Vacation—Still an Issue of Workers' Protection? An Empirical Study of Vacation and Recuperation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate how commonly employees take vacation or compensatory leave instead of sick leave, and how commonly they do not feel rested/recuperated following a fairly lengthy vacation. In the study group (n = 2,536), consisting of a representative sample based on Sweden's regular labor-market surveys, 14 percent of subjects had taken vacation or compensatory leave over the previous 12 months instead of taking sick leave. As many as 15 percent of subjects in the entire sample reported not being rested/recuperated when returning to work following several weeks' leave. A stepwise logistic regression prediction model was constructed to compute the probabilities of not being recuperated. Personal financial situation is a contributory factor, but there is also a strong correlation with the way work is organized.