I work in middle management in a very international company. My team members are based mainly throughout Central and Western Europe but I have a handful of team members also based in the US. The contrast between how these different team members approach their holiday is startling. All of my team members in Europe take a full 2 week holiday at some point during the year but for my American team members I have to actively encourage them to use their PTO.
The first time I suggested to one of my US team members that they take two weeks off they laughed at me (not in a cruel way, just like in a “hah, wouldn't that be nice” kind of way). Since then, I have been pointing out how many of our colleagues in Europe take 2 weeks in a row to help normalise it. I've also done some research into why Americans don't like to take holiday time and fear of looking like “slackers” and concern about the amount of work they have when they get back are two of the most common reasons. I've been trying to counteract this by emphasising how important holiday is for overall work performance and also working to improve our out of office cover in the department.
One of my American team members did take a week off the other week but also kept replying to emails while they were out so I'm going to talk to the IT department and see if it's possible to block people's access to work email while they're away.
Our holiday allowances reset in January so I will continue to ramp up my campaign encouraging my US based team members to take 2 weeks of PTO for summer 2024. (And to make it clear, all of those I've spoken to have expressed how much they would love a 2 week vacation, I'm not forcing this against their will lol). Let me know if anyone else has any ideas about this.