NationStates Jolt Archive

Hello everyone...
This is my first attempt at a starting a post, so go easy on me!

I was just listening to a radio programme that said that Americans receive no legal entitlement to any paid vacation/holiday allowance at all. This is at odds with the practice in almost all other developed nations. I was wandering what people thought about this. So, please vote in this poll and discuss below your opinions on vacation/holiday allowance.

Where I live, in Sweden, the legal entitlement is 25 days per year I believe. (My employer gives me 29 days a year). Personally, I believe this is necessary so that the worker has time to rest and therefore is less stressed and hopefully more efficient at work.

I think there is a legal requirement for employers to give 21 days a year here in the UK, but I'm not 100% sure.

I personnally get 30 days leave a year, which is a fair amount, but I would certainly like more.

I think there is a legal requirement for employers to give 21 days a year here in the UK, but I'm not 100% sure.

I personnally get 30 days leave a year, which is a fair amount, but I would certainly like more.

You get more than me, not fair ;) .

I was just reading that because Americans receive so little/no holiday per year, their travel industry is a lot smaller. Apparently the Benelux countries send more people to winter holiday desinations in the Canary Islands and North Africa than the whole of the USA sends to the Caribbean during the winter holiday season.

I think there is a legal requirement for employers to give 21 days a year here in the UK, but I'm not 100% sure.

I personnally get 30 days leave a year, which is a fair amount, but I would certainly like more.

Wow 30 days a year! My firm here in the UK starts on 20 days a year, rising to 25 days after 5 years service. I have a friend that works in the US and he got NO holiday for the first year of working there. Disgraceful I say.

My brother and his gilfriend came here to visit for two weeks, and now that is it for them for the rest of the year!!!!!

I work to live, not live to work.

Wow 30 days a year! My firm here in the UK starts on 20 days a year, rising to 25 days after 5 years service. I have a friend that works in the US and he got NO holiday for the first year of working there. Disgraceful I say.

My brother and his gilfriend came here to visit for two weeks, and now that is it for them for the rest of the year!!!!!

I work to live, not live to work.

Admittedly that is 30 days after 10 years service!

We also have the option of buying more leave at the start of each year. I fully intend to purchase my extra five days next January as I could have done with more this year.

Hello everyone...
This is my first attempt at a starting a post, so go easy on me!

I was just listening to a radio programme that said that Americans receive no legal entitlement to any paid vacation/holiday allowance at all. This is at odds with the practice in almost all other developed nations. I was wandering what people thought about this. So, please vote in this poll and discuss below your opinions on vacation/holiday allowance.

Where I live, in Sweden, the legal entitlement is 25 days per year I believe. (My employer gives me 29 days a year). Personally, I believe this is necessary so that the worker has time to rest and therefore is less stressed and hopefully more efficient at work.
I am american and yes you are 100% correct we are not legally entitled to vacation. Holiday pay and vacation are benfits/perks.
Union often negotiate for very good packages(by american standards, not european standards).
I knew a wonderful women who grew up in soviet controled...Armenia I believe it was. and she commented to me once how amazed she was at how hard Aericans worked, and how willing they were to hard. Right into the grave.
She in her own made the statement that in America one does not work to live, they live to work. Having no Idea most other nations(including Soviet block) do not put forth nearly the sweat. She told me that her and her husband had decided they were not cut out to be Americans and were saving their money to go home. Where the land their familiy owned(soviet ended) was waiting(paid clear, yes my fellow yanks no property taxes you OWN IT).
I could see the admiration coupled with pity in her eyes as I smiled at her statement and replied that is just what we do.
The American dream is a thing of the past, you can no longer bootstrap your family to success.
With EU and opeing business opeurtunities the new frontier is the European Dream.
Look out Western Europe we see potential across the pond, we will work 80 hour s week(many without complaint), every week, even on Christmas, and on sundays.
We will work until we told we are to old and forced to leave, and then we will fight to be allowed to work anyway.
We are coming to spoil your ideal too. :))

The American dream is a thing of the past, you can no longer bootstrap your family to success.
With EU and opeing business opeurtunities the new frontier is the European Dream.
Look out Western Europe we see potential across the pond, we will work 80 hour s week(many without complaint), every week, even on Christmas, and on sundays.
We will work until we told we are to old and forced to leave, and then we will fight to be allowed to work anyway.
We are coming to spoil your ideal too. :))

So you are saying that what you call the 'European Dream' is preferable to what you categorise as the 'American Dream'? Yet, you are coming to erode our social rights?
Sorry if I've misunderstood?
But could you clarify?

Admittedly that is 30 days after 10 years service!

We also have the option of buying more leave at the start of each year. I fully intend to purchase my extra five days next January as I could have done with more this year.

How does the day buying work? Does it just mean unpaid extra days?

So you are saying that what you call the 'European Dream' is preferable to what you categorise as the 'American Dream'? Yet, you are coming to erode our social rights?
Sorry if I've misunderstood?
But could you clarify?
Actually I was saying the European Dream is the old American dream and we are coming to screw thatone up too, i was joking.

Admittedly that is 30 days after 10 years service!

Wow...We're eligible for leave starting the first year. 30 days per year, and we can save them up to a certain point. Plus sick day allowances.

Here in the U.S., we don't get this concept of "paid vacation." You want to get paid, you come to work. Hell, not only is there not a legal entitlement to paid vacation, but here in Ohio, workers are not even legally entitled to breaks throughout the day. Employers can work you straight through if they feel like it (not that too many of them do...mine offers two 15-minute breaks and a 30-minute lunch per eight hours, though I don't take the lunch and only spend one of the breaks because my job involves sitting and yakking with people on a phone.)

Part of me would enjoy a buttload of paid vacation, but part of me thinks the whole idea is kind of bogus...paying people to spend six weeks a year on vacation is a little extreme. I don't know about the folks here, but I sure as hell don't need all that vacation time. Frankly I get rusty from just taking weekends off...I like my time to goof off as much as the next person, but I do better when I work consecutively.