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This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s Note: \u2018Happy Hour\u2019 is an HR Dive column from Editor Ginger Christ. Follow along as she dives into some of the offbeat news in the HR space.<\/p>\n Nearly a quarter of U.S. workers didn\u2019t take any vacation days<\/a> in the past year, according to the FlexJobs Work and PTO Pressure Report published in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s a problem for which Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, Fla., a regional tourism marketing and management organization, has a solution.\u00a0<\/p>\n VisitSPC recently launched a campaign offering workers up to $250<\/a> if they use their remaining PTO days to book a stay in the St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida, area.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEveryone deserves a break, and Visit St. Pete-Clearwater wants to encourage people to take that time off and use it on a well-deserved beach vacation. And of course, there\u2019s no better place to do that than at America\u2019s Favorite Beaches!\u201d Jason Latimer, director of public relations at Visit St. Pete-Clearwater, told HR Dive via email.\u00a0<\/p>\n The organization had the idea after coming across SHRM research<\/a> that found that nearly half of workers leave PTO on the table at year\u2019s end, Latimer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Here\u2019s how it works.\u00a0<\/p>\n Workers who book a room directly through VisitSPC.com\/PTO<\/a> for a visit before the end of the year will receive $50 in gift cards for each night booked.<\/p>\n \u201cNo proof of unused PTO is necessary when booking,\u201d Latimer said.<\/p>\n Already, VisitSPC has seen increases both to the website and in bookings since the campaign launched.<\/p>\n \u201cVisit. St. Pete-Clearwater has never run a campaign like this before, and it\u2019s exciting to see the quick traction this campaign has caught on since it was announced!\u201d Latimer said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Who can blame workers when the promotion reads, \u201cWith bright, warm sunshine, award-winning white-sand beaches, and average temps in the upper 70s to 80s this time of year, St. Pete-Clearwater makes a compelling case for swapping spreadsheets for sandcastles. As most of the country layers up, Florida\u2019s Gulf Coast is still basking in endless summer and now, it\u2019s paying you to join.\u201d I certainly can\u2019t, sitting here writing from not-so-sunny Cleveland, Ohio.\u00a0<\/p>\n However, although novel, the campaign points at a gloomy side of workplace dynamics.\u00a0<\/p>\n While some 82% of U.S. workers have paid time off, a quarter said their manager would discourage them from taking a full week off, per the FlexJobs Work and PTO Pressure Report. Workers cited heavy workloads, manager expectations and company culture as reasons for not taking more time away, the survey found.<\/p>\n And, as the job market continues to swing<\/a> ever farther back in favor of employers, it\u2019s not hard to imagine these pressures for productivity will increase \u2014 especially in the U.S. A survey last year found that Americans work more and vacation less<\/a> than our European counterparts. Perhaps unsurprisingly, only a third of American workers said they\u2019re happy or very happy with their work-life balance, compared to more than half of Europeans.\u00a0<\/p>\n