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It could be industry specific, my previous employer and my current employer both have pretty generous leave policies. I also don't work for a US company (well their parent company is in another country I should say) so maybe that's the reason? But my previous employer was definitely US based. Although I will say they changed their accrual policy to be less generous.
ETA: Currently I get:
4 personal days
7 sick days
80 hours of vacation for the first year, then it goes to 96 hours the second year, then after that it goes to 120 and by year 5 you're at 4 weeks (I think that's correct), plus more paid holidays than a typical private sector employer (in my experience)
My old employer was:
2 weeks your first 2 years
3 weeks until 10 years
4 weeks until 15 years
and then 5 weeks...but they changed it several years ago to where you have to be there 5 years before you get your third vacation week. Oh and 7 personal days and 5 sick days. So I dunno, after 6 months of working there or so you could have a nice vacation I would think..
It's an employers market we live in today. They have total control over everything. There are
Millions more people looking for work than there are job openings so it's easy to exploit people since they knew
Know people will come crawling to them and take all the abuse just to have a job
That and most people who call the shots in business are sociopathic nutjobs (only a few steps down from dictator status) who have no problem making others suffers (in fact they enjoy it) while keeping all the profits and perks for Themselves
I read somewhere there are definitions for bosses, middle management and employees like the following:
Bosses and top management = sadists
Middle management = sadomasochists
Employees = masochists
The above are not in the sexual ways to discuss here, but about the enjoyments of giving and receiving pain at the workplace.
Back to the days when I had a job in a multinational company in Spain, I had the right of 24 days off yearly but if you don't take all the 24 days, you loose that days not taken. But... it was in a multinational, if you go to a local company this is a different thing. Also, in Spain is common in most of jobs to work overtime, they don't let you know because it is supposed that you are available to work overtime when needed. In the other country where I lived, Mexico, it is supposed to work overtime in the same extent but in a local company you have 6 days off, if approved. Another thing are he salaries, US easily has 10 times a mexican salary (depending on a lot of factors) and 5 times a spanish salary. Believe me or not, salaries in the US are really high, even comparing with the UK, where is not unusual to see 30,000 GBP yearly, far from your 80k$, 100k$. It also depends on the company I guess, but what would you prefer: no money for leisure but more free time or not free time and wealth?
One aspect that really bothers me is how stingy companies get in regards to vacation time. In Europe you can easily get 4 weeks or more of vacation. I for one would love to travel internationally and make decent money but vacation time sucks, and my biggest hurdle as seems to be the case for lots of Americans even for those that have really good jobs. I have heard how it's very common for Europeans to get several months off work and travel abroad.
Personally, I wish there were a law requiring companies to give every employee at least a month in vacation regardless of their job.
5 work days a week and 4 weeks in a month, that's 20. Most jobs already give you about a month off. The typical 19 days a year when you start a job.
You want more vacation, work for a staffing firm and take off as much unpaid leave as you wish. When one assignment ends take another month off before the next one starts.
If you work in sales, the less time you are at work selling the less money you will make. So sitting on the beach for 6 weeks a year instead of 3, you are going to miss out on 3 weeks of commissions. You will make less money, is that what you really want? Or are you expecting the company to pay you for not producing anything for those 3 weeks?
Personally, I wish there were a law requiring companies to give every employee at least a month in vacation regardless of their job.
Yeah, that's never going to happen in the US any time soon. Like most things in the US, the amount of vacation one gets from their employer is so highly variable. Many are lucky to get 5 days/year when starting off with a new employer, others might start off with 10 days or even 15 days/year. Then you have those who been with their company/employer 8, 10, 12, 15, or more years and get 5, 6, 7 or even 8 weeks of vacation a year.
Since the federal gov't. won't be enacting a mandatory federal law requiring employers to give you 20 days/year of vacation, I would suggest, since you value/strive to have lots of vacation days, to try and find an employer in your field where you get copious amounts of vacation so you can take your month long holidays abroad, or just immigrate to one of those European countries!
Another thing, because the younger generation likes/loves to job hop every 1 to 2 years, for them accumulating the 5, 6, 7, or 8 weeks of vacation a year, might be a lost cause, unless they find an employer that gives them that much to start off with.
I used to work seasonal contract work down in Antarctica, where a typical contract is 6 or 7 months, then you are "seasonally retired" for the remainder of the 12 months and you can volunteer, travel the world, find another seasonal job, until you returned back to the Ice for another contract. I did that for about 3 years, but others have done it for 10, 20 and even 30 years, it's not for everyone, but it's definitely a unique lifestyle, that's for sure.
It's because of the American bootstrap culture. Leisure time is seen as something that only the wealthy should be enjoying. Joe Schmoe needs to work harder and longer so he can make more money. People boast that they haven't taken a vacation in six years. It's an odd part of our culture and almost every class participates in it.
Yes Very true. Its a nutty society America today. People vote against their own best interests (Voting in the already rich to office who are only there to increase their own wealth and the wealth of their friends and family). I mean lets look at it from a logical perspective, why would ANYONE take office for a six figure income and all the stressors that go with the position if they are already rich??
And people who will gladly kill themselves and bend over backwards for a company and the upper echelon elite rich who have enough money to last TEN lifetimes and brag about it only to be kicked to the curb if the company finds out they can save a penny.
It defies logic and it a big reason why America is in the WORST shape its ever been in in human history
Yes Very true. Its a nutty society America today. People vote against their own best interests (Voting in the already rich to office who are only there to increase their own wealth and the wealth of their friends and family). I mean lets look at it from a logical perspective, why would ANYONE take office for a six figure income and all the stressors that go with the position if they are already rich??
And people who will gladly kill themselves and bend over backwards for a company and the upper echelon elite rich who have enough money to last TEN lifetimes and brag about it only to be kicked to the curb if the company finds out they can save a penny.
It defies logic and it a big reason why America is in the WORST shape its ever been in in human history
Ummm, I think you want the P&C forum down there in that direction (points below)...
I believe New York employers are particularly more stingy with regard to vacation and paid time off. I am leaving my job in New York at the end of July, and this is part of the reason. The company I work for has a particularly bizarre policy with regard to first-year employees: you are entitled to 2 weeks of paid vacation, but the manager decides which 2 weeks to give you. In my first year, I was given a week in April and a week in October. It was awful. Then, in your second year, you can pick one week and the management picks the other. Then, starting in your third year, you select the 2 weeks you desire (and no matter how many years you are employed by the company, you never get more than 2 weeks).
I believe New York employers are particularly more stingy with regard to vacation and paid time off. I am leaving my job in New York at the end of July, and this is part of the reason. The company I work for has a particularly bizarre policy with regard to first-year employees: you are entitled to 2 weeks of paid vacation, but the manager decides which 2 weeks to give you. In my first year, I was given a week in April and a week in October. It was awful. Then, in your second year, you can pick one week and the management picks the other. Then, starting in your third year, you select the 2 weeks you desire (and no matter how many years you are employed by the company, you never get more than 2 weeks).
I never heard of a company where you didn't have to get approval for the time you wanted to take vacation in advance. You can't just decide yourself in the middle of an important project with a hard deadline you want to take-off a week without approval.
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