Summer is over, leaving behind nothing but fond memories of fun in the sun lingering in our thoughts. Unless you’re a millennial. They don’t seem too comfortable with the word “leave” when it comes to work.
In 2015, a whopping 662 million days of vacation were discarded like last season’s athleisure. And at the top of that list? Our young workforce. According to Project: Time Off, millennials aren’t lazy and entitled as the stereotype would have us think—they’re afraid of losing their jobs.
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This epidemic, pegged “work martyrdom,” is primarily seen in those who believe not taking a break is something to be prized.
Workers who meet the work martyr definition tend to be slightly more female (52 percent) and slightly less likely to be married (55 percent are married, compared to 62 percent overall), but they are overwhelmingly Millennials. More than four in ten (43 percent) work martyrs are millennials, compared to just 29 percent of overall respondents.
Furthermore, nearly half (48 percent) of millennials think it’s a good thing to be seen as a work martyr by the boss.
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Some even go so far as to “vacation shame” (yep, that’s a thing now) co-workers who do take a vacation. The thing is, a good portion of these millennials have zilch tenure—43 percent having been with their company for a maximum of two years.
What does this all mean? Basically, these work martyrs have the power to “poison” the landscape of the workforce by settling “for higher stress levels and worker unhappiness, a damaging combination that will hinder any company’s success. ”
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The good news in all of this is that millennial managers (28 percent) acknowledge that when their employees take time off, they’re less stressed, more productive and more willing to put in extra hours at work when necessary. Vacation: it’s not just for old people anymore.
