Summertime and the livin’ is simple? Not so for a lot of American employees.

That’s in line with a brand new research by Headway, a self-improvement and studying app.

Headway surveyed 2,000 full-time professionals throughout the U.S. to know how the summer season season impacts work patterns, psychological well being, and office tradition.

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Its findings paint a stark image of overworked staff struggling to justify even the briefest breaks in a system that continues to prioritise efficiency over individuals.

The info additionally means that “summer slowdown” is extra of a fable than a actuality, with burnout spiking, productiveness plummeting and guilt changing into a central function of the trendy office.

Really feel the burn(out)

Whereas some corporations provide summer season Fridays whereby staff are entitled to take afternoons off throughout the summer season months, solely a 3rd of these surveyed mentioned they expertise any type of slowdown throughout the summer season months.

In actual fact, 10 p.c mentioned their workload elevated throughout the interval, regardless of faculties being closed, that means extra stress is placed on working mother and father.

Rising temperatures which trigger fatigue and make easy commutes insupportable are additionally an element, with almost 130 million individuals being below excessive warmth warnings as of July 2025.

Greater than half of respondents to the survey mentioned that the warmth and disrupted routines negatively impacted their work habits. One in ten reported full-blown burnout, and a 3rd described themselves as persistently exhausted.

However what does this imply in actual phrases? For individuals who are working full time throughout the summer season months, lower than half (43 p.c) mentioned they have been productive for greater than 30 hours every week, whereas 10 p.c admitted they have been managing lower than 10 hours of productive work.

Nearly half of these surveyed mentioned they usually abandon work, mid-task, to search for low cost getaways or weekend breaks.

Moreover, two in three employees say they really feel omitted whereas others are busy having fun with summer season. One in three have posted footage of seashores, drinks or “living my best life” pictures to social media whereas at work, and 22 p.c mentioned they expertise jealousy after they e mail somebody and an OOO pings again into their inbox.

Doom scrolling, however make it vacation-related.

The nice in-office flip-flop

And but, it’s secure to say that company America is making its emotions round office flexibility recognized and as a substitute of adapting the construction of labor to accommodate extra flexibility round office location and even working hours, distant work has turn out to be the brand new employer versus worker battleground.

RTO in impact

In lots of corporations, RTO (return to workplace) mandates are more and more changing into the norm and leaders are taking a tough and unrelenting stance on getting everybody again into the workplace 5 days per week.

Main corporations together with Amazon, JP Morgan and TikTok have considerably rowed again on their distant working insurance policies, itemizing productiveness issues as their foremost motivation and making working from house a distant pandemic-related reminiscence within the course of.

Nevertheless, permitting distant work for all or a part of the week isn’t essentially the answer both.

One in three survey respondents mentioned they’d commerce their bonus for 2 extra weeks off in the summertime, highlighting that PTO (paid day off) is a profit many American employees would pay cash for—actually.

One other third admitted that summer season made them assume extra severely about quitting their jobs altogether, indicating that work-life stability is coming extra sharply into focus instead of skilled clout.

Two-thirds shared that corporations ought to provide summer season go away just because the climate is good, no mental-health framing required and one in three admitting to faking a sick day simply so they may benefit from the solar.

In the end, it’s clear that it’s not simply the solar that’s making Individuals really feel drained. It’s the system.

On the lookout for a brand new function this summer season? Browse hundreds of jobs on The Hill Job Board