Do Americans need more Holiday/Vacation time?

Compared to Europe, yes, we need more leisure time for ourselves and our families.

 

It's a fair enough description of our system. There are legal holidays, where most people get the day off, but of course this varies by job. Discretionary time off, which we call vacation, is a complete wild card. When I first worked in industry I had two weeks of vacation after a couple of years. It took five years before I had three weeks of vacation. I left that job and never made it back to three weeks (other than now, because I own my corporation.)

With the bad economy, people here are afraid to take vacation even when they have it. The thinking is that after you are gone for a week or two, the boss will look around and say "Hey, why do we need that person?" It's not a happy state of affairs.

I think we would all be happier if we adjusted our social expectations to include less money but more free time. I did that with my life, and I wouldn't go back.

Tom

 

The trend for all humanity has been to decrease the time spend toward survival and increase the time spent in leisure, and for ever widening swaths of socioeconomic caste, as we give more productivity over to automation. The most enlightened societies are at the forefront of this trend; the less enlightened still shackled to the notion that "work" should take priority over "enjoyment". In the US the capitalist philosophy, which approaches its "ideal" state the closer a larger faction of the population approaches slave conditions in service to a decreasing cadre of "capitalists", the concept of "enjoyment" eventually superceding "work" as a life priority will be slow to take hold (ironic in a country whose founding ideals include "pursuit of happiness"), but by the time the rest of the civilised world achieves sustainable economies with half a year of discretionary time for everyone, the US will have likely managed to add 2 days to the average vacation, grudgingly.

 

Just responding to the title of this post... YES!

 

Lets see... 9 holidays, 1 floating holiday, and 10 vacation days a year (3 of which are mandated for use during the "end of year shutdown"). So overall, 20 days off. And, since I'm salaried, it's all "paid" time off. Not sure how the company handles hourly employees.

But it doesn't feel like 20 days off. Holidays, for the most part, just give us a 3 day weekend. Yeah, it's nice... but it's not really enough time for a big trip. The best I can do is spend the time in the BWCA. For my "real" vacations I can actually go someplace - Colorado/Utah/wherever for skiing, Florida to visit my grandparents, or Ohio to visit other family. If i try to do that over a 3 day weekend, I just end up spending more time traveling than I spend enjoying myself, and come back more stressed, rather than less.

 

You can tell that some of us need more time off by the way some of us get all wigged out on some of the subjects here.

 

sorry gc, there is no one answer to your question. there is no government mandate for time off. there are a handful of legal holidays and that's about it. in my circle, people get between 10 and 30 paid days off. some earned with longevity, some freely given. some people get 5-10 days sick time, paid in cash if they don't use it. there are problems for small companies when people are out, not sure how that works in your neck of the woods, and international competition makes productivity a huge issue with jobs disappearing all the time. this should generate another 300 posts i'd think!

 

we can sure beat a dead horse, can't we?

 

:deadhorse:

 

i think we get enough time off. the country was built by hard work. you get too non-productive and everything goes to hell. i think the system here is fine. i definitely don't want to see any more government intervention. before someone brings up the fact that i'm a teacher, i'll just clarify that i get paid for 184 days per year, and i work 184 days per year. i have no paid days off. so, all that summer and spring break and stuff is time off, but it's unpaid. the only benefit i have in the way of time off is a handful of sick days and 3 personal days per year.

 

I think the main thing about America is that it really depends on what job you have. Europe has more mandated vacations (and I have a couple relatives in Vienna, which seem to have so many Catholic holidays, it's not even funny). I've been self employed for several years, so I've found I take less vacation. But when I was employed, in an ecclectic occupation of medical illustration anyway, my employer gave me 2 weeks paid vacation. I think I also had 4 days sick leave. If I had been there over 5 years, I'd be able to take 3 weeks vacation.

Honestly, I like self employement....where even though I don't normally take 2 weeks vacation, I still can work from anywhere I want.

 

Does this American need more Holiday/Vacation time?

I'd like a vacation...




Mods... do NOT pay attention to this statement...

 

Given how a lot of "vacation" for many is spent communicating on the Blackberry or Laptop, a good many either don't really want to be away from work or don't understand how to take a vacation.

 

It's that puritan work ethic that got crammed down the American throat so hard for so many years...

People used to work much less to provide for themselves/family, and had much more content lives. As technology has increased to potential for more leisure time, the "standard of living" has been ratcheted up so much that leisure is shot all to hell, in the pursuit of "making a living"... and, people are more dissatisfied than ever.

Tom has chose wisely.

 

You are undermining your own argument. At no time in this thread was it stated that Americans should get more *paid* time off. Being a teacher, you are a shining example of the benefit of more time off but less pay. Most Americans can't do this. They don't have the option of saying "I think I'll take the summer off. It's okay, I won't get paid." They would be out of work if they did that.

Many Americans now find it hard to use their accrued vacation, without fear of losing their jobs, let along taking an extended unpaid holiday. I fully appreciate the difficulties of being a teacher, but it is a job that is exceptional when it comes to time off.

I'm all in favor of more time off and less pay, at least as an option. I think most people would like it if they had the chance.

Tom

 

is this going to deteriorate into teacher rants? you don't want to hear my brother-in-law story... again!

 

Why did America get the Puritans and Australia the criminals?





Australia had first choice.