Why breaks from work are great for work

Americans appear to have a serious aversion for paid time off (PTO) if recent facts are anything to go by. Their 1.8 billion domestic leisure trips in 2018 brought in $650 billion and support for 5.5 million American jobs; however, they did not use 768 million days of PTO, up by 9% from 2017. And more than 55% of them are not using their PTO at all! Their top reasons for not using their PTO include not being sick often enough or too much workload; the top reason, though, is saving to carry it over. From prior decades when the average PTO stood at over 20, it stands at 17.4 in 2018. This is in spite of the known benefits of PTO, such as better creativity and stress handling, and improved health. Companies would do well to build in flexible work hours and permit remote working so that there is a reasonable work-life balance.