Almost half the British workforce do not use their full holiday allowance because ‘they don’t have the time’, according to new research commissioned by Monarch Airlines.
The travel experts polled 2,000 Brits on their attitudes towards using their holiday allowance, work/life balance and time management skills, to discover that Brits are not taking advantage their well-deserved holiday entitlement.
One in seven (15 per cent) Brits confessed to not using their full holiday allowance, losing an average of 4.6 days a year! Almost half (49 per cent) of those who don’t use their holiday allowance feel as if they don’t have the time, while 44 per cent said they can’t afford to take the time off work.
The study reveals one in five (19 per cent) of British who do not use the full holiday entitlement regret doing so, and over a third (37 per cent) regret working long hours which leads them to missing out on socialising and me-time. For those who do use their full holiday allowance, a third regret not switching off and spending an hour a day checking work emails.
Monarch also polled British workers on their time management skills to discover that one in eight (16 per cent) of Brits have poor management skills – in both their work and personal life.
Brits waste an average 5.5 hours a week making small talk in the office, waste six hours every week commuting to the office, and spend four hours sat in traffic.
With this in mind, Monarch have discovered Brits top seven tips on how to manage at work and home to make room for holidays:
Make to do lists (49 per cent)
Create a schedule for tasks, make it a routine (20 per cent)
Bulk cook meals to save time later in the week (20 per cent)
Put a time limit on watching TV/films (13 per cent)
Digital detox/regular social media breaks (11 per cent)
Work from home to save time commuting (ten per cent)
Get public transport to free up time on the journey e.g. read, emails (seven per cent)
Rob Foulkes, head of digital and marketing at Monarch comments, ‘It’s interesting to see that so many Brits wish they could go on more holidays yet, almost half didn’t actually use up their full holiday allowance last year. That’s why we’ve created the Flights Quicker Than Tool, to help Brits find out where they can save time and make the most of the holiday they are entitled to.’
Further reading on holiday allowance
