Four in 10 Gen Z Workers Work Every Day of Their Annual Leave as Work-Life Balance Suffers

Four in 10 Gen Z employees say they work every day of their annual leave, while almost half feel anxious about returning to work after a break.

Four in 10 Gen Z employees are working every day of their annual leave, according to new UK research revealing how financial pressures, job insecurity and workplace expectations are making it increasingly difficult for younger workers to switch off. Research from Employment Hero found that 41% of Gen Z employees work every day while on annual leave, compared with 27% of UK workers overall.

Meanwhile, 39% of Gen Z find it difficult to disconnect while on holiday, almost twice the national rate of 21%. Almost one-quarter (23%) say their manager or colleagues expect them to remain available while they are away, while nearly half (49%) feel anxious about returning to work once their leave ends. The research raises concerns about work-life balance, financial pressure and workplace cultures that leave younger workers struggling to properly switch off.

The findings challenge familiar stereotypes of Gen Z as less committed to work than previous generations. Instead, they suggest many younger employees may be struggling with the opposite problem: feeling pressure to remain available and prove their commitment even when they are supposed to be resting. For employers, that raises a bigger question – is providing annual leave enough if employees don’t feel able to actually switch off?

FOUR IN 10 GEN Z WORK THROUGH THEIR HOLIDAYS

Employment Hero’s research reveals a significant generational divide around switching off. While 27% of UK employees overall say they work every day of their annual leave, that rises to 41% among Gen Z. Among younger employees:

• 41% work every day of their annual leave;
• 39% find it difficult to disconnect while away;
• 23% say managers or colleagues expect them to remain available;
• 32% have delayed or cancelled a holiday because of anxiety about being away from work; and
• 49% feel anxious about returning once their leave ends.

By comparison, 21% of the workforce overall find it difficult to disconnect, 21% have delayed or cancelled leave because of work anxiety and 40% worry about returning. Taken together, the figures suggest that for a substantial proportion of younger workers, annual leave does not necessarily mean being off work.

Additionally, work-life balance is far from a peripheral employee concern. Previous research reported by Fair Play Talks found that two-thirds of employees valued work-life balance more highly than pay.

THE STRUGGLE TO SWITCH OFF

The difficulty employees experience disconnecting from work has been building for some time. In 2022, Fair Play Talks reported that 42% of US workers had taken no vacation during the previous 12 months, rising to 50% among younger workers.

Cost was the biggest barrier to taking a proper break, cited by 47%, but workplace pressures also played an important role. Almost one-third (31%) cited self-imposed pressure to stay on top of work, 27% pointed to heavy workloads and 25% said nobody was available to cover their work. Even among those taking holidays, 28% continued checking work emails and messages.

Four years later, the latest UK findings suggest the challenge may have evolved rather than disappeared: many younger employees are taking annual leave, but they are not necessarily switching off when they do. That reinforces an important distinction between having holiday entitlement and being able to take genuine time away from work.

PRESSURE TO PROVE COMMITMENT

The findings also challenge persistent assumptions that younger workers are less hardworking or committed than previous generations. “Gen Z are often labelled as lazy, disengaged or unwilling to work hard but our data suggests the opposite,” said Kevin Fitzgerald, UK Managing Director at Employment Hero. “Younger workers are under pressure to constantly prove that they are committed, present and productive, and that pressure is now showing up in how they take holidays, how they switch off and even how they use AI at work.”

That pressure to demonstrate commitment could have significant consequences for work-life balance. Annual leave is intended to provide time away from work. But if employees continue checking messages, responding to colleagues, completing tasks or worrying about what is happening in their absence, the psychological boundary between work and personal life begins to disappear.

Previous research highlighted by Fair Play Talks has similarly stressed that setting clear professional boundaries is vital for work-life balance. For younger workers at an earlier stage of their careers, concerns about proving their value or appearing replaceable may make those boundaries particularly difficult to enforce.

GEN Z VALUES WELLBEING

The findings are particularly striking because younger employees have consistently expressed a strong desire for healthier working lives. As far back as 2021, research reported by Fair Play Talks found that Gen Z employees wanted wellbeing benefits to replace more traditional workplace perks. In 2022, separate research found that Gen Z workers were unwilling to sacrifice work-life balance to enter the traditional “rat race”.

Another study that year found that three-quarters of Gen Z workers had considered moving jobs in search of better wellbeing support. That creates an important contradiction. Younger employees may place a particularly high value on wellbeing and work-life balance, yet the latest findings suggest many are still struggling to establish the boundaries necessary to protect either.

The problem may therefore be less about whether Gen Z values work-life balance and more about whether workplace conditions allow them to achieve it.

JOB INSECURITY MAKING IT HARDER TO SWITCH OFF

The findings arrive against a difficult employment backdrop for younger workers. Concerns about job security could help explain why some Gen Z employees feel reluctant to completely disconnect. For employees who believe jobs are increasingly difficult to secure, being unavailable may feel risky – particularly if their workplace culture rewards constant responsiveness.

Ola Majekodunmi, financial adviser and founder of personal finance platform All Things Money, said many young people she works with are anxious about their employment prospects. “I think people are starting to learn that job security isn’t really necessarily a thing anymore,” she said.

Majekodunmi believes employers need to communicate more openly with employees about what is happening within their organisations and provide greater reassurance and support. “Sometimes employers forget that employees need reassurances,” she said, pointing to regular communication and workshops around areas such as financial wellbeing and workplace confidence as potential ways to support employees.

COST-OF-LIVING PRESSURES AFFECTING LEAVE

Financial pressure is also changing how younger workers use their annual leave. An overwhelming 79% of Gen Z respondents say rising costs have already affected how much annual leave they can take this year.

The finding suggests that even where employees have sufficient leave entitlement, they may not necessarily feel financially able to use it in the way they would like. “The cost of living is so expensive at the moment that I think people are just really fearful for their current job security,” said Majekodunmi. “Long gone are the days where you can just cut out a coffee and feel richer again.”

The connection between financial pressure and overwork has surfaced before. Recent research showed that spiralling living costs were pushing employees to work longer hours and even work through illness.

Financial pressure therefore has the potential to affect both sides of work-life balance – how much people feel they need to work and how able they feel to properly step away from it.

WORKERS SWAPPING FULL WEEKS FOR SINGLE DAYS

Employment Hero’s analysis of around 40,000 anonymised UK employee leave records found that single days of annual leave were almost five times more common than taking a full week off during the period analysed. Some employees are strategically using individual days around bank holidays to extend breaks – sometimes described as “holidaymaxxing”. But the research suggests the shift goes beyond maximising leave entitlement.

Among survey respondents, 52% cited financial pressure as a reason for spreading annual leave throughout the year rather than taking longer breaks, while 29% cited preventing burnout. Taking shorter, more frequent breaks may work well for some employees and provide useful opportunities to recover throughout the year. But it also raises an important question. Are workers choosing shorter breaks because they suit their lives, or because longer periods away from work increasingly feel financially or professionally difficult?

Younger employees have previously shown interest in more flexible approaches to combining work, life and travel. Recent research found that millennials and Gen Z were particularly attracted to employers offering flexible and blended travel benefits. Flexibility, however, should not become a substitute for employees being able to take genuine, uninterrupted time away from work.

RETURN TO WORK ANXIETY

The challenge does not end when employees finally take time off. Almost half (49%) of Gen Z respondents say they feel anxious about returning to work after annual leave, compared with 40% of workers overall. Meanwhile, almost one-third (32%) have delayed or cancelled a holiday because of anxiety about being away. These figures suggest the problem is not simply employees checking the occasional email while on holiday.

They point towards deeper questions about workload, burnout and workplace culture. Employees may worry about returning to an overflowing inbox, unfinished work, missed decisions or an unmanageable backlog. Others may fear that being absent will affect how their commitment or performance is perceived.

“When four in ten Gen Z workers find it difficult to disconnect on holiday and almost half worry about returning to work afterwards, it’s a sign that many workplace cultures aren’t giving people permission to properly take a break,” said Fitzgerald.

Previous research has already linked these pressures to disengagement among younger employees. Fair Play Talks reported that younger, burnt-out and disengaged employees were among those associated with the rise of “quiet quitting”.

MENTAL HEALTH MATTERS

The inability to switch off also needs to be considered in the context of younger workers’ wider wellbeing. Recent research found that one in five Gen Z men had taken mental health leave, raising questions about whether workplace support is keeping pace with younger workers’ needs.

Separate research has highlighted a broader struggle around meaning and wellbeing. A recent Gallup and Making Caring Common study found that more than half of Gen Z adults lack meaning or purpose, or both, despite eight in 10 wanting purpose-driven careers.

Taken together, the evidence suggests employers need to think about younger workers’ experience more holistically. Work-life balance, meaningful work, financial security, mental wellbeing and career development increasingly intersect in how younger employees experience work.

WORKING ON ANNUAL LEAVE

For employers, the findings raise an important distinction between providing annual leave and enabling employees to take it properly. A company can offer a generous holiday allowance on paper. But that benefit loses much of its value if employees feel expected to monitor messages, remain contactable or continue working while away.

The same applies where workloads are so high that employees believe taking a full week away will simply create an unmanageable amount of work on their return. Work-life balance therefore depends on more than the number of days included in an employment contract.

It also depends on workload, staffing, management behaviour, communication and the unwritten expectations surrounding availability. And employees increasingly expect leaders to take some responsibility for creating those conditions. Previous global research found that eight in 10 employees expect employers to support their work-life balance.

Managers have a particularly important role. If senior employees routinely respond to messages while on holiday, join calls during leave or praise employees for remaining available, they can unintentionally create an expectation that genuine disconnection is not the workplace norm.

THE BUSINESS CASE FOR SWITCHING OFF

Allowing employees to properly disconnect is not simply a workplace perk. Rest and recovery are fundamental to sustainable performance. Where employees remain psychologically connected to work throughout annual leave, organisations risk undermining one of the mechanisms designed to prevent prolonged stress and exhaustion.

The consequences can extend beyond individual wellbeing. Chronic overwork and inadequate recovery can contribute to burnout, disengagement, sickness absence and retention problems. That makes the ability to switch off a leadership and workforce sustainability issue, not simply an individual employee responsibility. Employers also need to be careful not to celebrate constant availability as evidence of commitment.

An employee who responds to messages from the beach is not necessarily more engaged than the colleague who switches their phone off for a week. The latter may simply work in an environment where boundaries are clearer.

RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS MATTERS

The debate around work-life balance has often focused on where and when people work. But Employment Hero’s findings point towards another important question – whether employees feel genuinely able to stop working at all. That matters particularly for younger employees entering and building careers in a labour market shaped by economic uncertainty, technological disruption and concerns about job security.

It also challenges a persistent narrative around Gen Z. For years, younger workers have said they value wellbeing, flexibility and work-life balance. Yet the latest evidence suggests that valuing those things does not necessarily mean employees feel empowered to protect them.

There is also a striking continuity in the research. In 2022, younger employees were disproportionately likely not to take vacations at all. Four years later, the latest UK findings suggest many may be taking annual leave but continuing to work through it. That reinforces an important distinction for responsible employers: Annual leave entitlement is not the same as genuine time away from work.

Organisations cannot credibly promote employee wellbeing while maintaining cultures where people feel guilty about disconnecting, anxious about returning from leave or expected to respond while officially off work. As Fitzgerald put it: “Whether it is taking proper rest or using AI responsibly, employers need to set clear expectations and create a culture where people do not feel they have to prove their value by being permanently switched on.”

For responsible employers, the challenge is therefore not simply ensuring people have annual leave available. It is creating the workloads, boundaries, management behaviours and workplace culture that allow them to actually take it. Because work-life balance means very little if employees never feel completely off work.

WHAT EMPLOYERS SHOULD DO NEXT

The findings suggest organisations need to examine not only whether employees are taking their annual leave, but whether they are actually able to disconnect when they do.

Set clear expectations around availability.

Annual leave should mean employees are not routinely expected to monitor email, respond to messages or remain contactable.

Get managers to model switching off.

Leaders who continue working throughout their own holidays can unintentionally create the expectation that everyone else should do the same.

Plan properly for absence.

Clear handovers, realistic deadlines and adequate cover can reduce anxiety about leaving work behind and prevent employees returning to an overwhelming backlog.

Look beyond holiday uptake.

Employees may technically be using their entitlement while continuing to work. Repeatedly cancelling leave, working through holidays or avoiding longer breaks can be warning signs.

Address job-security anxiety.

Clear, regular and honest communication about organisational change can help reduce the uncertainty that makes employees feel they need to remain constantly visible.

Support financial wellbeing.

With 79% of Gen Z saying rising costs have affected how much leave they can take, employers should consider appropriate financial wellbeing support and guidance.

Challenge presenteeism.

Commitment should be judged through contribution and outcomes, not an employee’s willingness to remain permanently available.

Ask why people aren’t switching off.

Employee surveys, listening exercises and manager conversations can identify whether workload, culture, staffing, financial pressure or particular management behaviours are preventing proper breaks.

Ultimately, employers need to make clear that taking annual leave is not a sign of reduced commitment. People should not have to prove their value by being permanently switched on.

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