of workers aged 18 to 34 saying they felt guilty about relaxing.Eighty per cent of Gen X workers felt the same way, with both age groupscarrying far more guilt than Baby Boomers (67 per cent).

As many as 67 percent – or the equivalent of close to seven million workers – say they completeat least one work task while on holidays, with the most common jobs includinganswering emails (52 per cent) and responding to business calls (31 per cent).

Clinical &Coaching Psychology and Founder of The Positivity Institute Dr Suzy Green saidthe findings showed that workers needed to ensure they separate their work lifefrom their leisure time.

“It’s concerning thatworkplace pressures such as increased demands, longer hours and budgetconstraints all impact negatively on stress levels and cause hesitation to takeleave due to the anticipated consequences of a return from holiday. Theseresults highlight the need for Australians to prioritise their mental healthand wellbeing by scheduling in annual holidays and seasonal mini-breaks toavoid FOTAL and provide a source of anticipation to buffer against stress andguilt,” Dr Green said.

“Workers need to tryto create a ‘holiday gameplan’ to help enhance their time off, which couldinclude things like setting boundaries around email and phone usage andensuring there is dedicated time slots for physical and mental relaxation.Research on mindfulness meditation shows that even brief periods ofpractice can reduce stress and increase wellbeing.”

Asked about theirrelaxation, 69 per cent of workers say they feel as though they need a holidayfrom their holiday at some point. The most common areas of dissatisfactionincluded spending too much time in airports, driving or travelling (37 percent) and coming back as tired as they went away (36 per cent). Eighty per centof workers say they found planning a holiday can be stressful, with more than halfidentifying the need to stay within budget as a particular area of tension.

A massive 81 per centof Australians prefer holidays that are relaxing, quiet experiences away fromthe hustle and bustle, while 70 per cent agree that taking a cruise holiday wouldbe the best way to get life experience and relaxation time in the one holiday.

Other key findingsfrom the study include:

· Gen Y (62 per cent) and Gen X (64 per cent) workers are more likely thanBaby Boomers (46 per cent) to say work commitments have prevented them fromtaking their full annual leave.
· A quarter of workers say they find requesting leave more stressful thanasking for a pay rise
· Twenty-nine per cent of workers would take more leave if they knewtheir boss wouldn’t hold it against them
· 27 per cent say they’d opt for more holidays if they knew they wouldn’thave to work longer hours before or right after their leave
· Parents are the most discontent, with 85 per cent dissatisfied with someelement of a holiday compared to 75 per cent of non-parents
· Thirty-nine per cent of parents say that planning a holiday is stressfulbecause they need to find a place everyone can enjoy (compared to 22 per centfor non-parents).

About the survey –The Princess Cruises National Relaxation Survey was conducted by GalaxyResearch with 1250 respondents interviewed nationally in September.

More information:
LibbyMoffet/Christine Allen MG MediaCommunications

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