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UK workers missing out on time off
 Many British workers aren't making the most of their holiday entitlement. QUICKVOTEMORE GLOBAL OFFICEON CNNI TV
YOUR E-MAIL ALERTSLONDON, England (CNN) -- British workers already work some of the longest hours in Europe. Now a survey has revealed that many of them are failing to use up their full annual leave entitlement -- and feel guilty about booking time off work. Almost 60 percent of Britons will reach the end of the year with days off still unused, according to a survey of 2,000 workers conducted by Churchill Travel Insurance. While around half of them will book time off at the last minute and others will roll their allowance over to the following year, the rest will simply miss out on their allocated time off all together. According to the survey, workers in the UK are wasting more than $1 billion (£627 million) worth of holiday entitlement every working year with lawyers, sales professionals and people working in the catering and hospitality industries most likely to forego days off. Even with their full entitlement British workers take less holiday than workers anywhere else in western Europe, averaging just 22.5 days per year, compared with 32.5 days per year in neighboring France. Almost half of those surveyed said they would prefer to have 30 days off per year with one in three claiming they required at least 35 days. Yet 43 percent of workers said they felt guilty every time they booked time off. Another 37 percent said they were too busy and 20 percent said they had simply forgotten. Perhaps unsurprisingly those in the tourism business were among those least likely to miss out on holidays. Psychotherapist Christine Webber said that workers were risking their physical and mental health by failing to take time off they are entitled to. "Time off work is very important," said Webber. "We need to stop believing that we're so indispensable at work and try to look after our minds and bodies much more. "Employers often allow their staff to go without their holidays in the mistaken belief that fewer vacations will result in more productivity. But various experts now agree that too much work and too little leisure is counterproductive as employees tend to get sick more often and more stressed." 
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