podcast final conley

America's workplace culture is discussed in this podcast episode called "Stuck". It highlights the lack of paid time off and the increase in burnout. The cost of living has risen significantly over the past decade, affecting many working Americans. Along with this, there has been a decrease in benefits and recognition of workers' rights. The average cost of living for one person is estimated to be $2,500 to $3,500 per month, while a family of four requires at least $85,000 per year. However, the average household income is around $75,000 to $80,000. Many working Americans receive little to no paid time off, and even when they do, they often feel pressured not to take it. A survey was conducted, revealing that 28 million Americans do not receive any paid holidays, and nearly 30% do not receive paid time off. The survey also showed varying amounts of paid time off and paid holidays among respondents. Low wages can contribute to employees Hello everyone, and welcome to this podcast episode called Stuck, which will be discussing America's workplace culture, including a lack of paid time off and an influx of burnout. So, over the last decade, the cost of living has increased tremendously across the country, and a lot of people might argue over like what the leading factors might be, whether that be, you know, politics or just the natural flow of economics, but it has undoubtedly affected a majority of working Americans. And along with an increase in living costs, there's unfortunately been a decrease in benefits and acknowledgment of workers' rights. Less and less Americans are finding themselves able to comfortably support themselves and their families. And so, as of right now, the cost of living for one person is currently estimated to range from about like $2,500 to $3,500 a month. This equates to an average of $36,000 a year. This jumps to over $7,000 a month for a family of four, which is going to require at least, at least, $85,000 a year for a household income. Okay? Yet, the average household household income sits at like $75,000 to $80,000 across multiple states. So, you know, obviously there's a problem here. Things are undoubtedly not adding up. And, you know, on top of this, many of our working Americans receive little to no paid time off to reward them for their hard work. And, you know, just give them some time to rest and rejuvenate. And even when they do receive paid time off, a lot of them don't utilize it. But not because they just don't want to or don't feel like it. But there is a sense of what, like, feeling like you're going to be letting down your company or your co-workers or the pressure of their workload and feeling like, you know, they don't even have the time to take a day off, to take a sick day, to take a vacation. They need to be at work. They need to be doing their job. So, prior to the recording of this podcast, I sent out a survey to just some adults around me, whether that be like my own co-workers, my parents' co-workers, you know, parents of some of my friends. I just sent them out a survey. It has time and questions on it, you know, just basically asking about different things related to, like, their occupation, how much paid time off or, like, paid holidays they receive. Their ability to, like, take vacations and at the end, ask them if they're, like, experiencing any burnout. So, throughout this episode, I'm gonna kind of be bouncing back and forth between just some research and, like, some personal dialogue and then discussing the answers that I was given to some of the questions I asked. So, according to an article in Forbes Advisor, written by Baluch in 2024, 28 million Americans do not receive any paid holidays and nearly 30% of U.S. employees do not receive paid time off. So, on that note, we're going to take a quick look at a couple questions that I asked in my survey. I had about 13 responses. And first question we're going to discuss is, do you receive paid time off? If so, how much? And we've got some slightly varying answers here. We're gonna start off with three. Three people saying no, just straight up no. One of those being a teacher saying that, you know, they're not on a, like, paid time off. Like, they don't get paid time off because they have a set amount of days in their contract as a teacher that, like, they have to be in class with students. So, they're not paid by the hour. So, they're not really on the, like, under the jurisdiction of being able to receive paid time off. Another one saying they're not on a PTO schedule. So, they do receive paid time off, but it's not like they earn it by working so many hours per year. It's also seniority. So, the person who asked the question, this is anonymous, by the way, they said that they have been with the company for five years. So, they received 15 paid vacation days. Another person saying two weeks a year, seven days a year, two weeks, 120 hours a year, two weeks, three-ish hours per paycheck, 40 hours two weeks, nine hours per pay period, and lastly, someone saying that they receive one day of paid time off a year, one singular day. The next question I asked if they received paid holidays. If so, which holidays? So, three people just stayed up saying no, they don't receive paid holidays. Another person say they don't receive the holidays paid, but on holidays, they receive paid time off as a sort of bonus that they can use on a later occasion. So, I'm saying all holidays during the school year. A lot of, like, Christmas, Thanksgiving, everyone who gets the holidays say Christmas, Thanksgiving. Some people getting only Christmas and Thanksgiving. Someone saying their schedule varies and is set by a local school board of elected officials. Something for July, Labor Day, Memorial Day, all federal, all major holidays. One person stated they receive Memorial Day, Labor Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Thanksgiving, Black Friday, New Year's Day, and then one floating holiday to use as they wish for one of the holidays that they don't already receive covered. So, low wages can also contribute to, like, an inability to take vacations. So, even if employees do have some paid time off, they might not be able to afford it because of the costs associated with taking a vacation, such as, you know, like, just regular travel and, like, accommodation expenses. So, back to the survey, I asked people, when was the last time you took a vacation? Where was it? How long was it? We get someone saying last May, so a year ago, in Colorado for eight days. Another person saying they took a Caribbean cruise in March of this year, 2024, for eight days. One saying they went to Atlanta, Georgia for four days. August 2022 in Colorado for four days. So, the last time they were able to take a vacation was in 2022 for four days. Another person saying they have not taken one yet since they've been at this current job. Someone two months ago going to Nashville for four days. Another person going, looks like, March of 2024 to Florida for 10 days. Someone took a vacation mid-April for four days, and then one person took a two-week vacation. They took all of their time off in January of 2022. They spent one week in Florida and one week at home. February, went to Outer Banks, North Carolina for four days. Christmas weekend of 2023, to Scottsdale, Arizona for five days, and then April 11th through 14th in Waco, Texas, and then last August in North Carolina for nine days. I asked them also if they had complications with their job to be able to to take the vacation. Someone said they had to use two personal days because they didn't, like, receive, like, time off. So, they got their two personal days that they were allowed for the year. That's they had to use. Quite a few people saying that they didn't have any complications, being, like, they had, like, a spring or a summer break. Another one saying they're on summer break. One saying that, you know, their boss was willing to work with them because they used their, like, time off. It's time that they had earned. One person saying yes because they didn't have enough personal days. Another person saying yes because there weren't enough employees to take an extended period of time off. Another person saying, sort of, they tried to schedule everyone accordingly so that, you know, people can take time off to take these vacations. So, in 2019, some studies from Pew Research concluded that about 80 percent of American families have noticed an increase in living expenses with 35 percent of middle-income families admitting to actually having worries about their ability to cover the bills each month. And this is genuinely not something that a family should have to live every day worrying about. Whether or not they can pay for groceries. Whether or not they can, you know, pay for their kids' extracurricular activities. If a kid wants to play baseball, wants to play softball, basketball, any of that. Just everyday things that people should not have to worry about and they should be able to live comfortably with that in the back of their head. But, unfortunately, this is the harsh reality of America's economy. So, back to the survey once again. I asked people if it would be feasible for them to take a vacation right now or within the next 12 months. A lot of people say no. No, they either can't afford it or, you know, it's just not in the books with their jobs. I asked some people if the rising cost of living has, you know, impacted their family. Some people say yes, a lot. People saying it feels like you have to work more of, you know, more than what you want to have a good living but that affects your family life and your mental health. You have to focus more on basic living needs than vacation and personal wants. Groceries and gas are a lot more expensive. One person saying that they're not able to retire according to plan because taxes and inflation have, you know, set that off track alongside with the cost of living, you know, owning a house and having your own family. Someone's saying that they like it impacts everyone but they mainly notice it in their grocery bills. So, another mention of groceries. One person saying luckily it has not impacted their essentials but, you know, they have to be smarter with their fun money. Another one saying less fun money. They don't have as many opportunities to do fun experiences like they used to. Makes it hard to do anything fun. Just a lot of negativity coming through from this. They spend more and are able to save less. And inflation without matching pay can just be really difficult at times is what I'm seeing a lot with this. So, with these struggles already rising within American households, vacation is not always on the table. Obviously, I just discussed that a lot of people are not able to take a vacation now or at all within the next 12 months. Not only has the cost of living been rising but the cost of luxury as well. The average vacation hot spot is no longer like an achievable destination for most. You know, everyone wanted to go to Hawaii and Florida. That's where they went for spring break. That's when they went for Christmas vacation. But travel costs and inflation have contributed to making this luxury completely unaffordable. So, for the cost of traveling, the average amount of money spent for family of four can reach close to ten thousand dollars. Forbes advisor reporting that on average, a single round trip flight costs around four hundred dollars. Rental costs, so like an Airbnb, anything like that, seven hundred ninety dollars a night. That's like average. That's honestly a bit lower for some places and, you know, a bit higher if you don't have too many people. Meals for a day for four people cost about four hundred twenty dollars. Assuming that, you know, you're probably, you're going out to eat. You're on vacation, you're probably going out to eat. And activities, they can stack up depending completely on the location and time of year. No matter where you're going, it's going to cost you quite a chunk of money, though. However, even with this, you know, lack of being able to get away financially, forty nine percent of Americans, according, you know, to a study by a book or a Japanese university study, people still express a desire to get away, but they want to go on vacation. Everyone wants to go on vacation. The combination of these factors can lead to burnout in the workplace. So a study found in a research paper written in twenty twenty three by Klinghoffer discusses that forty eight percent of today's workers report feelings of burnout. So burnout is a state of emotional and physical mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. So when employees are unable to take breaks and recharge, they become more susceptible to burnout, which can negatively impact their performance or health and just their overall well-being. So when someone's stuck at work, like pushing or above 40 hours, constantly being thrown into overtime with especially little to no benefits, you know, they have less time to themselves, less time with their family and less time to just just take a break, to take a breather, to collect themselves. It's it's terrible for your mental health. It's terrible. And that's what a lot of people are experiencing right now. A lot of them. So for the final mention of the survey that I sent out, there's a couple more questions I asked. First of all, have you experienced any sensations of burnout in your job within the last few years? And, you know, asking if they could give a little description on how it affected the relationship with work and the mental health. A couple of people saying no. But more often than not, people are saying like they can one person saying I can tell when I'm getting run down. I work two jobs. So I find that sometimes I just need to cut back at the second one and take a little bit of a breather. Another person saying I tend to overwork myself sometimes. And when I do that, I lose passion for what I do, which is very much a sign of burnout. Very much so. Then kind of, you know, just making sure that I talk to my supervisor and I'm taking days off for myself, which is good. It's a very good thing. Anyone experiencing burnout needs to, like, if you're in a position to be able to do it, talk to someone, talk to someone and implore you. And just a few people saying yes, yes, it made it hard for me to go to work and didn't give me a lot of time to spend with those that I'm close to, which is honestly really sad to think about. Another person saying it made me less productive, less focused, made them lose interest in their personal hobbies, major stress, questioning their job weekly. Being in a full-time career, like something that you full-heartedly dedicated your degree to, and then you finally get there and your mental health is so bad that you are questioning your job weekly, is very disheartening. And another person not wanting to put any effort into their work. And then finally, I asked, you know, the responders to my survey, do you believe that if you were given more paid time off for benefits, you would experience less burnout and be happier in your career? Disciplined, absolutely. I had six weeks a year for vacation. I could usually get a time off that I asked for. The issue was short staff and higher test volume. So their PTO was good, it was just the fact that even with that PTO, they could not get out of work, which obviously that's not something that, you know, benefits can fix. You know, it's simply a problem of like employers just overbearing their workers. So I think it would make anyone happier to have more time off. I do believe it would have prevented burnout and employees and my co-workers would have been much happier. My job has good PTO, but for benefits, yes, it wouldn't be as stressful to worry about. My thing is, if I got paid a little more, which yes, I would say still falls under benefits, if wages could match, you know, the increased cost of living, obviously there would be less burnout and less things for people to worry about. Six people just straight up saying yes, just plain saying yes. Another person, this was more of a deeper response, saying no, vacation cannot fix ineffective education models that demand too many hours per day given expectations and pay, and it's a major issue in the education system and, you know, contracts for teachers completely agree. Some careers are simply just overworked. Another person saying yes, more paid time off and better insurance, and another person just straight up saying yes. So moral of the story, the people of America, the workers of America, are just being worked to death with no benefits. They are getting everything worked out of them and getting nothing in return. And it's things that people should be able to take a vacation. Everyone deserves to take a vacation. Everyone deserves to take time for themselves, even if that vacation is simply just staying at home, spending time with your family, spending time with your friends, with your loved ones, with anyone. Taking time to yourself should not be a luxury that should be, that is earned, that is deserved to anyone with a full-time job, to anyone. And the fact that that's not happening and it's causing people to be completely burned out and lose passion and motivation for not only their careers but their personal desires and to question their jobs, to question their careers, it's saddening and it's terrible. And America, as a workforce, as a whole workforce, needs to do something about it. Thank you.