With July 4th falling on Wednesday this year, many executives took off the entire week, or at least the two days before or after the holiday. However, in today's world of the Internet, smart phones and a plethora of devices to keep us connected, most executives are never really on vacation and go off the grid.

Yet even the ability to remain connected away from the office hasn't enticed the working public to make time for leisure. Americans took an average of 16.2 vacation days last year, down from an average of 20.3 days between 1976 and 2000, according to a recent study by Project Time Off, a lobby group. So it appears that we not only take less time off of work, but we also remain connected to the office when we do take days off.

As for CEOs, it appears they have some work to do when it comes to not working as much. A recent investigation of US company filings by Bloomberg identified a large group of leaders who are owed thousands of dollars for unused vacation time.

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Anthony J. LoPinto

Tony LoPinto is the Global Sector Leader of Korn Ferry’s Real Estate Practice and founder of SelectLeaders. For the past 18 years LoPinto has been serving his clients with deep knowledge and perspective on talent needs and organizational challenges to public and private companies – knowledge gained from a 25-year career in real estate. Prior to his current position, he founded and served as chief executive officer of a boutique real estate executive search firm, where he oversaw offices in New York, Chicago, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has successfully led several high profile search engagements for chief executive officers, directors and a wide-range of executive level positions across all industries and sectors. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in European history from Loyola University in Chicago.