The American vs. Europe view on vacations and time off is flabbergasting
- Thread starter Trojita
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industrian
will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
Not Japan, but Taiwan, and close enough on the work ethic side.
In 2011 I was given 2 annual leave days.
Then that jumped to the awesome figure of 5 annual leave days.
I quit that job and had another, and to be perfectly honest I didn't even care about checking how many days I got. Mainly because of the culture around taking vacations. To put it simply: people here are advised or generally under the idea that week-spanning vacations are out of the question. With anything more than 1 week at a time being almost an unknown event. The cultural approach to work here is to simply belong to your company - which I can appreciate for building camaraderie with your colleages and all - but I draw the line at being viewed as a lazy asshole who's letting the team down for wanting to take a long vacation.
trineo_feo
Member
Working nonstop is not a virtue nor should it be a life goal.
Lambda Pie
Banned
back in the old job, if things were slow, i would stick around and let vacation days pile up. come summer i would take like, 5 weeks vacation and just lay on the beach doing jack shit, watching tits in bikini.
otherwise, i won't go more than 6 months without vacation.
edit: paid vacation, obviously.
otherwise, i won't go more than 6 months without vacation.
edit: paid vacation, obviously.
dragonelite
Member
In the summer almost everybody here in the Netherlands gets 2~3 weeks of vacation.
Some use their vacation days to extend that to like 5~6 weeks.
Some use their vacation days to extend that to like 5~6 weeks.
SiegfriedFM
Member
I get 31 days (Sweden). Also, I've saved some from last year, so I took a five week summer vacation and still have ten days for Christmas and misc this year.
I don't see how I could get by with one or two weeks a year. Vacation is necessary to unwind and do something fun. Of course, you can do such things on weekends (you do get weekends, right?) but that's not enough time to actually forget about work.
I don't see how I could get by with one or two weeks a year. Vacation is necessary to unwind and do something fun. Of course, you can do such things on weekends (you do get weekends, right?) but that's not enough time to actually forget about work.
Trojita
Rapid Response Threadmaker
Is this in addition to holiday time?
Arjen
Member
Amount of days off doesn't really say anything about how hard you work.
Working hard ≠ Not having non-working days
Lambda Pie
Banned
man, as soon as you feel recharged and ready to go and do some awesome shit it's already Sunday afternoon
Willingness to work hard has nothing to do with this. Why would you think those things are even related?
Having guaranteed paid vacation is great. Especially in cases where you get sick while supposed to be on vacation. Then you'll get the days off again to make sure your time off is actually available and not spent in bed,
Was this a "you think you've got it bad, try living in Canada?" or a "you should come live in Canada." Because if it were the former, you've got it easy by comparison to the US.
Yup, I work not only 'harder' but much better after being well rested. To a lot of companies credit they also realise that and encourage you to take your holidays.
When I worked for Lloyds they made you take atleast two consecutive weeks off.
John Dunbar
correct about everything
of course europeans have longer vacations. how else would the owners sneak the whole work place to poland?
I've got almost 7 weeks vacation to look forward to at the end of the year. (And I already had three weeks off this year).
Yay!
That's my situation too. I'm technically a "contractor" and not an employee though, although my company mainly does it that way to save taxes. I'm an employee in all but name.Zero paid days
I'm taking a week long vacation next month that's gonna cost me half a check on top of the actual cost of the vacation.
On the bright side, I can basically take time whenever I need it, so there's lots of flexibility. I just plan on taking 20 days or so when I'm planning at the beginning of the year.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
Are you saying that the relationship between productivity and number of hours worked is not strictly linear and based on that singular variable!? What a wild idea
America is irredeemably messed up.
lol @ dude above talking about "willingness to work hard." No. Americans have little vacation time because: A) the ruling class has deemed it so, and B) they have so inculcated this notion of being a good little worker drone that even average Joes like yourself lap it up and regurgitate it in such discussions. You are working largely for the benefit of others. You do get some benefit, obviously, in the form of (likely very deflated) wages/salary, but it is not proportionate to the amount of effort you're putting in, or even anywhere close to that (a true 1:1 effort:benefit ratio is impossible to achieve save for certain fields, but we can certainly be much closer than we currently are).
lol @ dude above talking about "willingness to work hard." No. Americans have little vacation time because: A) the ruling class has deemed it so, and B) they have so inculcated this notion of being a good little worker drone that even average Joes like yourself lap it up and regurgitate it in such discussions. You are working largely for the benefit of others. You do get some benefit, obviously, in the form of (likely very deflated) wages/salary, but it is not proportionate to the amount of effort you're putting in, or even anywhere close to that (a true 1:1 effort:benefit ratio is impossible to achieve save for certain fields, but we can certainly be much closer than we currently are).
I have 39 days holiday a year and I usually carry over 5 or so. I also get a minimum of 6 weeks paid sick leave every year, and more at the discretion of the company.
I've known of instances where my company have paid for employees to have expensive medical treatments, also extended to family members.
I do work very hard, make them a lot of money but the job is extremely stressful. I'm trapped in a way as my salary is way above the norm for my role/position but guess I shouldn't complain too much.
Time off from work is very important for your overall health - I could not work in the US system.
I've known of instances where my company have paid for employees to have expensive medical treatments, also extended to family members.
I do work very hard, make them a lot of money but the job is extremely stressful. I'm trapped in a way as my salary is way above the norm for my role/position but guess I shouldn't complain too much.
Time off from work is very important for your overall health - I could not work in the US system.
Maybe a teacher?
highrider
Banned
To be fair, in a service based economy with a lot of low level jobs, it is based on hours worked. Those fries don't cook themselves.
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
True. Since we're talking about jobs with benefits though I've been thinking more about salaried positions and such.
Bank holidays are technically counted as holidays(the company has no obligation to give you the day off, but most do on top of your holiday allowance.)
https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays
Maybe he has a 0 hour contract?
ugh, disgusting
I'm not the person who originally said it, but I also have no paid leave, or health insurance.
I work a job that's almost always freelance. So you get paid relatively well, but with no benefits at all even though I've personally been "freelance" at this same company for close to five years.
Though last year when the power was out in the building for three days because of hurricane Sandy, the company gave us paid leave. So that was kind of nice.
RustyNails
Member
In America, whatever a company does is legal. A company can fire you while you are on a vacation. It can fire you if you are sick. The corporations in US have immense lobbying power, with Republican Presidents and Governors slowly dismantling labor over time. We have a warped view of freedom where we judge freedom based on how much a corporation can decide to do whatever it wants, no thanks to the lobbying efforts by conservative groups. Now people here think that we are the "greatest country on earth" because joe schmo worked 10 years with no vacation, but in reality its because joe schmo's tax dollars are going to multinational defense contractors that keep building us tanks and f-16s we do not need for the past 50 years.
captmorgan
Banned
Ive never really understood why anybody would ever want a salaried position.
At my current job I make a extra 60-70k a year just off of OT why would you willing give that up?
PJV3
Member
It was royal mail, 6 weeks leave, 6/8 weeks of rest weeks depending on the calendar. you worked an extra day a week for 5 weeks to balance it off(with leave and sickies you didn't fully do that)
fucking heaven, people were going on mega holidays, some had a week off every month and still did a traditional fortnight abroad etc.
The first one. How does Canada have it easy compared to the US? We're near bottom when it comes to average vacation time here, even lower than the USA. It sucks.
edit: fail on my part, the article i linked to proves me wrong. carry on lol.
This one has different data though.
Suddenly RM looks like a great place to be.
As someone who has previously worked years without paid vacation I am not more "willing to work" nor am I more productive than I am after I've had time off to rest and do stuff other than work.
Even here in Sweden I see people unwilling to use all their vacation days, unwilling to call in sick when they are etc. You help no one and only hurt yourself by being a "good employee" and getting burnt out at age 40.
Even here in Sweden I see people unwilling to use all their vacation days, unwilling to call in sick when they are etc. You help no one and only hurt yourself by being a "good employee" and getting burnt out at age 40.
RustyNails
Member
Lol already a dude talking about hard working murca. Good job feller. I an sure the CEO has a framed picture of you on his wall.
AllIsOneIsNone
Banned
I think most Americans hate not having enough vacation time, so I don't think we lap it up at all. And we're not drones, I and most people I know talk shit about certain aspects of the system all the time. But we accept it because we must, we'd rather be employed than not. What would you do to get more days off if you lived here?
highrider
Banned
I'm thinking even entry or low level stuff in Europe has more liberal leave than America. We have a wider margin between salaried and basic service jobs. I grew up with the sense that you had to work towards a good job with benefits and you probably wouldn't get anything vacation wise until you did. I live Washington DC and the coveted thing here is government jobs. Easy, not accountable, and lots of benefits and time off.
The over arching professional culture here is time off is for the less ambitious.
PJV3
Member
Each office does its own thing, we struggled for ages to get that vote through.
B
bomb
Unconfirmed Member
I hope you are talking about me. I would never frame a picture of myself though.
Ah,ok.
I knew a few guys at my last job that had accrued like 10 weeks(I think) per year from being at the bank for 20-30 years. I'd be in heaven.
milanbaros
Member?
Well, in my job the minimum hours are 9-5.30 with an hour for lunch, so 37.5 hrs a week. However, people in my industry work crazy hours and the average is probably nearer 50. The salary is ultimately based on the 50 average hours worked with clients. I never work 50 because I don't want to work that hard but get paid the same. This structure is in place for at least the next 4 years when there is a chance for those harder working people to get promoted faster. I will be gone by then.
Short answer: I am rewarded for other people's hard work.
Best place I've worked at.
Every couple weeks I'd have a long weekend (Saturday, Sunday, Monday off) too.
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