Who gets the most (and least) vacation

[Faust Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Faust]

When it comes to taking a holiday, it's best to be Finnish, and (not quite) the worst to be American. A new study ranks countries by their paid time-off policies

Mercer ranks countries' paid-vacation policies - Jun. 13, 2007

[joycapecod Silver Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close joycapecod]

Interesting. I noticed when in France they have a different outlook on work than Americans. The "we don't work on Sunday" when my lost luggage was recovered and needed to be delivered!

My husband get 30 days per year...25 which are actual vacation days and about 5 depending on how the week between Christmas and New Year fall. Sometimes it is more, but never less. He also gets the standard holiday days.

It's difficult to get him to actually GO anywhere. He does use all his days.

I get the typical 2 weeks and the standard holidays, but am able to take more w/o pay, which is fine with me. I avarage 4 weeks oer year plus holidays.

I think many Americans are not secure in their employment and feel that actually taking their due time off will affecttheir upward mobility. I think most business should take the way of many bank and other financial institutions and require an employee take 2 consecutive weeks off per year.

Joy

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

In the USA, us retired folks get 52 weeks per year of vacation I had 30 years with the company that I worked for and got 6 weeks vacation and 13 paid holidays.

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

I get 13 weeks - simply because I work in a school. The one and only drawback is that I can only vacation during prime weeks when everyone else is out of school also.

[billymach4 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close billymach4]

I get 20 days + 2 personal, usually 10 - 12 holidays. Most of the time
I carry over 5 days. This year I carried over 5 for a total of 27 days. However I am sure I will end up with a carry over again. We can also buy up to 5 days. The only downside is that you must use all of your days if you buy vacation days. We can also sell our days. Selling vacation days is against my religion of timesharing so I am forbidden from selling vacation days.

[kapish Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close kapish]

Flexible Time Off - clump vacation and sick time!

I used to work for a company where I got unlimited sick days, and 3 weeks of vacation, along with the 10 standard holidays. Life was great.

At my new job I get 8 standard holidays and 15 days "Flexible Time Off" that includes sick days as well as vacation days. I hate the FTO concept. Even when I am sick and can't function, I show up at work so that I don't lose my vacation days. I itch to complain to HR, but I am afraid of them mis-construing my comment ...

[dougp26364 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close dougp26364]

I guess I'm about average for the U.S then. I had thought that perhaps I'd be at the high end of the bell curve rather than in the middle. We're given Paid Time Off at a set rate for every hour worked up to a maximum number of PTO hours per 2 week pay period. That leaves me with 294 PTO hours per year accumulated or roughly 25 paid days off. However, since we work 12 hour shifts those 25 paid days off (sick days are included in this), it equates to 8 weeks of PTO.

Fortunately, my wife and I are rarely sick. As it stands now we own 7 weeks of timeshare (one is an EOY week) and generally take 6 weeks of vacation per year (every other month). I'll occasinoally trade one of my weeks for rewards points so 6 weeks off and owning 7 weeks works pretty well for us.

Even thought the PTO equates to only 25 days it really works out to more than enough paid time off for us.

[falmouth3 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close falmouth3]

After 30 years of working, I recently took a job with a world wide company, headquartered in the US. They would not negotiate vacation time. I get 2 weeks of vacation, 9 fixed holidays and 2 floating holidays. They suckered me in by saying I also get 5 personal days, but I cannot take them before or after a holiday or a vacation day. Oh, and it's a rolling calendar for the personal days so if I use a day, say on April 1, I cannot use my first personal day the following year until April 1 or later. Had I known the rules concerning the personal days, I would not have taken the job because the vacation time is really stingy. And now that I'm into timesharing, I need more vacation than I ever did.

[Guest Close Quarterbore]

My life sucks....

I get a total of 15-PTO days. That can be 3-weeks vacation if I or the kids never get sick but honestly I am always strugling to make up time (seems crazy it is needed when working 60-hr weeks but I guess it makes it easier to make it up as we just need to be about 80% billable)...

Now, on off-weeks where there is not a lot of steady project work... that really sucks if I don't get the required %billable hours I need to make it up the following week. Sometimes I have a surpluss but other weeks it sucks and you never get credit for the 80-hr billable week to make up for a 30-hr billable week

One of these days I am going to just quit but darn if I know what else I can do to make the money I make...

[Sydney Contributor - Bronze Find all posts View Profile Close Sydney]

The study doesn't mention that workers in Australia also get long service leave whereby they receive an extra once off two months/10 weeks (varies between states) extra leave after being with the same company for 10yrs. After that, they get 1 month/5 weeks for every extra five yrs. So it encourages workers to stay with the same employer long term.
For people who get paid an hrly rate they would receive RDOs (rostered day off) about once a month when they work over 8hrs more that month than the regular 150hrs in a four week period. Professionals however need to negotiate time off.

Larger companies are much more generous than this minimum.

[JLB Please excuse me, I'm a Dick. Not a moron just a Dick Find all posts View Profile Close JLB]

I opened this thread only because Sydney was the last poster, and because of the conversation I had with the Aussie cousins in the OL East Village hot tub in January, 2004, leading to the thread Where Never is heard a Discouraging Word.

You may have noticed that one of them appeared OY (and then here) not long ago, because they are returning to OL this coming January despite their dissatisfaction the last time, and because he had saved the information I gave him about OY.

So, I concur with Sydney, that I was amazed by the amount of vacation and leave that Aussies accumulate as they remain with the same employer. Having not opened the link to the study, I would be surprised if any country offers more in that regard than Australia.

Of course, when you look at overly-generous employers, one could look at GM, and all the early retirement deals they have passed out, to solve temporary problems, but which put them in a distressful and uncompetitive situation, having to pay too much to too many for not working and not contributiinbg any more.

[TimeshareVon Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TimeshareVon]

In my last couple of assocations, I received between three or four weeks of vacation per year as the executive director. I'm currently in transition and looking for my next position as I outsourced myself out of a job. My greatest fear is that if I leave the association world for the corporate one, I will be relegated to time off in accordance with policy which could mean only two weeks . . . or no vacation for the first year! ARGH

I hate to be so shallow in my job search that vacation and time off benefits matter more than the salary, but in some ways that is the case. With one company, I thought if the salary was right I could simply take time off without pay because of their crappy vacation/time off policies, but I couldn't unless it was related to FMLA and illness.

So for now, however, I'm on a perpetual vacation and making the most of it. We did Orlando in February, I enjoyed a winter wonderland in Fairbanks, AK in March, we took in America's 400th and Williamsburg in May . . . and have two weeks coming up in Hawaii this September.

Yes, life is good

[riverdees05 Platinum Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close riverdees05]

I know this is off topic, but Yvonne, how was Alaska in March? Could you see the Northern Lights? How cold was it? Maybe you could start a thread on Alaska in the winter.

[ladycody Member Find all posts View Profile Close ladycody]

I'd also heard that those in the US take fewer actual vacations (as opposed to paid time off). In other words...that even those with the lowest paying jobs in many other countries (particularly the Europe and Australia) actually make a more concerted effort to leave their home and go on 'holiday' with their families during their off time...whereas many americans simply take the time off and work around the house. Maybe that's because those other countries get more time and can manage to do both...take care of household chores and vacation? All I know is that I'm doing my part to change those stats and to do as much traveling as I possibly can in any given year.

[Pat H Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Pat H]

I get 26 PTO days, 10 Family Care Days and 10 Holidays. I always have carry over PTO. This year is the first time I will have used more than 2 Family Care Days. I will have used all 10 up by the end of July.