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HappinessKey insights:
1 in 3 say their workload has chilled — but 1 in 10 are drowning in even more work
Most professionals are productive less than 30 hours a week
1 in 3 feel guilty for doing less
Nearly half say the heat has wrecked their work habits
1 in 3 have faked a sick day to enjoy the sun
2 in 3 want time off just because the weather's good
Everyone pretends summer is the season of ease. But under the sunny surface? There's guilt, burnout, fake sick days, and a creeping suspicion that everyone else is out living their best life while you're stuck replying to "quick pings."
A recent survey by Headway, the book summary app, asked 2,000 full-time professionals to fess up about how work actually feels in the summer. What we got wasn't just eye-opening — it was a reality check.
Summer, it turns out, is no vacation. It's a pressure cooker in flip-flops.
Summer is here — but the grind didn't get the memo
You'd think summer would come with a breath of fresh air — lighter schedules, fewer calls, more time to think. But only 1 in 3 workers actually feel that ease.
The majority? Still hustling. And for 1 in 10, things have gotten worse. While some are poolside, others are drowning in deadlines. The summer slowdown is a myth — and not everyone's in on it.
Even if people are logging in, they're not really dialed in. Just 43% say they're productive for more than 30 hours a week. The rest are somewhere between "kinda trying" and "full-on zombie mode."
1 in 10 admit they're functioning at under 10 hours — and still showing up like nothing's wrong.
Burnout in flip-flops: The heat's not helping
Forget iced coffee and good vibes. For half of the respondents, the summer heat and that vague "chill" energy are a productivity black hole.
They're off their game — stuck somewhere between half-working and half-dreaming about quitting.
And it's not just a dip in output — it's emotional exhaustion. Nearly 1 in 10 workers report full-on burnout. Not the quiet kind. The kind where you fantasize about quitting mid-Zoom.
Another third feel low-level drained. Summer isn't saving anyone. It's just breaking us in slower motion.
Guilt-tripped by sunshine
Rest doesn't come easy — especially when it's sunny. 1 in 3 professionals admit to feeling guilty about doing less. 1 in 10 feel that guilt all the time. It's not just that people aren't resting. It's that they've forgotten how.
Then there's the guilt-proof crowd: more than 1 in 4 say they aren't slowing down at all. Hustling through July. Marching through heatwaves. The pressure to keep up? Not seasonal. Just... constant.
Mind at the beach, body on a zoom call
When it's sunny outside, people step away. A lot. Half of the workforce say they take more breaks than usual in summer — some once or twice a day, others far more.
A quarter claim they stick to their routine. And a bold 5% say they take fewer breaks. (We'd like to meet them.)
The rest of us are Googling flights. Nearly half say they've paused work to look up weekend escapes or cheap vacations. Whether it's planning or procrastinating — hard to say. But the browser tabs don't lie.
And then there's the scroll spiral. Half say they've felt like everyone else is out living their best life while they're stuck inside. Welcome to peak silent summer FOMO.
Faking it just to feel free
Some don't fake the scroll — they fake the sick day. A full 1 in 3 professionals admit to calling in sick just to enjoy the weather. Sunshine, it seems, has become a valid reason to lie to your boss.
It seems the out-of-office energy at the top trickles down. When a manager takes time off, 1 in 3 employees say they feel more at ease.
Most keep a steady pace, but a small group swings to the extremes — 6% switch off completely, while 4% kick into overdrive.
And even when people are working? They're curating the opposite. 1 in 3 have posted beaches, drinks, or "living my best life" photos — while secretly glued to spreadsheets. The aesthetic wins, even when the inbox does not.
Then there's the emotional whiplash of someone else's OOO. A quarter of people say those automatic "back in a week" messages make them jealous.
And 1 in 20 go further — they say it depresses them. The auto-reply has become the trigger.
Rethinking work (and quitting more often)
Time > money. One in three professionals would give up their bonus in exchange for two weeks off. It's not about laziness. It's about priorities. And heat. And needing space to breathe.
Summer doesn't just spark wanderlust — it makes people rethink everything. A third say they consider quitting more often this time of year.
Blame the contrast: vacation posts vs. 3 p.m. meetings. Or maybe the heat just brings clarity.
The solution? Stop pretending it's business as usual. Two-thirds believe companies should offer time off when the weather's good — no justifications required. No mental health framing. Just time. Because life is short. And July is shorter.
Methodology: To create this study, researchers from the Headway app surveyed 2,000 professionals of all genders, aged 18 and over.
About the Headway app
With over 50 million users in 170+ countries, the Headway app is the world's most downloaded book summary app. It offers 15-minute audio and text summaries of nonfiction bestsellers, as well as daily microlearning sessions and gamified challenges.
The app is designed to help people achieve their self-development goals. Headway received the Editor's Choice award from the US App Store and constantly hits the App Store home screen as App of the Day.
