"Summer Vacation Is Out of the Question"...Office Workers 'Stay Home' Due to COVID-19

9 out of 10 Office Workers Have No Vacation Plans
Worry About Infection at Travel Destinations

Some Complain of Depression from Not Taking Vacation
"Traveling While Following Quarantine Rules Actually Helps"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] Park Hyun-jun (29), a second-year office worker at a small and medium-sized enterprise in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, had planned an overseas trip for this summer vacation but canceled it entirely. He intended to escape to Southeast Asia for a summer getaway, but the COVID-19 pandemic shows no signs of easing. Although there were expectations that COVID-19 would end around summer, taking a vacation is out of the question. Park said, "Even if I take a summer vacation this year, I plan to go in September or October, and I am also considering not going at all. If I travel abroad, I have to self-quarantine, and traveling to other regions is burdensome, so I plan to stay home."

Taking a summer vacation to domestic attractions is also difficult. A cluster infection occurred among a group of pastors from churches in Gunpo and Anyang, Gyeonggi Province, who traveled to Jeju as a group, increasing fears of infection at travel destinations. Office worker Lee (30) said, "I was planning to visit Jeju during this vacation, but I canceled my travel plans after hearing about the recent mass COVID-19 infections."

As the COVID-19 situation continues for a long time, more and more office workers are giving up their summer vacations. Some office workers are even complaining of 'Corona Blue (blue - depression)' as they are unable to take the vacations they had been looking forward to.

When job portal JobKorea and part-time job portal AlbaMon asked 1,023 office workers about their 'summer vacation plans' on the 3rd, only 9.1% answered that they planned to take a summer vacation this year. This means that 9 out of 10 office workers have no vacation plans or will not take a vacation.

The most common reason office workers gave for giving up or not planning a summer vacation was "because it is impossible to predict how long the COVID-19 situation will last (72.6%, multiple responses allowed)." This was followed by "because there is not much available annual leave or vacation days due to COVID-19 (18.0%)."

Office workers who find themselves unable to take the summer vacation they had anticipated are complaining of Corona Blue. Avoiding going out has made their bodies and minds anxious and lethargic, and the vacation has become a distant story. Office worker Kang Yoo-jin (33) said, "I endured busy work while looking forward to the summer vacation, but now I feel depressed because I have to stay home."

Professor Kim Woo-joo, an infectious disease specialist at Korea University Guro Hospital, explained, "You should avoid overseas travel or trips to crowded places, but if you stay too withdrawn because of COVID-19, depression can occur. Traveling to less crowded places while following basic preventive measures like wearing masks can actually be beneficial to health." He added, "To prevent overcrowding at vacation spots, campaigns by companies or government agencies to encourage staggered summer vacations are also necessary."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.