Around 10% of employees in Israel will not take a single vacation day this year, according to a poll conducted by Vaadim, a company which consolidates data on the economic and social activities of workers' unions in Israel.
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The same 10%, labeled "workaholics" by the survey, are likely to stay at work for an extra hour or two at the end of the day.
The poll points to a 40% rise in workaholics in Israel when compared to last year. Vaadim says this places Israel on par with the US and Japan, which share a similar percentage of workaholics. The global average is 4.5%.
Another interesting point revealed by the survey is that the number of workaholics at the Finance Ministry is 0%.
The company attributes the increase in workaholics to the economic crisis of 2009, and says many employees began to work harder as a result of the crisis in a bid to prevent their employers from laying them off.
Vaadim CEO Yaakov Alush says the poll was conducted among 360 workers' union chiefs, who were asked about the number of workaholics belonging to their group. Alush says they relied on personal relationships with the workers.
When asked why the survey did not simply rely on work hours recorded by individual companies, Alush said human resources departments would not cooperate with conductors of the poll.
He added that workers' unions would not benefit from lying, because it was in their interest to show that the workers they represent work fewer hours for more pay.
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