Vacation!

Mitica100 · Apr 28, 2006

Just yesterday I was talking to someone at work and we were getting really irked at how little vacation we have here in the US. Two to three weeks, while most countries in Europe have 4-6 weeks off. How annoying!... :lol:

Anyhow, can anyone tell me (preferrably someone from the EU) how they (companies) manage to give them 4-6 weeks vacations?

ThomThomsk · Apr 28, 2006

Mitica100 said:
Anyhow, can anyone tell me (preferrably someone from the EU) how they (companies) manage to give them 4-6 weeks vacations?

How do they manage? They organise their activities according to the resources they have. And generally it works well - we may not have quite the standard of living that you do (although some Scandanavian countries are ahead of you there), but we aren't exactly poor.

I get 20 days holiday and there are 8 public holidays. In the US I might get 10 days holiday plus you have 11 public holidays, so in the US I would work 7 days a year more than I do here. That is 3% of my working year or 2.8% of yours. Average (well, median) earnings are £23,000 ($41,000), but £24,500 ($44,000) amongst men. It would be interesting to see the difference over there.

Mitica100 · Apr 28, 2006

Heck, I'm moving back to Europe! :lol:

Yeah, well... Don't think our standard of living has gone anywhere but down lately! Gas prices up by a ton, heating petrol as well, commuting to work is an expensive proposition. Inflation seems to be setting in. Hmm... Rosy times ahead. :lol:

Anyway, I don't want to start a political discussion here but I thought I'd ask the differences.

LaFoto · Apr 28, 2006

Well, seems like German employees are much better off than those in the States, we have found that out ourselves years ago and have always considered us lucky. The 30 days off work that everyone's granted through the year as regular holiday are a result of fierce Union fightings a good many decades ago, and it shows that relaxed workers actually work more efficiently than those who are burnt out or plainly over-tired from working so much. So it seems like it is a fact (don't know which sources would prove that, though) that with more days off productivity does not necessarily suffer as much as you would assume, but actually rises because the individual worker works more efficiently. But these are MY words, and whoever would want to go deeper into this would need to do their own investigation.

But to make a long story short: 30 granted days off work per year are the rule, and you can work overtime and get that "paid" out in more days off... which leads to the funny situation that with all the work my husband has to do in his work, he often can't even manage to use up all the off days that he is granted.

We HAD TO fly to the States

wink: ) so he could take the surplus days from 2005 before they would fall back to the company for nothing! (Well, actually we could also have stayed at home with my husband around, getting at my nerves :greenpbl: and bored ourselves to death, in so far flying to the States and going to the DC meet-up was the better option!)

Rob · Apr 28, 2006

In the UK we have less public holidays than most countries. I get about 28 days holiday, plus public hols - about ten of those.

Rob

Mitica100 · Apr 28, 2006

Rob said:
In the UK we have less public holidays than most countries. I get about 28 days holiday, plus public hols - about ten of those.

Rob

Wha...??? Not bad Rob, not bad! Wife doesn't get but 10 days plus the weekends (2 weeks total). Which is very little.

JTHphoto · Apr 28, 2006

i work for a small company, so i only get the major holidays and 1 week (40 hours) paid vacation.

Rob · Apr 28, 2006

Mitica100 said:
Wha...??? Not bad Rob, not bad! Wife doesn't get but 10 days plus the weekends (2 weeks total). Which is very little.

To be absolutely precise - I work 220 days per year. I think - numbers eh? :lmao:

I forgot the mandatory office closure in the Xmas/New Year break.

Rob

spako · Apr 28, 2006

Well I think until now I'm the best off here...

As a teacher I get the same days off as the children, which means that I do have two months summerbreak, and during the year a total of 7 weeks (like X-mas break, easter break aso...) Plus we also have some extra days off like this moday for may 1st ,or our national day, santa claus day (6th december) and a few more...

But this is I think the only job here in Luxemburg where you get THAT many holidays...

For most people its similar to what LaFoto said...

leewald · Apr 28, 2006

Maybe you should try farming if you're looking for vacation time.

mentos_007 · Apr 28, 2006

21 days off as far as I remember

and... usually all the workers are forced to take holidays in ... december because they forgot they still have a few days off to use ...

Jeff Canes · Apr 28, 2006

Well I have it pretty good get 11 work holidays and 168 vacation hours per year, can’t really afford an more time off I spend too much money on vacations