Almost half the British workforce do not use their full holiday allowance because “they don’t have the time”, according to new research commissioned by Monarch Airlines. Comment from Rob Foulkes, Head of Digital & Marketing – Monarch.

The travel experts polled 2,000 Brits on their attitudes towards using their holiday allowance, work/life balance and time management skills, to discover that Brits are not taking advantage their well-deserved holiday entitlement. One in seven (15 percent) Brits confessed to not using their full holiday allowance, losing an average of 4.6 days a year! Almost half (49 percent) of those who don’t use their holiday allowance feel as if they don’t have the time, while 44 percent said they can’t afford to take the time off work.

The study revealed that one in five (19 percent) of British who do not use the full holiday entitlement regret doing so, and over a third (37 percent) regret working long hours which leads them to missing out on socialising and me-time.  For those who do use their full holiday allowance, a third regret not switching off and spending an hour a day checking work emails.

Monarch also polled British workers on their time management skills to discover that one in eight (16 percent) of Brits have poor management skills – in both their work and personal life.

Brits waste an average 5.5 hours a week making small talk in the office, waste 6 hours every week commuting to the office, and spend 4 hours sat in traffic. With this in mind, Monarch have discovered Brits top seven tips on how to manage at work and home to make room for holidays: Make to do lists (49 percent); Create a schedule for tasks, make it a routine (20 percent); Bulk cook meals to save time later in the week (20 percent); Put a time limit on watching TV/films (13 percent); Digital detox/regular social media breaks (11 percent) ;Work from home to save time commuting (10 percent); Get public transport to free up time on the journey e.g. read, emails (7 percent)

Rob Foulkes, Head of Digital & Marketing at Monarch commented: “It’s interesting to see that so many Brits wish they could go on more holidays yet, almost half didn’t actually use up their full holiday allowance last year. That’s why we’ve created the Flights Quicker Than Tool, to help Brits find out where they can save time and make the most of the holiday they are entitled to.”