This time of year, many Europeans are looking forward to their month-long holiday in August. Workers in America, however, can already feel the strangle of a collared shirt around their neck in 90-degree heat as we continue trying to be productive. As the Cadillac ad that ran nonstop during Super Bowl season hammered home, the European style is to take time off while the American style is to keep the nose to the grindstone. Cadillac may be proud of how hard Americans work and disdainful of the European way of life, but we may be hurting, not helping, ourselves with our out-of-control ethic.

Europeans don’t just look forward to more time off than us in the summer, but all year round. Some of this American work ethic is elective, but some of it is certainly imposed on us. The United States is the only advanced country that doesn't guarantee that its citizens will get paid vacation time and holidays. European countries, meanwhile, ensure at least 20 days of paid vacation, with some going as high as 30 days, and most rich countries make sure workers get at least six paid holidays. That leaves nearly a quarter of Americans without any access to paid vacation time.

The prospects are equally bleak for workers looking to take time off for other reasons. If they or their family members get sick, there’s no guarantee that they’ll be able to take a paid day off to deal with it, and about 40 percent can’t. Twenty-two other developed countries ensure paid sick leave. When a couple adopts a child or has a newborn, they’re only guaranteed 12 weeks of unpaid time off, and that’s if they qualify—40 percent don’t—unlike virtually every other country that guarantees paid leave.

We’re even one of just 16 countries that doesn’t make sure that workers get at least some time off during the seven-day week. That weekend most of us enjoy come Friday night is not backed up by American policy, but instead is a voluntary employer perk.

But it’s not just policy fueling our overwork; it’s also cultural. Professionals, managers, and executives with a smartphone spend 72 hours a week (including the weekend) checking work e-mail. It’s become a nonstop world, especially for professional workers. But all employers are offering fewer vacation days and sick days than they used to. And those who are lucky enough to get paid vacation days aren’t using them. A Glassdoor survey found that three-quarters of American employees don't use all of their vacation time. The average person takes just half of what she’s allotted. Fifteen percent don't take any time whatsoever. A different study estimated that we leave about three vacation days unused each year. Even 60 percent of those who took time off in the Glassdoor survey still worked on vacation, many of them because they felt like they couldn’t truly log off.