[AlanY]

The other thing worth mentioning is that many employees in the US and Canada don't even use all their vacation time. It's not uncommon to only use one week's vacation. A lot of companies have unofficial policies/attitudes that discourage taking your vacation time, or the office culture makes it clear that if you take the time your annual review will suffer.

 

[meat01]

That's rediculous! You need to find a new job. Why does your company even offer paid vacation if you are going to get docked on your review for using it? Every place that I have worked for does not let you carry over more than a week's vacation, because they encourage you to use it and actually spend time away from work.

 

[AlanY]

It's not just my current company -- this attitude is prevalent in many companies. I'd guess that in most places I've worked no more than about three quarters of people take all their vacation time. This article:
http://content.salary.monster.com/ar...used_vacation/
points out that just 47% of workers (less than half!) take all their vacation time, and that one in ten fears being laid off -- not just getting a bad annual review -- if they take all their vacation time. Politically, in most workplaces, it's usually safest to take 9 days or less vacation a year.

 

[KYTGuy]

For roughly 21 years of my working career, the union contract listed "personal days" (5 per year) that were "for the employee to conduct business or pleasure that must be done during work week"...I was never allowed to take even one...the only time they appeared was when I was unfairly fired, and they were calculating what to pay me...it was prorated as a proportion of the year I had worked, and they even backed out the amount of thte year that I was on vacation! Greedy Bastards!! However, when I won the negotiations, they forgot to offset against the vacation and personal leave that they had paid me, and allowed me to take my vacation anyway - I ended up some $8000 to the good.

I started at one of the last "gold-plated" union careers in 1975...when I settled on a job with one company instead of hiring out of the Hall, my vacation was like this: first year, one week; second thru fifth year, two weeks; sixth through eleventh years four weeks; after your eleventh year, six weeks.

In addition to "vacation time" there was "Comp Time' which was a poor substitute for overtime - it worked this way: if you worked on any of the 13 named holidays, you got paid eight hours for the day, and then were paid 1.5 hours comp time for every hour you worked. If you worked 12 hours, you got paid 8+(12x1.5)=26 hours Comp time. If it was a regular day, not a holiday, you got paid hour for hour comp time for any work in a week over 40. This sounds cool, but there comes a time in your life when more time off is not as good as raising your income, but it was not allowed. We looked in envy on those who could work overtime to get more money. We were forced to work the overtime hours at the Company's direction, and could only take comp time off with their permission. We could not be called back from vacation without an emergency statement, but we could and did often get called back off comp time due to some crisis or other... We got real good at not answering our phones if we were at home on Comp time!

Anyway, at the end of my working career, I was getting between twelve to fourteen weeks a year off from work, with the combination of vacation and comp time. Not too shabby, but a marked exception to most workers here...a product of an old, strong union, and the specialty of our work...

I have retired (at age 51), and now have 24/7/365 off...

 

[KYTGuy]

Jobs out of the hall, when you could get them, were: work 30 days, get 30 days off on vacation...

 

[jbunniii]

I've never stayed at one company long enough to get more than the standard 15 PTO days (vacation + sick, which means vacation because I don't get sick much). I don't have that much patience, plus staying put for too long is a recipe for salary stagnation.

The real vacations come when I switch jobs every 2-3 years (though recently it's more like once per year) - normally I ask for anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks off before starting the new one. This is the only way I have found to be able to take long trips. These are obviously unpaid vacations.

I would gladly take a 25% salary reduction in return for three months vacation per year, but I've never heard of an employer offering such a thing, unless you are some sort of school teacher.

I think most Americans overconsume so aggressively that they can't go one week without a paycheck, let alone three months, so the idea of trading salary for more vacation is completely foreign to employees and employers alike. It's unfortunate because we work way too much as Americans, leaving not much time to enjoy life.

I'm planning to go the self-employed route starting next year, so I should have much more control over such things.

 

[socrates63]

I started out with 15 days of paid holiday, but now I get 20 days for entering my sixth year of service. But new hires start with 10 days. There are also two floating holidays, 10 sick days, and the federal holidays.

I also got 4 weeks of paid paternity leave for the birth of my sons. I believe female employees receive 12 weeks of paid leave for the birth of a baby.

Overall, US workers do not receive as much holiday time as EU workers. I believe that that's fact, but it's my perception anyway.

 

[Mikey01]

Quote: "Is it true that most American workers only get two weeks holiday a year?" Quote

The answer is yes. And most of us work for Wal-Mart. Or will, in the near future.

 

[Bionic Gecko]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mikey01 Quote: "Is it true that most American workers only get two weeks holiday a year?" Quote The answer is yes. And most of us work for Wal-Mart. Or will, in the near future.

lol, if Wally world keeps expanding they'll move into law firms or something, Happy face savings sign and all.

"Ex lover gave you Herpes? NO PROBLEM, sue for the everyday low price of 249.96"

"Your Child was molested by a 46 year old janitor named Bubbles but he got off on an illegal search? SUE IN CIVIL COURT!!! Everyday low price of 20%!

"Suing Bose for Pain and Suffering caused by your brand new pair of TriPorts? We're so convinced you'll win we will PAY YOU!!!"

*[size=xx-small]all Wal Mart Lawyer Center branches are worked strictly by illegal immigrants, this way we can avoid costly "salaries" and give you the low prices you deserve.[/size]

 

[Mikey01]

Sorry, but you touched a nerve here. On the local Ham radio bands here last night we were talking about paying 8 cents for a gallon of gas back in the Fifties (1950 era).

That gas station owner, for that money, would fill your tank, wash your windows, check your oil, and give you a glass or stemware plus Green stamps to take home. You saved up green stamps and pasted them in booklets. You got something in return for so many completed booklets, like a toaster, or a coffee pot, or even a car. Anyway, that gas station owner, with the 8 cents per gallon, would use that money (of course some stations did repairs also, but not all) to pay his wholesale cost of the gas, overhead like station rent/morgage, utilities, lighting, maintenance, and hired help.

He and the hired help would take there pay home and pay a morgage, savings, all medical bills and hospitalization, homeowners insurance ,life and health insurance, save for retirement, buy groceries, car ownership expenses and insurance, property taxes, utilities, ect, ect. His wife did not have to work and he also raised about three kids with that earned 8 cents a gallon (less overhead) too.

Times are much different now. The United States has given "Relief Aid" and loans, help rebuilding, ect. to many countries to do it's part. Along with that it has tried to help countries, less endowed, to manufacture things so they can become self sufficient. A lot of it was pirated for the Social Security retirement fund and other monies were printed to pay for all of this with out gold backing up the paper money. We are left much in debt and the system needs great repair. Our jobs were going to other countries.

Corporations here in the U.S. took advantage of the new labor forces and their much cheaper labor and sent all our jobs to forign lands. Now the U.S. pushes paper for a living. A vast number of people in any country are made to make things (work with there hands) and aren't so good schoolastically and needed thoes jobs. With the manufacturing jobs they had they became very important to America and developed a sense of self worth and self esteam. Thoes workers became "Middleclass America". That made us something very good. That is almost all gone now and replaced with working in the service industry for much less pay. America was built strong by having a strong middle class with expendable income. That is shrinking fast, along with benefits and vacation pay.

Alot of people on this board are young and in the computer science field as well as other Techie fields, and may not care or see this in America. I am 55 yrs old and also in the computer science field making a great living. I do not have to worry. But I was able to see America "in action" as a great Nation and a great place to live for all not just some. Everybody had some money, not just the educated, and we were all proud of our occupations. We ruined that and need to get it back. In order to get money you need to build something people want and sell it. You can't build a great America pushing paper.

 

[3DCadman]

15 "vacation days" here. NO sick or personal days. This is besides the usual holidays, like Christmas and Thanksgiving.

If I'm sick, or need time off for some reason, I either take the pay hit, or use up a vacation day. 19 years of service at my co.

For the salaried workers at my place, they ride them hard sending them on the road and other things to maximize thier "value". They get royally screwed.

I just took a trip to Chicago for the "Assembly Technology" show (kind of for robots). I got paid for the 6 hour trip there and back, plus other time, and my boss, who is salary, got his usual pay. Obviously more than mine, but nothing more for him, despite time away from the family and all the time spent. He got screwed and wasn't happy about it because he didn't want to go.

 

[Elec]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.karmalicious Math's a little off

Quote:

Originally Posted by myself, aka me Replace weeks with working weeks and it's about right mate!

Exactly right! I get 13 work days off a year, not 13 calendar days. Saturdays and Sundays I'm off, no vacation time needed

Actually, now that I've seen what some of the long time employees here get for time off, I make out pretty good. 13 vacation days, 13 sick days, and something like 10 gov't holidays a year as a newbie.

 

[blip]

I'm pretty lucky... I haven't added up the days but I think as a graduate assistant I get approximately 2 months off a year.... of course they pay you just barely enough to get by month to month... but its worth it to me! And once I'm more advanced in the program, my personal research/writting will probably eat up a good chunk of that vacation time. Now if I can just get a position after I graduate, I'll be in the clear!

There is little doubt that working conditions in America are on the decline.. no matter how you measure them. Vacation time is disappearing. Real wages have been falling. Benefits are disappearing. Workplace health and safety standards are in decline. For most Americans, the new economy has been a truly horrific occurence, even if the decline has occured so slowly that it is hard to notice it unless you take the long view.

There are many explanations for this. I like the race to the bottom analogy that the globalized economy has put many of our jobs in direct competition with places where a job with 50 hour work week with no benefits and $1/hour is actually a means of financial advancement! This, combined with mechanization or de-skilling of jobs, created very little incentive to maintain levels of wages/benefits. The plight of the average worker is, when you look at it dispassionately, not really that surprising of shocking at all.

Of course, I have a devil of a time looking at it without passion.

 

[immtbiker]

At Xerox, with 20 years, we receive 5 weeks vacation and 6 holidays, and 6 personal floaters. I prefer this over 12 holidays, because I'd rather work on the lesser holidays and take off 6 days in the summer to extend vacation or weekends.
The funny thing is, they say you have unlimited sick days, but at 28 hours (4 days), you get a letter of warning).
Also you used to get an extra week at 15 years, but they eliminated that and have to wait for 20 years to get the 5th week.

 

[bobeau]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 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.

Exactly... I'm maxxed out on my personal vacation days (20 days) and they're just going right out the window. I accrue 14/year so if I take a full week off it's less than 4 mos before they fill back up, and it's rare I can really just take days off like that. I love how the longer you work (ie. more important you become) the less chance you really have to use them. I've worked straight through the weekend, taking a break in my cube right now, lol.