Time for a vacation?

June 7, 2017—Last year, less than half of employees in the United States used all of their vacation days, working a total of 662 million—!— more days than required.

On average, American workers use just 17 days of vacation per year, much less than the typical 30 days of French workers. Maybe Americans should draw some inspiration from their French counterparts and take advantage of a beach holiday, as this painting so vividly depicts. Vacation has been shown to be good for productivity, restoring workers’ energy and giving them a fresh perspective.

Image credit: AP/Alan Diaz

Source: Oliver Staley, “More than half of US workers didn’t use up their time off last year, sacrificing 662 million vacation days,” Quartz, May 29, 2017