Trapped at the desk: Why 23% of US workers skip vacation despite paid leave

In theory, paid vacation represents freedom, a rare pause in the relentless cadence of modern work. Yet, for a significant portion of US employees, this freedom remains unrealized. The promise of decompression and renewal is eclipsed by mounting workloads, relentless deadlines, and an entrenched culture that subtly equates absence with weakness. The modern workplace, despite offering generous leave policies, often transforms time off from a restorative right into a source of anxiety. Recent data from FlexJobs, gathered from over 3,000 US workers, exposes this dissonance. Almost a quarter of employees, 23%, did not take a single vacation day over the past year, despite having access to PTO. Behind these statistics lies a complex interplay of personal apprehension and structural constrai