CHENNAI: During her last job, city-based copy editor Kayal had 30 days leave left before she quit. Her boss at that time would promise a holiday if she successfully completed an assignment. “But once it was done, he would immediately give me a second assignment. I worked from January to mid-April without a break. In the entire year, I had only one week off and had nearly 30 days leave before I called it quit. It all went into trash,” rues Kayal. Kayal is not alone. At least 28 per cent of Indians believe that non-supportive bosses were a reason for them for not going on holidays, according to a survey by an online travel agency. Add to this 29 per cent of Indians saying that they couldn’t plan their holidays owing to work pressures and you have a fair idea why India is the fifth most vacation-deprived nation.Well, the bosses and work pressure are not alone to be blamed for this scenario. According to the survey conducted by Expedia (India), an online travel agency, 26 per cent of Indians prioritise work over holidays and 28 per cent would rather prefer getting paid for unused vacations, as they consider vacation to be a luxury than a necessity.“I wouldn't mind skipping the odd vacation to continue working,” says writer H Karthik. “That’s because I enjoy my job. The main objective of a vacation is to have fun and if I can extract the same fun from work itself, then why bother with the stress of a vacation,” he adds. No wonder then that India is the fifth most vacation-deprived nation, according to the study. Consider this: In the Asia-Pacific region, Indians receive the highest number of holidays, on an average 25 days, but up to 20 per cent of these vacations remain unused. On the other hand, countries such as Brazil use every one of it.“In India, vacations are looked upon as a guilty habit and as many as 54 per cent Indians spend vacations usually secretly checking emails,” Manmeer Ahluwalia, head-marketing, Expedia (India), told a news portal recently. However, the situation is exactly the opposite in the US and Europe. Forty-one per cent of the respondents in the US never check their e-mails while on vacation and in Europe, except France, employees completely let go off work. Indians favour travelling with their families to beaches over romance and spouse, according to the study. However, romance was the preferred option for the Japanese and Argentineans. The poll was carried out amongst 7,083 employed people across 20 countries.
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