A Harris/Decima poll determined that almost 25 percent of Canadians fail to use all the vacation days they are entitled to during the year. The unused days ranged from 1.39 in the province of Quebec to 2.81 in Alberta. Although these numbers seem small, they project nationally to 34 million unused days a year. Despite this, 42 percent of those polled reported being tired, stressed, and in need of a vacation. A similar Harris Interactive U.S. poll found that 57 percent of Americans reported unused vacation days.

What do you think explains the reluctance of so many people to forego deserved vacation time? If you were or are a manager, how would you react to staff who don’t use all their vacation days? What are the long-term implications of this behaviour?