Y OG OL H YC PS
Italians do it better!
“When was the last time you felt good doing nothing?”
22 O
I’M ITALIAN ISSUE #005
By susanna Casubolo
22
ur culture always puts productivity in the foreground and does not value “empty time” to the point that we fail to consider it without noise, without activity, without technology or other people. Time is not wasted, time is money, but time is precious even when it is empty, even when it is used for the recovery of our body and mind, to be able to continue practicing our other activities effectively for the rest of the time. This is why our holidays are so important. A study, conducted in the United States by the Travel Association and Project, found that while 95% of Americans take their vacation time off, more than half do not fully use all of their contracted vacation days. This is because many are “martyrs” of overwork, that is, they think that by working more and more they will have more success, more career, more money, more happiness. But the data show instead that people who go on vacation for less than 10 days a year have a 34.6% chance of getting a promotion or a bonus within a 3-year period. For people who go on vacation for more than 10 days a year, the possibility increases to 65.4%.