Vacation time is becoming harder for Canadians to take as they grapple with workplace burnout.

Almost three quarters of employees are entitled to paid time off, with it being most common in Quebec, according to a 2024 report by Statistics Canada .

Most jobs offer between two and four weeks of paid vacation time, but 40 per cent of employees are skipping their allotted vacation time, with nearly a third of them worried about their mounting workload while they’re gone, a new survey from Robert Half Inc. said.

There are several other reasons workers may choose to keep working, including many who feel discouraged from taking time off from either higher-up employees or colleagues who may be picking up the slack while they’re gone, a 2023 survey of American workers from the Pew Research Center said.

But many employees may need a break. Robert Half said 62 per cent of Canadian workers are feeling burnt out at work, compared to 47 per cent in 2024, and 31 per cent said they are feeling more burnt out at work compared to a year ago.

“To meaningfully address burnout, leaders need to look beyond wellness initiatives and focus on whether current workloads are realistically aligned with available headcount and skills,” the Robert Half report said.

It also said the top three drivers of burnout were understaffing, feeling stuck career-wise and low morale after layoffs.

Artificial intelligence , which is meant to make work life easier, isn’t helping. AI adoption has added to burnout for some Canadians because it can add to productivity pressures, raise job security concerns and add to the stress of learning new skills.

But burnout is not just an employee issue; it’s a business one. Canada Life Assurance Co. in 2025 said burnout prevention measures can save companies with at least 500 employees at least $1.7 million per year.

To minimize employee burnout, Robert Half recommends workplaces allow workers to log off when needed, make employees feel invested in company success, establish reasonable workloads, consider contract workers to ease the workload and celebrate employee successes.

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The war in Iran has spiked gas prices , leaving car buyers around the world to look for alternatives.

In the month since the war began, EV sales in the U.K., France and Germany are up 44 per cent, while South Korea’s EV sales are up more than 100 per cent and Italy’s are up 67 per cent.

In March, global EV sales topped 1.1 million vehicles, up two per cent compared to last year, despite cooling in three of the biggest markets: the U.S., China and Canada.

While gas prices certainly played a role, so too did availability of affordable Chinese EVs, where exports are up 140 per cent compared to last year.

    • 9:45 a.m.: Bank of Canada makes latest interest rate announcement and releases monetary policy report
    • 2:00 p.m.: U.S. Federal Reserve interest rate announcement
    • Tim Hodgson, minister of energy and natural resources, talks about the future of nuclear energy at the Canadian Nuclear Association’s CNA2026 annual conference
    • Today’s Data: U.S. housing starts and building permits for February and March, U.S. advanced economic indicators reports for March
    • Earnings: Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., AstraZeneca PLC, Canadian National Railway Co., Canadian Pacific Kansas City Ltd., Kinross Gold Corp.
    • Simons continues slow and steady conquering of Canadian retail
    • What is surveillance pricing and is it coming to a grocery store near you?
    • UAE to quit OPEC after 60 years in blow to Saudi Arabia
    • Canadian venture capitalists say billions needed to jumpstart domestic robotics industry

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    Today’s Posthaste was written by Pamela Heaven with additional reporting from Financial Post staff, The Canadian Press and Bloomberg.

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