As Americans kick off the Memorial Day holiday weekend, an Expedia survey notes that we wasted $67 billion in vacation days last year.

According to the results, the average American also receives and uses less vacation days than people in other industrialized countries. For example, the average American worker got 18 vacation days, but only used 14. Whereas, French (37 vacation days) and British (28 vacation days) citizens all received and used substantially more time off.

One of the reasons for the lack of vacation time is many Americans cannot take the time off because they are over-worked. In the shadows of the Great Recession, many US workers are performing multiple jobs. Other reasons cited by analysts commenting in response to this story are that due to the recession, many do not believe they can afford to take the time off, either because their employers are not supportive, they have anxiety about their jobs or their own personal finances preclude them from taking vacations.

Regardless of a persons work situation it is critical to take time off periodically to recharge, and it is important for companies to invest in wellness programs (see for example, GovWin member company Greenleaf Integrative Strategies) to help reduce stress, improve productivity and create a psychologically healthy workplace.

What do you think about the lack of vacation time in America?

Do American companies need to provide more vacation time? Do Americans need to be more demanding about taking time off? Post a comment below or where this entry was originally posted: This Memorial Day, Help Take Back $67 Billion in Wasted Vacation Days. And have a happy and safe Memorial Day holiday.

There has been a good discussion brewing over the past month in the B2B Technology Marketing Community in LinkedIn around one word to describe the biggest challenge facing B2B marketing.

Some responses have included:
Data
Noise
Choice
Personality
Content
Value
Trust
Engagement
Measurement

While there are many great one-word answers, my perspective of the biggest challenge for b2b marketing is the same as it is for marketing in general: It is you. You are the biggest challenge that you will face.

I say this because over the years I see the same patterns over and over again. People in marketing often do not know important things like who they really are, who and what their company is about, who their customers are, what their customers want, or what they want or where they want to go. The answers are often right there in front of them (customer feedback, internal questions, poor market performance, etc), but something inside these people prevents them from being able to see it or from being able to listen to others.

In my view, all the challenges a marketing professional will face pale in comparison to the battle one will wage against him/herself.

timeRAZOR, a new concept being developed by Blue Canopy and mysbx / GovWin founder Jeff White (@Jeff_White1347) and SEO / online marketing expert Victoria Clark (@NotVicki), is building towards a launch. While I am under a total information lock-down, an early glimpse of what is in the works is extremely exciting.

One way to get an early scoop of what timeRAZOR is all about (apart from reading news updates in this space) is to sign up at: http://timerazor.com/s37jv.

You also can stay informed about the company through their daily tweets @time_Razor.

The following is the podcast of Social Web Radio from Wednesday, May 4, 2011.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download