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My dedication was questioned. Managers or upper management have looked down upon taking time off. People think that maybe youre not as invested in the job, that youre shirking your duties or something. These are just a few of the responses to questions I asked during a study I conducted on vacation guilt among American workers. More than 88% of full-time, private sector workers in the U.S. receive paid time off. This benefit is ostensibly in place to improve employee morale and well-being. Yet a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that nearly half of American workers dont take all the vacation days theyve been allotted. And many of them feel as if theyre discouraged from using their time off. Ironically, whats supposed to be a source of relaxation and restoration morphs into a stressor: As vacations approach, feelings of doubt and guilt creep in. Im from Singapore. Upon moving to the U.S. in 2016, I was surprised at how pervasive vacation guilt appeared to be. Compared with many of the other countries where Ive lived or worked, American culture seems to prioritize mental health and wellness. I assumed these attitudes extended to the American workplace. Surprisingly, though, I noticed that many of my American friends felt guilty about taking time off that theyd earned. So as a scholar of tourism and hospitality, I wanted to understand how and why this happened. Vacation guilt To carry out the study, I collaborated with tourism scholar Robert Li. We interviewed 15 workers who had experienced feelings of guilt over taking time off. We also administered an online survey to 860 full-time employees who received paid time off from their employers. We wanted to know whether employees felt less respected or believed that their bosses and colleagues saw them in a worse light for taking time off. Maybe they feared being seen as slackers or, worse, replaceable. We found that 1 in 5 respondents to our survey experienced vacation guilt, and these concerns made them think twice about following through with their vacation plans. For those who eventually did take a vacation, they often tried to ease their guilt by going for fewer days. They might also apologize for taking a vacation or avoid talking about their vacation plans at work. Some of the people we interviewed had pushed through their hesitation and taken their vacation as planned. Yet all of these employees believed that theyd been penalized for taking time off and that it led to poor performance reviews, despite the fact that their paid vacation days had been a clearly articulated, earned benefit. The U.S. is an outlier The U.S. is the only advanced economy that doesnt legally mandate a minimum number of vacation days. On top of that, only a handful of states require workers to be compensated for their unused vacation days. Meanwhile, the law in other advanced economies entitles employees to a minimum amount of annual paid leave. The EU, for example, mandates at least 20 days per year on top of paid public holidays, such as Christmas and New Years Day, with a number of EU member countries requiring more than 20 days of paid vacation for full-time employees. Even in Japan, which is notorious for its workaholic culture, employees are entitled to a minimum of 10 days of paid leave every year. Throughout much of the U.S., whether paid vacation time is offered at all depends on an employers generosity, while many employees face a use-it-or-lose-it situation, meaning unused vacation days dont roll over from one year to the next. Of course, not all workers experience vacation guilt. Nonetheless, the guilt that so many workers do feel may be symbolic of broader issues: an unhealthy workplace culture, a toxic boss or a weak social safety net. For paid time off to serve its purpose, I think employers need to provide more than vacation days. They also need to have a supportive culture that readily encourages employees to use this benefit without having to worry about repercussions. Karen Tan is an assistant professor of tourism and hospitality management at Middle Tennessee State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
U.S. airlines doubled down on high-end travel after the pandemic to drive up profits and reduce their vulnerability to economic swings. The strategy is paying off as the margins of carriers selling premium seats have held up despite a slump in overall travel demand. Strong demand from affluent travelers is helping airlines offset a pullback in spending by price-sensitive customers. Delta Air Lines last week reported a 5% year-on-year jump in its second-quarter premium ticket revenue, compared to a 5% decline in main cabin revenue. The 10-percentage-point gap was the widest since the pandemic, helping it post a double-digit margin in the April-June quarter. Similarly, premium cabin revenue helped United Airlines mitigate the financial hit from operational constraints at Newark airport near New York City one of its largest hubs and increase its earnings in the latest quarter. United’s premium revenue rose 5.6% in the June quarter from a year ago. Its overall passenger revenue grew just 1.1%. The industry saw a similar trend in the first quarter when President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs raised the specter of an economic recession, hammering airline bookings. “Premium capacity remains resilient,” said United’s Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Nocella. Airline executives have attributed the resilient demand for premium travel to the healthy financial conditions of U.S. households with earnings of $100,000, which account for 75% of air travel spending. While an April selloff in financial markets after Trump announced tariffs raised the risk of undermining that demand, a sharp rebound in U.S. stocks since then has eased those concerns. “Our core consumer is in good shape and continues to prioritize travel,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said last week. TROUBLE IN MAIN CABIN In contrast, lingering uncertainty about the broader economy and rising living costs have taken a toll on demand from less-affluent customers. Bank of America data shows, while spending by middle- and higher-income households held up in June, lower-income household spending turned negative. Low-fare carrier JetBlue Airways last month told staff that it was planning new cost-cutting measures as soft demand made achieving a breakeven operating margin in 2025 “unlikely,” according to an internal memo seen by Reuters. Summer travel season tends to be the most profitable for carriers. But weak demand for main cabin seats has forced airlines to offer sales to fill planes. Discount carriers such as Frontier and Spirit Airlines are aggressively slashing flights to prevent more discounting pressure. Airline executives say premium cabins have become “the profit differentiator” in the industry. Since premium travelers tend to be less price-sensitive, carriers expect them to be less affected by economic shifts, making their spending more stable and offering a buffer in a downturn. At Delta, premium revenue accounted for 43% of passenger revenue in the June quarter, up from 35% in 2019. It has helped the Atlanta-based carrier become a pre-tax margin leader post-pandemic. The company expects its revenue from premium cabins to surpass that from main cabins in 2027. Diversified revenues, including from premium cabins, have helped shares of Delta and United outperform the broader industry in the past two years. Encouraged by the payoff, carriers are further ramping up investments to make their premium offerings more attractive. United has unveiled new premium suites with privacy doors on its new Boeing 787-9 planes. The suites will have 27-inch screens, luxury skincare amenities, and caviar and wine pairings. Alaska Airlines is on track to increase the share of premium seats on its flights to 29% by next summer from 26% currently. RISK OF SUPPLY GLUT Faced with weak margins, budget airlines are now also trying to tap into the high-end market. JetBlue, which has reported a profit in just two of its last nine quarters, is putting first-class seats on domestic flights and opening its first airport lounges in New York and Boston. Frontier is retrofitting the first two rows of its aircraft with first-class seats. Spirit, long known for its no-frills service, is seeking to rebrand itself as a premium airline to turn around its business. The number of premium seats in the U.S. domestic market has increased by 14% since 2019, more than three times the growth in main cabin seats, according to data from Visual Approach Analytics. The rush to add premium seats is hampering aircraft deliveries. It also risks causing a supply glut, hurting pricing power. But Alaska CEO Ben Minicucci downplayed those concerns, saying premium travel is more about an experience than a seat. “We see it as an end-to-end premium experience that people will pay for and people expect,” Minicucci said in an interview. Rajesh Kumar Singh, Reuters
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E-Commerce
WhatsApp should prepare to leave the Russian market, a lawmaker who regulates the IT sector said on Friday, warning that the messaging app owned by Meta Platforms is very likely to be put on a list of restricted software. Russian President Vladimir Putin last month signed a law authorising the development of a state-backed messaging app integrated with government services, as Moscow strives to reduce its dependence on platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Anton Gorelkin, deputy head of the lower house of parliament’s information technology committee, said in a statement on Telegram that the state-backed app, MAX, could gain market share should WhatsApp, used by 68% of Russians each day, leave. “It’s time for WhatsApp to prepare to leave the Russian market,” Gorelkin said, noting that Meta is designated as an extremist organisation in Russia. The company’s Facebook and Instagram social media platforms have been banned in Russia since 2022 when Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT Anton Nemkin, a member of the parliament’s IT committee, said WhatsApp’s fate in Russia was predetermined. “The presence of such a service in Russia’s digital space is, in fact, a legal breach of national security,” the TASS news agency quoted Nemkin as saying. Asked if WhatsApp might leave Russia, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said all services must abide by Russian law. Russia has long sought to establish what it calls digital sovereignty by promoting home-grown services. Its push to replace foreign tech platforms became more urgent as some Western companies pulled out of the Russian market after 2022. The Kremlin this week published a list of instructions from Putin, including an order to introduce additional restrictions on the use in Russia of software, including communication services, produced in so-called “unfriendly countries” that have imposed sanctions against Russia. Putin gave a deadline of September 1. Gorelkin, referring to Putin’s order, said WhatsApp was likely to be among those communication services restricted. Gorelkin said he expected Telegram, founded by Russian-born Pavel Durov, to avoid being banned, provided it complies with Russian law. Telegram has started the procedure for creating a Russian legal entity, according to an update from state communications regulator Roskomnadzor this week. Alexander Marrow, Reuters
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E-Commerce
While there is an intention to blend into the workforce, Gen Z also values self-expression. María José Gutierrez Chavez explains more.
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E-Commerce
Netflix on Thursday announced another quarter of steady growth as the video streaming service’s more than 300 million subscribers have become increasingly attractive to advertisers.It’s a familiar script that Netflix has followed for the past three years to widen its lead in video streaming while delivering financial results that have usually easily exceeded the analyst projections that steer investors.While Netflix’s profit eclipsed Wall Street’s expectations by a wide margin in the April-June quarter, its revenue came in right around the bar set by analysts. The Los Gatos, California, company earned $3.1 billion, or $7.19 per share, a 46% increase from the same time last year. Revenue rose 16% to $11.08 billion. Management also slightly raised its revenue forecast for the entire year, citing a belief that its programming lineup will reel in more subscribers in the second half than the first.“We’re really incredibly excited about the back half of this year and confident that it keeps rolling in ’26,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos told analysts during a Thursday video conference.Although he believes Netflix remains “perfectly positioned to keep thriving,” Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro said investors were disappointed that the company didn’t boost its full-year guidance for revenue and its profit margins by even more against the backdrop of its accelerating momentum.Netflix’s shares slipped 1% in extended trading, indicating investors expected an even more robust performance. But that is a minor stumble, given Netflix’s stock price has soared 43% this year. The stock’s strong run began during the second half of 2022 when the company introduced a low-priced version of its service with commercial interruptions as an antidote to an abrupt downturn in subscribers.The video streaming service is also faring well in Hollywood, as evidenced by the 120 Emmy nominations showered upon its programs earlier this week second only to Warner Bros. Discovery’s HBO Max. In the past quarter, Netflix hailed “Sirens,” “Ginny & Georgia” and “The Four Seasons” as being among its most watched programming.The popularity of Netflix’s scripted programming combined with weekly World Wrestling Entertainment spectacles, high-profile boxing matches and periodic National Football League games have enabled its service to retain subscribers while its prices rise, including on the cheapest tier.Netflix stopped providing quarterly updates on its total subscribers at the beginning of this year, but the company’s revenue growth leaves no doubt that the number has grown from the 302 million reported at the end of 2024.It’s gradually turning into an advertising magnet, too.Although Netflix still isn’t selling enough commercials to require a disclosure of its advertising revenue, management continues to highlight the growth in its results. Netflix said its ad revenue for this year is on pace to double from last year.Unlike most major tech companies, Netflix has had the benefit of peddling a service that so far has avoided being whipsawed by President Donald Trump’s fluctuating trade war.But Trump has threatened to introduce tariffs on entertainment made outside the U.S., a move that could hit Netflix especially hard because of its global reach.In an apparent olive branch for the president, Netflix made the unusual move of citing its commitment to the U.S. in its quarterly shareholder letter. The company disclosed that it had invested an estimated $125 billion in the U.S. from 2020-2024 and cited sound stages and production facilities in New Mexico and New Jersey as examples of its ongoing expansion in its home country. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
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E-Commerce
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