Why do we only get two weeks of vacation in this %#@*! country?

[devilgrrl]

If even that much? How is it that most other western nations get 5 to 6 weeks of vacation? What is that?

Sorry, I'm listening to Karel. He's going off on why the nation is in so much pain, grossly obese, etc. and I'm thinking our lack or leisure time plays an essential role.

It's bullshit man! Bullshit! :grr:

[Shopaholic]

1. 2 weeks? Consider yourself lucky.

In theory, I get 4 weeks a year. In reality, I'm able to take 4 days per year, if I'm lucky. :banghead:

[Hand]

2. Three weeks is standard in Canada...

Plus some places just shut the hell down for the week from Christmas to New Year's on grounds that it's a silly time to try to do business anyway. I only know one or two places locally that only give two weeks, and NOBODY wants to work there.

I lived and worked in the States up to about age 40, and I agree, two weeks SUX!

[FreedomAngel82]

18. That would be nice

My dad gets two weeks off in the summer and two weeks off around Christmas holiday's and goes back a few days or so after New Year's. Now days it seems everybody is so busy and gets fast food a lot more and don't always have time to exercise. I know when I'm in college I'm so busy with studying and staying on top with my grades and homework and all that and I don't have any time for exercise and stuff. Luckily my Mom doesn't work so she can make us good homecooked meals.

[elare]

3. I'm still trying to figure out why

there's no legislated maternity leave for women in the US. In Canada, women can collect maternity benefits from employment insurance for one year (or she & her spouse can split them).

[oscar111]

5. A MONTH, i vaguely recll: for Europe

as their average vacation.

Might have been six weeks.

read somewhere that Labor here aimed for more pay as goal, not time off.

and that EU opted to fight for more time off.

Now we seem to have lost pay.. since RR's many attack fronts on us... and vacationn still stuck at 2 weeks.

EU has so many advantages! free dr's , free college, eight years unemployment pay in some places .. germany i think... drastically lower poverty, hmlessness and thus infinitely lower street crime.

they have better unions.. sweden has/had , years ago last i checked.. 95 percent unions in heavy industry, ninety percent overall.

Their equivalents of the Dem party,
all have media of their own. We do not. So build AAR air america radio.

[Heidi]

35. It's a month here.

August is the traditional "vacation month" in Switzerland. I love it.

[TahitiNut]

40. "Ferme Aout"

I love it.

[Telly Savalas]

48. Didn't they extend it to one year maternity+another year of family leave..

which can be split between the parents as they see fit.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. I earn three weeks vacation time every year --

but because of my second job, I can't take more than 4 days at a time. I wind up frittering it away on things like personal days and sick days, which I don't otherwise get.

And I love working 60 hours a week.

[oscar111]

6. Less time to read non-MSM media, so we stay stupid

interesting side effect of less vacation than Europe: we have less time for selfeducation reading nonMSM sources, like DU and library books.

so US voters are more likely to think MSM is the real world.

Hopefully, the internets will bring libraries into all homes fast, easy, and Average Joe will suddenly vote for Kucinich. Could happen.

[holboz]

14. Bush would say it's great...

Isn't that "uniquely American"? Or whatever the feck he told that poor woman who was working three jobs as a single parent...

[Jean Louise Finch]

7. It's reason enough to move away.

Europe just shuts down for August; I remember being in Geneva and everyone (EVERYONE) just took off for four weeks...high up CEOs and ambassadors and everyone. I really think that it's the only way to live. It gives you the time you need to keep perspective and recognize what's really important: family and friends, and the time to really appreciate them.

I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of social services. we have this need to work ingrained in us from the start: to pay for school, to pay for medical, to pay for everything (cause nobody else is going to). And so we start with working over our summer holidays when we're in high school (or younger)...and then we just never expect to be able to take blocks of time off. Hearing Australians talk about their "gap year", when they just took a year off and travelled the world -- how many Americans have that option? There's just no way.

It really depresses me to think about, and is a huge reason I don't plan to live in the States again.

[NuttyFluffers]

25. "gap year"? screw USA, that's the last straw!

i never heard about that! i wanted to leave america because of the time and economic prosperity outside USA (i mean, look who are the only people visiting SF right now? not americans, that's for sure). i'd have friends graduate from college or high school and do their month, maybe 3, of touring europe by backpack, scrounging money, and generally coming back to america up to their eyeballs in credit card debt. a year? and be able to start back in life without a maelstrom of debt threatening to drown you as you work 2 jobs and do full time school?

screw this! i'm so outta here. no extra pay, no wage that matches cost of living, dollar that is crapping out as a currency, overworked, less vacations, more time wasted on commutes from evil cars, and crappy, flavorless fake food?! i'm so over any guilt i've been tormenting myself about abandoning this country. it is sooo over. let the muthafucka burn, burn, muthafucka, burn. i'll be back to rebuild from the ashes, 'til then i'm audi. mentally now i'm so not here, check back with me when the civil war is wrapping up.

[alarimer]

44. Bush takes August off

We should emulate him. Apparently he is UnAmerican. LOL

[Elwood P Dowd]

8. You won't get ANY vacation time in the future

if this cabal of religious kooks, Neocons, and corporate crooks keeps getting stronger and gains more control of our government. You will be a happy little camper working two $6.00 an hour jobs to keep yourself out of debtor's prison.

I will never forget Limbaugh ranting and raving one day about the Europeans taking 4-6 weeks of "holiday". Lazy bunch of damn socialists. Turns out Limbaugh had taken the equivalent of 8 weeks of vacation that year. Bush took 4 weeks of vacation just prior to 9-11. Even the damn US military gives you 4 weeks of paid vacation.

[FreedomAngel82]

19. Don't forget

everybody will have to worship how the evangelical group worship's and recognize the Christian holiday's and worship days. If you don't who knows what could happen. Forget freedom of religion and from religion.

[Bouncy Ball]

9. Oh well you know those lazy-ass teachers get LOADS of vacation

time and hardly do anything during the school year, maybe you should do that. :sarcasm:

Actually I am kidding. Between 60 hour work weeks during the school year, grading papers and writing lesson plans over all the breaks, attending endless meetings and functions in the "off" hours, then taking required staff development and preparing for the next school year during the summer, it's not NEARLY what it seems.

But I just thought I'd head off any teacher haters who might show up and say otherwise. They're full of shit and need to be a teacher if they think they get tons of free time. Those who think it's easy and actually take the plunge and start teaching change their tune REALLY fast. LOL!

[Yupster]

16. I was a teacher for nine years

and I got a whole lot more than two weeks vacation.

Hope that doesn't make me a teacher hater.

PS -- one time I was at a little place called Steak and Egg Kitchen at about 2 am drinking lots of coffee and grading papers.

Some drunk guy came in and sat at the neighboring booth and said "so what are you doing." I said I was grading papers. He opined, "You're a teacher? I don't like teachers." I used my all purpose answer of "gosh" and decided I had graded enough and went home. Getting in a fight with a drunk at 2 am didn't seem as exciting at the time as it might today.

[Bouncy Ball]

43. I tended to work hard when I was a teacher, thus

I had a lot less than two weeks, all told.

[skoppa]

10. Because Americans tend to worry about there image.

We compare ouselves to our neighbors and want to be better than them, so we work more. There is a name for this but I can't remember what it is.

[SkyIsGrey]

12. Keeping-up with the Johnson's.

n.t.

[skoppa]

15. Yes, thank you.

I knew it was something like that.



:thumbsup:

[Booster]

11. This area is where unions are worth their weight in gold. I retired

in Dec 2003, but got 8 weeks vacation when I reached 25 years with the company. Sometimes unions spend too much money and time defending really bad employees, but unions are what get you the good benefits. Companies have gone around this by hiring daily employees, but I do believe unions will become strong again after people wake up to this administration.

[Debs]

42. Unions, absolutly

I have a union job and get 5 weeks a year, ever since I got 25 years in. Got two weeks after the first year.

[foreigncorrespondent]

13. In Australia...

...you earn one weeks vacation time, for every three months you work.

Usually it works out to be four weeks over the Christmas/New Year break. Some will take their vacation time then, and others will have just the main days off, and take their paid vacation time at a later point.

[bobbieinok]

17. Germans get up to 6 weeks PAID VACATION

[Jamison]

20. Too many Americans

place work as their #1 priority in life, especially type-A neo-cons. If these people had their way, everyone would work 100+ hours a week with no days off. I think everyone's #1 priority should be family. We wouldn't have as many divorces & social problems I think if that was the case.

[fortyfeetunder]

21. Thanks to our Puritan heritage

it's oh so sinful to indulge in vacation pleasure. An idle mind is the devil's workshop...that type of thing.

Yes it sucks. And 2 weeks vacation is sometime granted. I know people who get zero, nada vacation, and time off is not paid for. And it's going to get worse until the sheeple get a clue.

[4morewars]

22. Union Yes !

We (unions) invented the weekend ! These rich fuckers are not going to give us anything, they never have and they never will. If we want something we have to fight for it. We can have 6 weeks vacation if we want it badly enough.

I think it was Mother Jones that said, " Don't mourn, Organize !"

[Hand]

37. Joe Hill, actually--

just before they hanged him for a crime he didn't commit. :toast: :cry:

[mtnsnake]

23. Sorry, but that's what happens when you're a slave to OTHER people

Maybe you should be self-employed...like me.

Sometimes I go stretches where I end up working an obscene number of hours, but my time is my own and nobody dictates when I start, when I quit, or whether or not I can take some days off if I feel like doing so. :smoke:

[sweetheart]

29. Self employment and NO vacation

I've worked years of contracts without any vacation at all, as self
employment contractors are indeed a way for businesses to circumvent
those nasty labour laws. There are never questions about overtime,
paid vacation or sick pay. Its great when you're young and full of
fire, but if you don't work, your business don't get income.

I wonder how much paid vacation all those self-employed mexican
fruit pickers get? How about all those self-employed childcare
persons, lawn-care specialists and whatnot. The self employed thing
is just another brand of enslavement, one without any safety net, and
quite often, without health insurance.

[leftofthedial]

24. because our lords haven't completely won

the class war yet. then it will go away altogether

[R. A. Fuqua]

26. right now I get all the time off

in the world (between jobs).

But--it is highly variable in this country from what I have observed. My GF is currently only getting ONE week of paid vacation per year (she can take more if she can fit it into the work schedule--fat chance--but that would be unpaid).

Her father--over 40 years with a fortune 500 company gets 5 weeks of vacation per year--but he has built up to that--he only got 2 weeks per year when he started out--they increased it to 3 weeks after he was with them for 5 years--and so on.

The company I am hoping to get a job with told me that they start people at 3 week vacation time for the first 5 years---then you can earn more after that. You can also "buy" extra time--pay THEM to let you off for extra time if you want to take an extra long vacation. Of course---people are so busy they raarely even use all the vacation they are entitled too.

So--I would have to say that it is very variable.

I know one man who only works about half the year--he is a radiologist--and a partner in a major radiology practice. They work it so that partners have plenty of time off--5-6 months off per year!!! It is great because he has children and loves to do things with them--he is a great dad. (It is a very stressful job though--and the partners make enough $$$ when they do work that they can live nicely working only part of the year)

Most of us will never be that lucky--no matter where in the world we happen to live.

[hfojvt]

27. I get 12 days, in theory

but so far this year I have taken only two. I have about 100 hours built up, which I have not been able to take. I have only been full-time for about a year and when I went FT, I lost half of my vacation. That is, I still had the same number of hours, but that became half as many days.
There are so many jobs in this country which do not offer vacations at all. So many Americans are working two jobs, so not only do they get fewer vacations, they work longer days and longer weeks. That's why I wanted to move to Deutschland.

[RebelOne]

28. I have 3 weeks of vacation time, and in January

I will have 4 weeks. Plus, I have 10 days sick time and 3 days personal leave. I guess I can consider myself lucky.

[anarchy1999]

30. Are you feeling grateful yet? Yes, Massah, I am. Thank you for my

2 weeks after 10 years. I appreciate it so much, sir/maam.

Get the picture. We are all wage slaves until we choose not to be. Ends can be met without being a slave to the corporation and/or to the government.

[ausiedownunderground]

31. Holiday schedule in OZ

Everyone gets 4 weeks a year minimum Annual Leave we call it. Shift workers like nurses etc get 5 weeks Annual Leave a year. Every women is entitled to 3 months off, with full pay, Maternity leave for each baby born. Most corporations and the government also allow fathers Paternity leave with pay, but of course for a shorter time. OZ law is still caught up with the past! Teachers of course get 12 weeks a year Annual leave, like in most Western countries i'm assuming? They will of course argue that they bring home "heaps" of work during the school terms, so they deserve the extra time off! In OZ, school teachers work at school for 6 to 6.5 hours a day, five days a week! So their normal working days are short by the average worker's standard. In OZ, teachers are very well paid as well, by i suspect world standards. Most teachers are on $50,000-$65000 OZ dollars a year. Teachers with more than the normal child responsibility are on even more. Some Head teachers are on $100,000 plus Oz dollars a year. This is a choice that OZ governments have decided in an effort to attract half reasonable people to teach OZ's future!

[bleedingheart]

32. I have 4 weeks of vacation but I had to work over 9 years for the same

company to earn it. My hubby who had been laid off got a new job and was back to two weeks again...it really sucks...

I would much rather prefer that everyone had that much time off..

[B Calm]

33. I use to have 5 weeks vacation. Only took 20 years senority

to earn 5 weeks vacation. At 26 years you got 6 weeks. Those days are gone now, the plant is closed and the union is gone. I now work at the same site (but with a different owner) and get one week vacation, less money and no pension...

[cmd]

34. We really don't get French benefits!

Unions got us the vacation time we have. If it were up to the corporations, we wouldn't even have weekends.

[orpupilofnature57]

36. Hard wiirkk !!

[killbotfactory]

38. I had to quit because I got nothing

Not one day off (even unpaid). It was either keep my crappy 6/hr job, or go on vacation for my wifes birthday which had been scheduled far in advance.

[Logansquare]

39. I resent some of the pissy attitudes on the Guardian Talkboards

about how Americans don't travel overseas as much as "sophisticated" Europeans. Try it on two weeks a year, especially when you may have relatives (in our very large country) that may live a thousand miles away.

[MountainLaurel]

41. Relevant column from today's WP

Americans are likely to give back more than 421 million vacation days in 2005, according to the survey of more than 2,000 people conducted by Harris Interactive and released this week. That means each employed U.S. adult will leave an average of three vacation days unused this year. Nearly one third (31 percent) of Americans say they do not use all their vacation days, even though many of them say they feel rejuvenated when they return to work after a vacation.

snip

The average length of vacation time spent away from home was four days in 2003, compared with 5.4 nights in 1985 and more than a week 25 years ago, according to the Travel Industry Association.

snip

France, the land of vacation time, provides its workers with an average of 39 days a year, while nearly half of its workers take one three- to four-week vacation each year.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/20/AR2005052000546.html

[BobMorr]

46. Paid vacation-What's that!!

I live in the Chicago area. I'm a Union Plasterer {local 5}, there is no paid vacation, no paid holidays, no sick days! We only get paid for the time we work. If I needed 1 hour off for a funeral, I'd get docked. All the Union trades are the same. Except for the Teamsters. This industry has always sucked when it came to any of those benefits. I tried to negotiate for some of those benefits on our Arbitration board to no avail. You don't know what you've got until its gone! Any Union tradesman from other states or countries out there with paid holidays, paid vacations or sick days? I would like to bring those Unions up at our meetings.

[Lady President]

45. Who is allowed to take their vacation?

In theory, I have a very generous benefits program. I have 20 vacation days, 6 sick days, 10 paid holidays, and 3 personal days.

In reality, I would be fired so fast it would make your head spin, if I took even a fraction of it.

[footinmouth]

47. You need to work for the Government

I do. After 20 years of service, I am blessed with 20 vacation days, 200 accumulated sick days and 4 personal days. It makes up for the years that I toiled like a peon for a little above minimum wage.

[Catherine Vincent]

49. I get five weeks vacation.

But I had to work 20 years at the same company to get it. For that, I am thankful.