[Lavalamp]

This is a rumour that often gets trotted out in my part of the world.

Is there any truth in it?

While we're at it, what are working conditions like in other parts of the world?

In Australia, most employees get 4 weeks annual leave a year, and 10 paid "sick" days a year. This is on top of about 10 days of set public holidays (Xmas, Easter etc). I also qualify for 3 months paid leave after serving 7 years in a government job.

 

[john_jcb]

I would say the average starting out is 2 weeks paid vacation + and about 13 days for holidays. Non salaried employees often get 2 weeks paid sick time as well. It varies quite a bit from company to company.

 

[rickcr42]

In the U.S. "vacation" is a code word for "unemployed"

Actually it is all "time on the job" based and over the years you build up your beneift package which includes additional straight vacation time and anount of personal days (no longer called "sick" days for some reason).The holidays folks get off mostly a standard set of days that everyone across the board also has off (new years etc).
I work for myself mostly so I am screwed and the only days I get off are the ones i don't get payed for which leads back to my first sentence.....just switch "unemployed" with "was underbid"

 

[EricP]

I started out with 2 weeks vacation and 6 holidays (Xmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and July 4th) There is also 1 "floating holiday" that gets assigned wherever it is convenient for a long weekend. To get 4 weeks vacation here requires 10 years of service. I will get sick days once I have been there for a year and a half.

 

[raisin]

I with Rick on this, I'm self-employed and haven't had a vacation in 9 years (it's how i afford & justify THIS hobby

)

 

[RYCeT]

I've been in Australia, US vacation/sick/personal day sucks badly compare to Australia.
Mine is 15 days/year combined (vacation/sick/personal) + another 10 public holidays. (Got 18 after 3 years, 20 after 5 years)
My friends in Sydney start w/ 15 days vacation, 5 personal, 8 sick day and whatever public holidays they got.

Edit: They tend to be sick every 6 weeks since apparently sick days can't be carry over.

 

[john_jcb]

I forgot about personal days. I think where I work the official guideline is for 10 a year. They are used as a day here and there where you need to get stuff done. We use them at times in the warm months to get a day of golf in once in a while.

 

[mbriant]

Don't some European countries ( Italy for example ) practically shut down for at least a month in the summertime? Canada is much like the U.S. The standard is 2 weeks paid vacation per year and about 8 or 9 statutory holidays. Depending on the company you work for, a week's vacation gets added for every 3 or 5 years you've worked there ... but this is not always the case. Government employees tend to fair better in number of holidays and personal days received than civilians. But like Rick said, for the self-employed, all vacations are non-paid vacations.

 

[meat01]

I agree 2 weeks seems to be the average, with 3 weeks a year being given after so many years of service. Some places also pay you for the week between Christmas and New Years and shut down. Some places give you 4 weeks of vacation/sick/personal time.

 

[blip]

Yep, either because of the general disorganization of Americans around work-based issues or because of a deep seated desire to make everyone else in the world work as hard as we do, America has one of the lowest levels of vacation time in the first world... And I believe that the average number of vacation days is actually declining.

Now compare us to sweat-shop workers in Brunai or how much people worked prior to the expansion of the labor movement (say 1880s), and we're doing pretty good!

Edit: I can't speak to the accuracy of these numbers but here is a comparison of vacation days between countries.... Note that I doubt this includes personal days.

 

[ken36]

Some of us thrive on work and never take vacations. Our great motivation is to be successful at all costs. Or not.

 

[mbriant]

I don't know how they come up with Canada having an average of 26 vacation days per year in blip's chart link. I've been ripped off !! Perhaps they got their numbers from government employees only, because that certainly isn't the case with regular workers.

 

[john_jcb]

Right now I get 20 days vacation + personal days and 13 days for holidays. Not too bad. Hard to find a good time to use it though.

 

[HiWire]

My company just got 3 weeks standard, along with a week at Christmas. Woohoo!

 

[jjcha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ken36 Some of us thrive on work and never take vacations. Our great motivation is to be successful at all costs. Or not.

I agree with this. When I was working as an attorney, I only needed vacation when I was really burning-out from the work. So maybe twice a year, a week and a half in spring, a week and a half in fall. I loved what I did, and was happiest when I was working madcrazy (110+ hours/week).

Best,

-Jason