Earlier today (25 July), travel agency Brand Expedia released the findings from its 2018 Vacation Deprivation® Study, which shows that vacation deprivation is on the rise among full-time workers in Singapore and across the globe.
Nearly nine in 10 (88%) of Singaporean employees felt that they deserve more annual leave in 2018, with nearly eight in 10 (77%) willing to take a pay cut to get an extra day off.
What’s more, over six in 10 Singaporeans (63%) said that they are deprived of vacations last year. This is up from 57% in 2017 and 41% in 2016; hence, bumping Singapore up by one spot to become the sixth most vacation-deprived market in the world.
On a global scale, 58% of full-time workers said that they are deprived of vacations in 2018, up from 53% in 2017 and 49% in 2016.
This study was conducted with 11,000 full-time working adults across 19 markets, including 300 respondents in Singapore.

Singapore Ranked the Sixth Most Vacation-Deprived Market in the World
In the midst of growing vacation deprivation sentiments all across the globe, Asia Pacific stood out as the most vacation-deprived region in the world. Seven in 10 of the most vacation-deprived markets came from Asia Pacific – led by India, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, respectively.
Markets such as India (15%) and Thailand (14%) also registered the biggest jumps in vacation deprivation sentiments this year. This was followed by the United States, which registered the third largest increase of 9%, while Singapore came in fourth with an increase of 6% in vacation deprivation sentiments over 2017.
Additionally, the study unveiled that younger workers aged between 18 to 34 exhibited higher levels of vacation deprivation sentiments compared to older workers.
About 67% of Singaporean workers aged 18 to 34 said that they are deprived of vacations, followed by 65% of workers aged 35 to 49, and 52% of workers aged 50 and above who shared similar sentiments.

Singaporeans Remain Connected to Work Even During Vacations
Besides that, the study deduced that half of Singaporean employees did not use up their annual leave. When asked about the reasons for not taking the time off, being unable to get time off work emerged as the top reason for doing so among 39% of Singaporeans – the highest in the world.
Other justifications included the desire to save up time for a long holiday (30%) and being unable to afford a holiday (22%).
Even when Singaporean employee go on holidays, more than half (53%) admitted that they tend to stay connected to work during their vacation time, with 79% checking emails or voicemail at least once.
What’s more, 30% felt that they are expected to be constantly available by their supervisors – the third highest percentage globally after India and Malaysia.
Taking Mental-Health Days a Growing Trend in Singapore and Asia Pacific
With regards to the growing trend of mental-health days, the study indicated that Singaporeans are placing greater importance on their mental health, with 70% having taken at least one mental health day in the past year to relieve stress and focus on their mental well-being.
On average, Singaporeans took 3 mental health days last year and an additional 2.8 days on average for life administration.
“In a dynamic, fast-paced society like Singapore, it came as no surprise that workers want more annual leave to go on vacations. Taking regular, quality vacations is known to provide numerous positive benefits to the personal and professional well-being of workers across the globe,” said Lavinia Rajaram, Head of Communications for Asia Pacific at Brand Expedia.
“As vacation deprivation continues to rise in Singapore, it is now more important than ever for business leaders to identify the reasons behind these sentiments in order to foster an enabling culture for employees to take quality time off and make the most of their vacation time, for the good of their personal and professional well-being in the long run,” she added.

Image via Yuganov Konstantin/Shutterstock
Editor’s note:
Human beings aren’t robots. We do not fare well if working 24/7 is a norm. A proper work-life balance is something we yearn for; which is why we love holidays. We’ll seize every chance we get to go on vacation to relax and unwind.
Hence, taking into account the findings from the aforementioned survey, it is no surprise that a great majority of Singaporeans have concerns or rather unhappy regarding their employment leaves. In fact, did you know that Singapore is one of the countries in Southeast Asia that has the least number of public holidays?
In an article published by Mashable Southeast Asia which ranked Southeast Asian countries based on the number of public holidays each has for 2019, Singapore falls amongst the third lowest from the 10 countries listed.
Singapore registered only 14 public holidays, surpassing Laos (13 days) by a day margin, and Vietnam (11 days) by three days.
Meanwhile, Malaysia topped the list with 50 public holidays, followed by Cambodia with 31 days, and Thailand with 26 days.

Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
You May Also Like

PSP to host virtual concert to reach out to millennial voters, raise funds for 2021

Progress Singapore Party (PSP) will be conducting a virtual concert on 20…

Vandalism of Cenotaph – TOC’s statement

The Online Citizen wishes to express our utmost sadness and disdain for…

三地铁线故障 王乙康脸书发文致歉

地铁南北线、东西线和环线的服务,昨晚(14日)一度出现中断,晚间7时左右开始,SMRT即通过推特发文,证实这些线路受影响;陆路交通管理局发文告指出,初步调查显示,故障乃跳电导致。 因服务延误,为了疏散乘客,SMRT从晚上7时30分起,让南北线的乘客安全下车(Safe detrainment);环线乘客则在上8时进行安全下车程序。 对于此次严重故障事故,交通部长王乙康也在脸书发文,昨晚对于许多通勤者来说是“艰难且令人感到压力的”,他对于故障造成的不便和影响致歉。 他指出,故障出现后,即安排115辆接驳巴士和400名SMRT职员,协助和疏导那些受影响乘客。他也表示接到友人简讯,获悉有两名乘客感到不适,于是通知SMRT和陆交局去接应。 直到晚间10点34分,跳电电缆被隔开,地铁南北线和东西线列车服务才获恢复。王乙康也指工程团队已漏夜工作解决问题。 从昨晚网民分享的一些照片和信息,可得知一些地铁站停电,内里漆黑一片,一度受困的通勤者显得不知所措。当局也安排乘客安全下车,采用替代路线和接驳巴士。 Has been a rough and…

Workers' Party cautions Govt against amending POHA after Court's ruling

In a statement that was issued on Sunday, Workers’ Party expressed its…