Are Aussies Ruining Their Holidays by Turning Them into Chores?
It’s a shocking trend that’s sweeping the nation: Aussies are sacrificing their hard-earned annual leave, not for relaxation, but for mundane tasks that could—and should—wait. But here’s where it gets controversial: while we’re technically taking time off work, we’re increasingly using it to catch up on life admin, chores, and errands instead of unwinding. Could this be why burnout is on the rise, even during our supposed ‘downtime’?**
Recent data from Roy Morgan paints a startling picture. Last year, millions of Australian workers entered the 2024/25 holiday season with a staggering 209 million days of unused annual leave—a near-record high. This backlog, built up during the pandemic and exacerbated by cost-of-living pressures, peaked at 216 million days earlier in 2025 before slightly declining. Yet, it’s still 60 million days more than five years ago. So, why aren’t we using this time to recharge?
New research reveals a troubling habit: Aussies are spending a third of their annual leave on life admin, errands, and chores instead of enjoying themselves. Carnival Cruises highlights that over half of us admit to using our holidays for anything but relaxation. Housework (50%), emails and bills (40%), running errands (42%), and appointments (37%) are stealing the spotlight from fun and leisure. And this is the part most people miss: NSW and Queensland residents are the worst offenders, turning their holidays into a never-ending to-do list.
Radio host Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli knows this struggle all too well. ‘I’m well known for looking busy around the house,’ he jokes. ‘But the danger is wasting precious family time on jobs no one else cares about.’ Wippa’s recent gutter-cleaning escapade, which involved tying himself to a roof with a rope, ended with his kids calling their mum in panic, thinking he’d fall. His takeaway? ‘Don’t do these jobs on holidays.’
To combat this trend, Carnival Cruises has launched a ‘Play Away toolkit,’ a downloadable resource designed to help Aussies reclaim their holidays for fun and relaxation. Wippa agrees: ‘Annual leave is for play, but too often it turns into the boring stuff.’ He emphasizes the importance of setting boundaries—turning off emails, ignoring notifications, and prioritizing family time. ‘If it looks like a job, it can wait. If it looks like fun, we’re in,’ he says.
But here’s the real question: Are we so conditioned to productivity that we’ve forgotten how to truly relax? Is the pressure to ‘make the most’ of our time off actually backfiring, leaving us more exhausted than before? And could this be a uniquely Australian problem, or are other cultures struggling with the same issue? Let us know your thoughts in the comments—do you use your annual leave for chores, or do you manage to switch off completely? Let’s spark a conversation about how we can better protect our downtime in today’s fast-paced world.
