--- title: What Workers Need to Actually Take a Break This Summer description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. canonical: https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/ author: Michelle Peng article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-05-24T13:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-22T22:41:39.501Z og:title: What Workers Need to Actually Take a Break This Summer og:description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. 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Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e63dd593229a29b/6a10db14f78d6b4e7be8126d/charter-ai-usage-getty-digitalvision-2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- The information presented here is created by Charter, independently from the TIME editorial staff.  Time charter * [summer](/partner-content/charter/tag/summer/) ## summer # What Workers Need to Actually Take a Break This Summer  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) May 24, 2026 1:30 PM UTC  Illustration by Charter · Photo by mangpor\_2004, Getty  by [Michelle Peng](https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/) May 24, 2026 1:30 PM UTC Only half of American workers plan to travel this summer, the lowest level in the last six years, according to Deloitte’s 2026 [Summer Travel Survey](https://www.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/transportation/2026-summer-travel-trends-survey.html). With rising inflation eating away at travel funds, and the pressure to stay focused as company leaders emphasize performance and cut jobs, more workers could stay at their desks through the summer season. “Work is always on,” observes [Allison Gabriel](https://business.purdue.edu/faculty/home.php?username=asrosset), a professor of management and director of Purdue University’s Center for Working Well. “There is always something that seems to be urgent.” As [“996”](https://sfstandard.com/2025/09/16/san-francisco-became-ultimate-996-city/) and “[grindcore](https://sfstandard.com/2025/03/22/startups-hacker-house-ycombinator-grindcore/)” work cultures pick up in tech startups and AI agents run around the clock in more workplaces, the risk of burnout could rise, even as we reach Memorial Day weekend’s unofficial start of summer. “Mentally, we hold summer as a space where we get to solve a lot of our burnout,” says Gabriel. “Doing that puts a lot of pressure on summer to be incredibly restorative.” That pressure is especially true this summer. Mentions of “burnout” have [surged on Glassdoor](https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/paced-job-search-strategy/), rising 65% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2026\. Nearly half of managers say they are working harder than they did a year ago, according to a [survey](https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2026-04-29-gartner-hr-survey-finds-47-percent-of-managers-say-they-are-working-harder-than-1-year-ago) from Gartner. Yet [survey](https://www.dayforce.com/who-we-are/newsroom/newsflash-research-finds-employees-are-sneaking-in-work-life-balance-this-summer) after [survey](https://clockify.me/pto-statistics) shows that most American workers fail to make full use of their allotted paid time off (PTO), and many continue to work even while on vacation. This year, the US Travel Association [predicts](https://www.ustravel.org/research/travel-forecasts) that many travelers will shift to taking shorter and cheaper trips, opting to stick closer to home and book fewer nights of lodging. Sign up for Charter's newsletter to get the handbook for the future of work delivered to your inbox. Email Address You can unsubscribe at any time. By signing up you are agreeing to our [Terms of Service](https://www.charterworks.com/terms-of-service/) and [Privacy Policy](https://www.charterworks.com/privacy-policy/). As “Maycember” comes to a close, and the busy month of end-of-year celebrations, recitals, and graduations gives way to summer, we gathered best practices for encouraging your team to step away from work, make PTO days as restorative as possible, and build habits to make work more sustainable year-round. **Make vacation mandatory.** Consider setting guidance on a minimum number of PTO days employees should take, especially in workplaces without a set maximum. [Studies](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/namely-hr-data-report-reveals-that-high-performers-take-more-vacation-time-300476454.html) show that workers with unlimited vacation time, which some companies introduce to [save on accrued time off liabilities](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/unlimited-vacation-bad-deal-companies-save-billions/) paid to departing employees, often take fewer days of PTO. Company-wide holidays and week-long closures can also empower employees to log off more fully. When all of your coworkers are also away from their laptops, there’s less pressure to monitor email inboxes. [Adobe](https://benefits.adobe.com/us/time-off/vacation-and-paid-holidays#:~:text=Adobe%20takes%20two%20company%2Dwide,inclusive%20of%20Adobe%2Dpaid%20holidays.), for example, plans two week-long breaks per year when everyone is off, usually around Independence Day and Christmas. **Help pay for paid time off.** Offering paid time off is one thing. Helping pay the vacation bill itself is another, especially as rising prices make planning trips trickier. Notion, for example, [awards](https://www.linkedin.com/posts/davidmtibbitts%5Fwild-new-perk-at-notion-get-a-custom-activity-7455318403931611137-Is02/) employees with a custom Rimowa suitcase and $5,000 travel voucher when they reach their five-year work anniversary, while Cotopaxi’s benefits package includes stipends of up to $5,000 for “[bucket list trips](https://fortune.com/2024/03/29/cotopaxi-employees-stipend-bucket-list-trips/?utm%5Fsource=DO+NOT+EMAIL+-+Full+list&utm%5Fcampaign=4f90a98bb5-EMAIL%5FCAMPAIGN%5F2024%5F04%5F05%5F08%5F11&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fterm=0%5F-4f90a98bb5-%5BLIST%5FEMAIL%5FID%5D)” at 18 months and 5 years of service. **Help workers protect their time off.** “People who are really good at maximizing vacations erect really strong boundaries,” says Gabriel. “They won’t bring their work-issued cell phones \[on vacation\]. They will leave their computers at home.” Encourage those who work on their personal devices to delete work-related apps or log out of their work accounts. Another way to make logging off easier is by creating guides to make the transition to and from vacation as easy as possible, suggesting handoffs that should happen or sample [out of office (OOO) messages](https://www.charterworks.com/how-to-write-an-ooo-message-roy-bahat/). Share these templates and [norms](https://www.charterworks.com/summer-work-guide/) across your organization, and ask leaders to model best practices when they take PTO. **Encourage out-of-the-box vacations.** One major factor that contributes to burnout is the feeling that every day is the same. “It’s like Groundhog Day,” says Gabriel. “You’re on Zoom. You’re on your email. You’re working on reports. You get to the weekend, you crash…and then you’re going back to work and doing the same thing.” To make time away from work more restorative, Gabriel recommends experiences that bring a sense of novelty, whether that’s learning a new skill or exploring a new place, even for a weekend day trip. **Share “recovery beacons” to celebrate rest.** [Recovery beacons](https://www.charterworks.com/how-to-improve-workers-health/) are tactics that encourage workers to share more openly about how they take breaks. For example, the weekly team meeting might include a short PTO spotlight highlighting a manager’s recent vacation—a way for leaders to model taking time off—or senior leaders might create a Slack channel to share pictures from PTO after returning to work. Gabriel encourages using recovery beacons to normalize taking breaks during the flow of work as well, whether that’s using a Slack status that you’re out on a walk, asking a check-in question related to after-work hobbies, or setting reminders in a shared messaging channel to take movement breaks. These beacons break up a “vicious cycle” where people push themselves to their limit during the workday and squeeze in whatever rest and recovery they can into their evenings. That doesn’t work for many people,says Gabriel, especially those with caregiving responsibilities at home. “We need to view work itself—those hours—as a place where people can have some time for themselves and to recover.” **Use summer to reset work practices.** “It's just not enough to assume that summer is going to mitigate or minimize the heavy workload that a lot of people are experiencing,” says Gabriel, encouraging leaders to use the changing seasons to normalize rest. For example, encourage employees to look at their 2027 calendar and [space out PTO throughout the year](https://www.charterworks.com/alison-wood-brooks-qa/). Remind your team of any [policies](https://www.charterworks.com/summer-work-guide/) around core meeting hours. Plan a [meeting reset](https://www.charterworks.com/how-to-use-meeting-resets-to-reshape-meeting-culture/) for the beginning of summer to cut down on unnecessary calendar holds and create more windows of focus time. The goal, says Gabriel, is to make work more sustainable in the long run. Doing so might just make next “Maycember” more bearable. **For more resources for how your team can work better throughout the summer, including scripts, templates, and recommendations, check out the** [**Charter Pro Summer Work Guide.**](https://www.charterworks.com/summer-work-guide/) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/"},"headline":"What Workers Need to Actually Take a Break This Summer","datePublished":"2026-05-24T13:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-22T22:41:39.501Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e63dd593229a29b/6a10db14f78d6b4e7be8126d/charter-ai-usage-getty-digitalvision-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Michelle Peng","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/michelle-peng/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8e63dd593229a29b/6a10db14f78d6b4e7be8126d/charter-ai-usage-getty-digitalvision-2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"charter-ai-usage-getty-digitalvision-2.jpg","caption":"","creditText":"Illustration by Charter · Photo by mangpor_2004, Getty","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/partner-content/charter/what-workers-need-to-actually-take-a-break-this-summer/","name":"What Workers Need to Actually Take a Break This Summer"}}]}] ```