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http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSTRE5AG57R20091117

gist of the article:

U.S. has the fewest paid sick days and worker benefits out of a lot of countries.

The fears among companies are that if you give workers more time off etc...we won't be as competitive.

I say that well rested, mentally sound, and stimulated workers produce better than overworked, pissed off ones.

With that, I'm off to catch the train to go home.

Meh, a lot of companies give those here already as it is

Yes, they give them, but incredibly less so than other countries. We have this stupid work ethic in this country that if you aren't working until you fall over dead, you're being lazy.

I hate taking vacation... nobody else here can do what I do, so to get time off I have to work twice as hard before and after the absence.

My problem is i have one pot to pull from for vacation and sick days, and they expire at the end of each year, so if I want time off in December I need to plan well in advance and hope I don't get sick sometime. As it is I have 5 days off left this year (and I have 4 scheduled for the week of christmas to head down to TX to see the folks/grandfoks)

I honestly don't use all the vacation days I'm given, and I'm getting more of them next year for reaching an employee milestone.

Look at Germany. One of the most productive countries in the EU, and they're practically built upon the idea of taking time off. I remember in my German class talking about how the average american takes from 20-30 days off a year. In Germany, it's a little more than double that. (I was looking for a source to back me up, but it's late and I'm tired)

Some unions in Germany have also apparently negotiated for (and gotten) reduced workweeks. 30-35 hrs. The philosophy is that a well rested workforce which is interested and engaged in other things, will work more efficiently than one which is run ragged on 50+ hr. workweeks and no vacation time.

Rob King said:

the average american takes from 20-30 days off a year. In Germany, it's a little more than double that. (I was looking for a source to back me up, but it's late and I'm tired)

Click to expand...

Good lord, I feel guilty for taking 10 days off a year. I don't get sick much, and it's all PTO. So I just take a couple weeks off for vacation and that's about it.

Get your damn 8 hours of sleep a night and you'll be well rested.

I get 13 day off a year, sick and vacation both, which refreshes the month I started with the company. Currently I have 8 days to use before the end of March. Saving them to see what flu season does to me.

Rob King said:

Look at Germany. One of the most productive countries in the EU, and they're practically built upon the idea of taking time off. I remember in my German class talking about how the average american takes from 20-30 days off a year. In Germany, it's a little more than double that. (I was looking for a source to back me up, but it's late and I'm tired)

Some unions in Germany have also apparently negotiated for (and gotten) reduced workweeks. 30-35 hrs. The philosophy is that a well rested workforce which is interested and engaged in other things, will work more efficiently than one which is run ragged on 50+ hr. workweeks and no vacation time.

Click to expand...

There's also the fact that the Germans tend to actually work during work hours... so it takes them less time to finish tasks.

And let's be honest, how much time does the average person just sits around doing nothing while at work... it probably adds up to more then all that time off you're talking about.

we have 20 days off minimum (lots of companies give more)+ 10 national days.

All sick days are paid (100% the 1st month, 60% after). Welcome to a socialist country with healthcare

@Li3n;301441][quote=Rob King said:

Look at Germany. One of the most productive countries in the EU, and they're practically built upon the idea of taking time off. I remember in my German class talking about how the average american takes from 20-30 days off a year. In Germany, it's a little more than double that. (I was looking for a source to back me up, but it's late and I'm tired)

Some unions in Germany have also apparently negotiated for (and gotten) reduced workweeks. 30-35 hrs. The philosophy is that a well rested workforce which is interested and engaged in other things, will work more efficiently than one which is run ragged on 50+ hr. workweeks and no vacation time.

Click to expand...

There's also the fact that the Germans tend to actually work during work hours... so it takes them less time to finish tasks.

And let's be honest, how much time does the average person just sits around doing nothing while at work... it probably adds up to more then all that time off you're talking about.[/QUOTE]

Annnnd....why do you think people fuck off during work? Because they're ragged down with 50 + hours a week. The cycle continues...

Chazwozel;301460][quote=@Li3n;301441][quote=Rob King said:

Look at Germany. One of the most productive countries in the EU, and they're practically built upon the idea of taking time off. I remember in my German class talking about how the average american takes from 20-30 days off a year. In Germany, it's a little more than double that. (I was looking for a source to back me up, but it's late and I'm tired)

Some unions in Germany have also apparently negotiated for (and gotten) reduced workweeks. 30-35 hrs. The philosophy is that a well rested workforce which is interested and engaged in other things, will work more efficiently than one which is run ragged on 50+ hr. workweeks and no vacation time.

Click to expand...

There's also the fact that the Germans tend to actually work during work hours... so it takes them less time to finish tasks.

And let's be honest, how much time does the average person just sits around doing nothing while at work... it probably adds up to more then all that time off you're talking about.[/quote]

Annnnd....why do you think people fuck off during work? Because they're ragged down with 50 + hours a week. The cycle continues...[/QUOTE]


That was kinda the point i was making...

GasBandit said:

I hate taking vacation... nobody else here can do what I do, so to get time off I have to work twice as hard before and after the absence.

Click to expand...

My housemate has the exact same situation. He'd take 2 weeks off, come back to work only to see the past 2 weeks of work piled up on his desk/inbox. Not much of a vacation if you have to work twice as hard for weeks to get back on the regular workload when you return.
So instead he just take a day every now and then.

Personally I get 25 vacation days a year and sick days are always paid. That's on a 36 hour workweek. I think that's pretty much the average here. Works great for me.

When I was in business school and more interested in that sort of thing, I remember reading a lot of papers or journals and shit about how adding more vacation days would vastly improve the work schedule/productivity of the USA. Other than situations like Gas, where taking days off by someone critical can fuck everything else up down the line-the next day, etc, it's really a no-brainer.

Seraphyn;301474][quote=GasBandit said:

I hate taking vacation... nobody else here can do what I do, so to get time off I have to work twice as hard before and after the absence.

Click to expand...

My housemate has the exact same situation. He'd take 2 weeks off, come back to work only to see the past 2 weeks of work piled up on his desk/inbox. Not much of a vacation if you have to work twice as hard for weeks to get back on the regular workload when you return.
So instead he just take a day every now and then.

Personally I get 25 vacation days a year and sick days are always paid. That's on a 36 hour workweek. I think that's pretty much the average here. Works great for me.[/QUOTE]

That would have been me too, if I didn't tell my boss to hire me an assistant!

---------- Post added at 09:22 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:20 AM ----------

Charlie Dont Surf said:

When I was in business school and more interested in that sort of thing, I remember reading a lot of papers or journals and shit about how adding more vacation days would vastly improve the work schedule/productivity of the USA. Other than situations like Gas, where taking days off by someone critical can fuck everything else up down the line-the next day, etc, it's really a no-brainer.

Click to expand...

But his case is a result of a company depending entirely too much on one person. How fucked would they be if Gas would decide to give them the finger one day because he found a new job. As an employer myself, people have to realize that you need to keep your top dawgs happy as possible.

Chazwozel said:

But his case is a result of a company depending entirely too much on one person. How fucked would they be if Gas would decide to give them the finger one day because he found a new job. As an employer myself, people have to realize that you need to keep your top dawgs happy as possible.

Click to expand...

Which is why, I think, they don't say anything when I come in late, and aren't too concerned about how much I surf. Honestly, it's kept me here even though the pay is sub-average and the work gets stressful from time to time - they are very easy on me the rest of the time.

When I worked at GSK (GlaxoSmithKline), our coworkers overseas in Belgium were entitled to (please don't gasp) :

- 4-5 weeks of vacation to start depending on position
- 35 holiday days that were mandatory days off
- The ability to have 4 day work weeks with longer shifts
- Maternity and Paternity 100% paid leave

Their priviledges were nuts... in America, this sort of stuff is terrible... in Canada it's better but NOTHING compared to this.

And these are the guys who found the H1N1 solution while the entire North American pharacutical industry worked 70 hours weeks and resulted with a huge proverbial thumb up their arse.

Personally, all I want is 4 day work weeks. To have this it would be almost as good as sex.

The company I'm at now offers 4 day, 10 hour a day work-weeks to a lot of people. I'd take it in an instant if it were an option. And with the IRS, you could also do a shift, albeit on the weekend, that was 4x10.

I get three "absences" per six month period. An absence can be between 1-3 consecutive days, but no more. They are also unpaid.

Going over this limit gets me fired.

Paid time off? Ha! I wish.

When I was in the casino industry, I used to get 2 weeks vacation and 2 extra paid days off each year. Sick time was accrued, so you'd gain 2 paid sick days every 3 months. After a year you'd have 8 sick days on the books. You couldn't accumulate more time than that though.
Since I was salaried, I didn't get paid extra for working on the holidays or overtime. I got "comp time", or paid days off, instead.
It wasn't bad except I worked 3rd shift by myself (the day and swing shifts had 2 supervisors each) and no one wanted to cover my shift when I took time off. It was a hassle for me to go on vacation and even worse when I was sick.

Yeah, the time off we get here is bullshit. When I was working in Scotland, I was SHOCKED how much vacation time those people got. The attitude is completely different there, too. When I was answering phones there, if someone called and I replied, "Oh, they're not in today," the caller would cheerfully respond, "Oh, alright, I'll catch them when they get back." This was almost universally true across the half-dozen companies I temped for.

I've worked for a few companies here, and if you told a caller that one of the employees was out for the day, you'd think you'd just called them with news that you've run over their dog. Seriously.