I have pretty much zero interest in professional accomplisments. I just need the money to eat, drink and pay for a chance at the accomplishments I care about.
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How do you guys manage without long vacations/paid parental leave etc?
- Thread starter Ledsen
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I have pretty much zero interest in professional accomplisments. I just need the money to eat, drink and pay for a chance at the accomplishments I care about.
Yes but there is way more to life than work mate. Except for the people that have a job that also lie in theit interest (so that it doesnt feel like work).
Free time doesnt mean gaming buddy...
Edit: man, you sound bitter about the real life... Work is not your life. Your employee must love people like you and He surely doesnt give a shit after everything. Well that is if you are not your own Boss of course.
Random Painted HIghway
Member
I am very much pro extending paid leave. My wife had a semester off from teaching after our second and it was great, she kept publishing whuch pays the bills but was off from teaching. For me I love when my peers take extended leaves because they fall behind in the game if they take themselves out for a while.
Darryl M R
Member
I think I have around 200 hours of paid vacation but I still have metrics I need to hit. People can and do take all of their PTO but I'm not that concerned. I take it when I need it. I'm young in my career so I'm focused on improving my skills and having small pit stops along the way so that I do not burn out, as well as using my PTO for healthcare stuff. If something happened in my life requiring me to step away from work I would use all of it without a second thought, but I'm fortunate to be able to sprinkle in time off.
I think I'm so use to an academic schedule (during college I worked and took classes during the summer) that I do not crave a long vacation. When I went on Spring Break to the Dominican Republic I wanted to go back home after the 3rd day. Meh I enjoy work I guess (or studying) but I know other jobs and careers may not be as enjoyable to others.
I think I'm so use to an academic schedule (during college I worked and took classes during the summer) that I do not crave a long vacation. When I went on Spring Break to the Dominican Republic I wanted to go back home after the 3rd day. Meh I enjoy work I guess (or studying) but I know other jobs and careers may not be as enjoyable to others.
Pankratous
Member
I get 25 days here, but each year I get like £500 from my company to spend on more benefits (on top of the other ones I already get) and I can use that to buy more days (or just let it go into my salary).
Also get 12 days sick leave, a free day if you move house and up to two weeks of fully paid if an immediate family member dies.
There's probably good maternity leave as well but I have no idea of that.
Also get 12 days sick leave, a free day if you move house and up to two weeks of fully paid if an immediate family member dies.
There's probably good maternity leave as well but I have no idea of that.
Kuro Madoushi
Unconfirmed Member
As well, time off is actually better for productivity. Fewer sick days, more time to deal with stress at home, happy worker is a productive worker.
Yeah same. But I think that time off is definitely deserved. Teaching is no easy job, even when you have the nicest bunch of kids, planning and parents take a lot of time outside of work hours. Then if you have difficult class it's very stressful and takes even more time.
Still, it's very fun and giving, but I would never do it if I didn't have that time off aswell.
I'm one of those people who can never have too much time off though. If I didn't need money I wouldn't work either. I have 0 problems filling my time with stuff. Summer goes by in a blink and I have like 6-7 weeks off, depending on when planning starts.
I always find it weird that Europeans take all of their years vacation at once. Most mid-level jobs in the US will give you 4-5 weeks of vacation, but very few people take an entire month off every summer. They take a week vacation in the middle of the year, another week or so around Christmas, another week to visit relatives later. They probably save a little just in case there's an emergency and they need it (but most companies I've worked for are also pretty nice about giving you extra time for emergencies or, and if its not an emergency, even letting you accrue negative PTO).
But none of its law. And there are lots of shitty companies and shitty jobs that don't give any of that. They suck. It should be law.
But none of its law. And there are lots of shitty companies and shitty jobs that don't give any of that. They suck. It should be law.
Fenderputty
Banned
Move to Cali and get maternal and paternal leave paid for by the state. It's been great. I can even stagger my 6 weeks over the course of a year. About to take my 5th week off soon
???
Most peoole in europe dont take vacations that long in a row. No. There are some people that can and will do that, but at our company if you want to take more than two weeks off you should ask your colleagues if that is alright with them (nit that this is a problem because nobody cares about that as long as they can do the same)
This is exactly what I mean by saying that off time is important for rest. I feel Sorry for you.
Also people should also know that the body and mind need at least two weeks for a nice reset. A day off? A week? That wont do much for you at all.
Ahh. Weird. I've had a lot of friends in Italy, France and Germany who basically say August is just "vacation month". Maybe I misunderstood.
Yeah it's around july - start of september, but there are rare cases of people using their whole vacation or more than 3 weeks in a row.
Jeronimo Jones
Member
Where you work, what your job is, your employer's culture and your manager's view on leave can have a significant effect on how much time you get and how comfortable you are using it in the US.
I have been in my job for just over a year. I earn PTO, have federal holidays off, and can take off when I want usually. I have separate sick days, but am not exactly sure of the FMLA requirements but don't plan to have kids for a while. (Edit: Up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.)
My fiancée has holidays off, limited PTO and would have to pay for short term disability for pregnancy, but this job pays much better than her job in the public school system with different benefits.
Managing it well comes down to planning if you even have decent options.
I have been in my job for just over a year. I earn PTO, have federal holidays off, and can take off when I want usually. I have separate sick days, but am not exactly sure of the FMLA requirements but don't plan to have kids for a while. (Edit: Up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave.)
My fiancée has holidays off, limited PTO and would have to pay for short term disability for pregnancy, but this job pays much better than her job in the public school system with different benefits.
Managing it well comes down to planning if you even have decent options.
EmptyCanO'wupass
Member
We console ourselves with the knowledge that one day we will all be millionaires, because that's how we're told America works.
My job I get 10 days a year off: 5 paid holidays, 5 paid vacation/personal/sick days to use whenever I want. You get an additional 2 every year you stay with the company. Sadly, this is WAY better than my last job, which offered no PTO whatsoever until the Oregon forced them to. I haven't had a full week off since 2014. I should note that I really like my job though, and I'm not unhappy (plus I get free health insurance from my employer, which is rare and makes up for my slightly lower salary)
ZackieChan
Member
I have no idea, hence my surprise! Also, I work for myself, so I control when I work and when i take vacation. So I'm definitely not living only to work.
I haven't had a vacation since November 9th 2005
Why not? What are you doing to change that?
I mentioned law firms before in reference to the notion that businesses basically shut down for a month, which someone else alluded to. Sounds impractical to me.
Relationships, experiences, hobbies, physical activity, creative endeavors. This is a weird idea to me. I guess if you travel the world with your friends/family all while doing what you love then maybe work could fulfill all your emotional/physical needs, but otherwise work is a small piece of what most people I know consider their life. Even in some of the most demanding/stressful fields.
With that said, I've got decent benefits for the industry I work in (power engineering). Not sure about maternity, but I get two weeks of vacation and two weeks of sick time. I've been at 3 companies over 10 years, and dealt with 3 others when job hunting; this is pretty standard, but can scale up to 3-4 weeks of vacation the longer you've been with the company.
My boss is super cool though, and a lot of us work from home 1-2 days a week, which makes things a lot more tolerable. I'm also furthering my education and they're paying for that. It's not nearly as good as other countries have it, but when it's all you know, you deal with it.
That is beyond absurd. Holy shit.
Azzurri
Member
My family is from Southern Italy and when I go visit them it's always in August. Literally everyone is off for the month, besides the little bars and grocery stores, stuff like that. But people who have professional jobs like my uncles and aunts have the whole month off.
It's a different lifestyle in a lot of europe. Me personally I wouldn't know what to do if I had weeks and weeks off, it just bores me to death, even with my hobbies I need to do some actual work. But I think that's a lot of Americans mentality.
People don't handle it well. Lots of stress related illnesses, marriages break up, kids are treated like crap. The lack of PTO in the USA is shameful and a huge harm on the people who live in the country. People don't get to live their lives and they never realize what they are missing because we stuck working to live.
Its work Stockholm syndrome. You've had to live your life with so little time off you've never been able to develop as a person enough to live without secular work.
Its work Stockholm syndrome. You've had to live your life with so little time off you've never been able to develop as a person enough to live without secular work.
superdeluxe
Member
I get about 7 weeks worth of PTO per year not including holidays and 1 floating holiday (So that is another 10 days)
For Paterinity, I got 2 weeks from my company, and I was able to use 4 weeks of banked sick leave. Our company used to have seperate Sick/Vacation, when they switched to just PTO, they banked all the sick hours into a extended bank. Thankfully I had a ton of banked hours that I used to pay for my 6 weeks out for each child.
I know that I am luckier than most in the states. My wife who is a public school teacher, actually doesn't get maternity, so for our first child we tried to make it so it was during the summer time. Our second child we used our savings to pay for her being off work for 3 months.
For Paterinity, I got 2 weeks from my company, and I was able to use 4 weeks of banked sick leave. Our company used to have seperate Sick/Vacation, when they switched to just PTO, they banked all the sick hours into a extended bank. Thankfully I had a ton of banked hours that I used to pay for my 6 weeks out for each child.
I know that I am luckier than most in the states. My wife who is a public school teacher, actually doesn't get maternity, so for our first child we tried to make it so it was during the summer time. Our second child we used our savings to pay for her being off work for 3 months.
superdeluxe
Member
Damn that sucks. Our big 'Time' Jump is at year 5. We get a boost from the previous year by 6-7 days..then it adds a day every year till you reach 12 years then you are maxed out.
-ImaginaryInsider
Member
Every decent job I've ever had was at least two weeks of vacation, and then some mix of sick time and/or personal days/floating holidays, so I've technically always had roughly 3 weeks of time off a year.
Thanks and yeah, we were both born in 84'. In our case it just makes more sense for him to stay at home (if that's the route we go), because I have the higher paying job.
I live in the US. I technically have 4 weeks of vacation a year....but
I rarely take days off because of two weekly deadlines (on call 24/7) and I'm the only person that does what I do in our branch(I work in marketing as a web/graphic developer/designer). Once every so often, I get called into the office and told to take a day off between deadlines because they can tell when I'm getting burnt out. I don't know when was the last time I took two or more consecutively days off. I just deal with it. No kids yet, but I will take off a couple weeks when that finally happens.
I've never used a sick day. I come in and close the door and say "leave me alone, email if needed".
I rarely take days off because of two weekly deadlines (on call 24/7) and I'm the only person that does what I do in our branch(I work in marketing as a web/graphic developer/designer). Once every so often, I get called into the office and told to take a day off between deadlines because they can tell when I'm getting burnt out. I don't know when was the last time I took two or more consecutively days off. I just deal with it. No kids yet, but I will take off a couple weeks when that finally happens.
I've never used a sick day. I come in and close the door and say "leave me alone, email if needed".
While I am not as lucky as you OP (got 28 vacation days but not as much parental leave here in Germany), I do wonder about the issue myself.
When I was younger, I always wanted to move and work abroad. Thinking about having less vacation days because of that makes me think only Europe is an alternative, which kind of sucks.
When I was younger, I always wanted to move and work abroad. Thinking about having less vacation days because of that makes me think only Europe is an alternative, which kind of sucks.
I've been with my employer for over a decade. When I started, I was given 2 weeks per year, but as I pass each work anniversary, my paid time off per year goes up by an increment. At this point, I get 7.5 weeks of paid vacation per year.
I could not fathom going back to such a small amount of vacation time. It's the #1 thing keeping me here. I usually do a few week-long vacations per year, and then use the remainder of my time to take most of my Fridays or Mondays off for long weekends.
I could not fathom going back to such a small amount of vacation time. It's the #1 thing keeping me here. I usually do a few week-long vacations per year, and then use the remainder of my time to take most of my Fridays or Mondays off for long weekends.
Skel1ingt0n
I can't *believe* these lazy developers keep making file sizes so damn large. Btw, how does technology work?
I'm very lucky.
Job right out of college gave me 15 "PTO Days" - a lump sum for either sick leave or vacation," along with eight or nine bank holidays.
At 3 years (currently approaching five), I was bumped to 20 days.
In a year (six years), I'll get bumped to 25 days.
~29 years old with 25 Paid Days Off each year, plus holidays and of course weekends? There's a lot I'd bitch about, but that's not it.
***
My wife and I are super lucky. We have a Companion Pass with Southwest - so any ticket we buy, we get a second for free. So her and I take a 3-day weekend somewhere in the states at least once a month. Leave Thur night, come back Sun night. Only a single day of my ~20 PTO days, and I get a nice little mini-vacation, as does she.
Job right out of college gave me 15 "PTO Days" - a lump sum for either sick leave or vacation," along with eight or nine bank holidays.
At 3 years (currently approaching five), I was bumped to 20 days.
In a year (six years), I'll get bumped to 25 days.
~29 years old with 25 Paid Days Off each year, plus holidays and of course weekends? There's a lot I'd bitch about, but that's not it.
***
My wife and I are super lucky. We have a Companion Pass with Southwest - so any ticket we buy, we get a second for free. So her and I take a 3-day weekend somewhere in the states at least once a month. Leave Thur night, come back Sun night. Only a single day of my ~20 PTO days, and I get a nice little mini-vacation, as does she.
It's so sad to read that you had to use up your savings because she couldnt take off... It's really no surprise that so many American people live pay Check to pay check... I would vote for Hillary just because of that maternity promise.
ScatheZombie
Member
Every game development job I've had, and most tech jobs that weren't game related as well, gave us only the state minimum required PTO - which I believe was 15 days at the time in California. That's 3 weeks for the whole year for sick time and vacation leave. That was the starting rate for everyone and the longer you were with the company, the more PTO you got - generally 1 more day for every year at the company. One of the coders had been there 7 years and took a whole month off (to visit his family back in India) every year and it was usually fine. Someone else just picked up his workload and we knew to schedule major projects around it. Most of time, anyway.
So it's not like we don't get time off. We do. That said... there's absolutely a culture issue where taking time off is generally frowned upon - if not by the employer then by the other employees. There's a measure of peer pressure to 'be there' for your team. And there's plenty of managers who won't have a problem with you taking time off - but also won't adjust the schedule to compensate for it either. So when you take 3 days off of work, you come back to a mountain of overflow to catch up on and generally have to end up pulling several days (even weeks) of OT to actually get back on schedule. And the biggest problem with that is they still review you based on your sprint and milestone targets being hit. So, while they don't get mad you take time off or directly say anything to you; management screws you over by keeping your 8 hour workload rolling even when you are out of the office and expecting you to 'make it up' when you get back. This puts people into a situation where taking time off is either a wash or a negative.
So how do you deal with that? By getting burnt out every few years. I haven't met a AAA developer who has been in the industry for as long as I have that hasn't taken 6 month to a year off, unpaid, between projects. Not because they couldn't find work, but because they literally needed to get over working 4+ years straight at 60-80 hours in an extremely high stress environment with a culture that vilifies actually using your PTO.
TheCochese
Banned
Another thread where Americans and non-Americans marvel at each other and wonder why the other doesn't do things the way they do.
I don't generally take days off at all. I have a kush job, I work from home in healthcare and generally set my own hours, but align them to a regular workday. I don't take time off because I don't usually need it. I can work from a beach if I wanted to. I accrue PTO at a rate of just over one day for every 10 worked, but am capped at 300 hours in my bank. If I go over, they don't get accrued. I can sell them at 80%, but have to declare during open enrollment in October.
I haven't taken more than a week off in seven years, and that's pretty rare. I'm asking for two weeks off coming up, which is unusual, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Nothing planned, just a break.
Before I got into this career I quit a career in retail to raise my first two kids. It was either that, or spend 70-80 hours on the job and most of my salary going toward child care. Now we're in a situation where I work from home, and my wife works weekend overnights.
So basically I earn the equivalent of four weeks off a year. It isn't too bad. Sitting on 34 days off available. My job doesn't get done if I'm not there, though. And no, the business isn't going to collapse when one person isn't there. It just piles up for me to do when I get back.
I don't generally take days off at all. I have a kush job, I work from home in healthcare and generally set my own hours, but align them to a regular workday. I don't take time off because I don't usually need it. I can work from a beach if I wanted to. I accrue PTO at a rate of just over one day for every 10 worked, but am capped at 300 hours in my bank. If I go over, they don't get accrued. I can sell them at 80%, but have to declare during open enrollment in October.
I haven't taken more than a week off in seven years, and that's pretty rare. I'm asking for two weeks off coming up, which is unusual, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Nothing planned, just a break.
Before I got into this career I quit a career in retail to raise my first two kids. It was either that, or spend 70-80 hours on the job and most of my salary going toward child care. Now we're in a situation where I work from home, and my wife works weekend overnights.
So basically I earn the equivalent of four weeks off a year. It isn't too bad. Sitting on 34 days off available. My job doesn't get done if I'm not there, though. And no, the business isn't going to collapse when one person isn't there. It just piles up for me to do when I get back.
ScatheZombie
Member
Why? There are plenty of businesses in the US that basically shut down from Thanksgiving to New Years. Sure, they might not be completely closed, but the amount of actual work getting done is negligible.
Zoe
Member
Working for a school district year-round (no summer off), I have approximately 33 days off which includes holidays and non-paid floating days (work calendar has more days than we're paid for, you're expected to take the extra days off or bank them). I get 10 days PTO on top of that, half of which is in a bucket that can be transferred to other agencies in the state.
Right now that's more time off than I can utilize--travel is too expensive, schedules are too hard to coordinate. Just sitting around the house feels like a waste to me, so I bank my PTO and twiddle my thumbs during most of the days I'm forced to take off.
There are no specific maternity benefits. We're expected to exhaust all of our banked days, so everyone plans ahead and purchases long-term disability the year they plan to get pregnant. There's a limit to the payout, typically 6 weeks. When I get to that point, I'll probably try to plan for a winter baby since that's when most of my paid time off is concentrated and my workload is typically light then. That's also an advantage to the disability plan because if you're not pregnant by March or so, you can cancel the coverage for the rest of the year.
Right now that's more time off than I can utilize--travel is too expensive, schedules are too hard to coordinate. Just sitting around the house feels like a waste to me, so I bank my PTO and twiddle my thumbs during most of the days I'm forced to take off.
There are no specific maternity benefits. We're expected to exhaust all of our banked days, so everyone plans ahead and purchases long-term disability the year they plan to get pregnant. There's a limit to the payout, typically 6 weeks. When I get to that point, I'll probably try to plan for a winter baby since that's when most of my paid time off is concentrated and my workload is typically light then. That's also an advantage to the disability plan because if you're not pregnant by March or so, you can cancel the coverage for the rest of the year.
I disagree. Teaching once you have worked for a couple of years and have structured lesson plans etc has an extreme amount of time off considering the workload. It is among the easiest jobs when you incorporate the difficulty of other professional level jobs and their hours (including vacations).
The idea of summer vacation was to let kids work on farms. As that is uncommon now, it should be reduced to say 6 weeks.
This is very similar to my situation as well, except that my wife will work longer hours than she already does (well over 60 hours a week) as she enters the next stage of her career. I work from home about half of the time which allows us to keep up with the kids activities, but even then it is a challenge.
If and when I quit my job completely, my life won't necessarily become any less busy, I'll just be switching some of my responsibilities from the office to home. I'll get to golf more though.
gutter_trash
Banned
I could deal with it when I was younger, but now fuck that
we have one life, take all your vacations days each year
we have one life, take all your vacations days each year
It's 6 weeks vacation in Germany for the kids
How many times have kids vacation in America?
ScatheZombie
Member
It's 6 weeks vacation in Germany for the kids
How many times have kids vacation in America?
It's not universal. Some schools have off from June to September (~12 weeks) while others go year-round and have a couple week/two week breaks in the year instead.
Mammoth Jones
Member
My wife got 6 weeks. I got two.
We pay 1300$ a month in daycare. I get three weeks of vacay a year. She gets two.
We pay 1300$ a month in daycare. I get three weeks of vacay a year. She gets two.
My work (US based) is somewhat unique. We start with 15 days PTO, and 5 days of time off for professional development. 5 days of PTO are added every 4 years and every 7 years we get a 4 week sabbatical in addition to our normal PTO.
Now my wife on the other hand, her job sucked. No PTO first year of employment, only 5 days after 1st year. She got 10 sick days, but it gets better. If you missed a certain amount of days due whether taking sick days or PTO you weren't eligible for bonuses.
But I find even having 4 weeks of PTO now I still find myself needing more. However, I appear to be the exception as I feel there's a fairly big culture problem even here at my work and as a greater part of the US. Often time my co-workers don't take the full allotted time off and end up losing vacation further feeding into the notion that more time off isn't needed.
Now my wife on the other hand, her job sucked. No PTO first year of employment, only 5 days after 1st year. She got 10 sick days, but it gets better. If you missed a certain amount of days due whether taking sick days or PTO you weren't eligible for bonuses.
But I find even having 4 weeks of PTO now I still find myself needing more. However, I appear to be the exception as I feel there's a fairly big culture problem even here at my work and as a greater part of the US. Often time my co-workers don't take the full allotted time off and end up losing vacation further feeding into the notion that more time off isn't needed.
This is a problem I have to. I'm the only person in my unit and so far the only 'extended' time off I've taken was a Wednesday-Friday and that Monday I came back to work that took me a few weeks to really catch up on.
I can't imagine what I'd be walking back into if I took a solid 2 weeks off or something.
You don't have to take it all at once. I get five weeks in the UK and regularly take a day here and there to cover gaps in our childcare schedule, plus a couple of weeks in the summer and a week at Christmas. Goes up to six weeks at my company after five years, and there's the bank holidays too. In addition I can also buy/sell up to five days of annual leave each year.
Out of interest, do the standard two weeks vacation in the U.S. have to be taken in one block? That sounds really inflexible, as does having to earn sick days. If you're sick, you're sick. My company just looks into it if you're off too much to see if there's a serious problem (like mental health or family problems) that would be better dealt with through other means like compassionate leave. Varies by company though, obviously.
In terms of childcare, I got two week's paid paternity leave, and up to 2 more weeks unpaid, it varies by company but the minimum is one week. My wife was paid for three months, and then took a further three months on half pay. We also have a right to request flexible working to help with childcare (although the company can refuse any proposal if they can provide a decent reason why it would affect the business). There's also 15 hours paid childcare a week per child at the age of three. For each child, there's also parental leave, which is 16 weeks unpaid leave per child which can be used in chunks up to the age of 18.
It's still not very balanced in terms of making men and women equal in terms of time off for parenting but it's much better than it used to be.
Reading through this thread, it seems to vary wildly by company in the US.
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