American Reacts to Why U.S. Vacation Policies Are HORRIBLE Compared to Europe
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- čas přidán 1. 06. 2024
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I am European and I want to thank my ancestors for their fights in strikes with their unions for better working conditions over decades. This is what brought uns to our standards nowaday. THANK YOU.
And there are always things to improve.
Sadly, UK governments have decimated the Unions in our country, with the few 'strong unions' remaining, having to make such a noise, with strikes and work to rule, etc. just to get some negotiations, never mind actual progress.
@@Thurgosh_OG It has up and downs. They also took a big hit in other countries but I noticed a small shift this past year with people realizing the efficiency of unions again. It always has to go to shit first for it to get back up again.
The fact that Americans take vacation days when they are sick is shocking. Here in Germany it's the other way around: if you get sick while on vacation and have this confirmed by a doctor, you get the vacation days "lost" due to illness credited back in full so that you can really use them as vacation days. Sick days are not limited at all. A work culture like the American one would certainly take away a large part of my zest for life. Greetings from Germany.
Same in Sweden
Same in France (Even tho Employers will try to rob you of your vacation day by telling you to use your vacation day when your sick)
Same in the UK, I was ill on my annual leave in January this year, I got the holiday back...
Here in Czechia we have both systems, simulants who know doctors are constantly sick when they don't want to work (fucking lazy commies), but when you are really sick after few years and your friend is not doctor, you more like take a few days of vacation than going to some doctors which is really complicated here, when you are really sick, you can't be traveling from doctor to doctor, our system is very archaic and you are constantly running with some papers from one doctor to second doctor, so when I am really sick, I prefer 2 days of vacation then doing this workout to get even more sick. 😀 I have like 100 days of vacation right now, so I don't really care if it's sick day or vacation, I can't use my whole vacation anyway. 😀
Same here in AUS
One thing I seem to notice. When they say 30 days vacation that doesnt mean 1 complete month, it means 30 workdays so 6 weeks.....a lot of americans seem to think it means the month not the 6 weeks. We are free 2 days of the week so those days we dont have to take off😉
In France at least, it isn't counted in this way : days off are counted in "jours ouvrés" (business days that only exclude sunday) even if you're working five days a week. So it represents five weeks of effective vacation time (30 business days+5 sunday).
@@chucku00 I had , before my retirement, holidays counted in working hours. It was possible to tkae one hour of holiday. (when needed for any private issue). Also overtime could be payed partially in hours extra leave.
Unfortunately not same system in Estonia, in here it is 28 days and that means 4 weeks. Not workweeks but calendar weeks. In the law it is stated in that way mainly due to shift workers who might also work on weekends. So you take vacation as whole week, not only days you were planned to be on shift.
Also 14 days of it has to be taken consecutively. So people usually take 2 weeks during summer, 1 in spring and 1 in autumn, winter has Christmas holidays
@@krisavi Dude, that is bonkers! In my job, in Poland I have 26 days of paid vacation which is counted as 26 paid workdays. 10 of which have to be taken consecutively if I want additional holiday premium on top of regular wage (it is like 170€ extra).
Even shift workers have the same rights. If you have shift on weekend it is a workday for you, but you'll have another day off during the week or get paid double the rate for working on weekend.
Also, unused days from last year are transferred. The most vacation days left you can have before you are forced to take vacation (or get paid extra for it) is in my case 52 days. Basically, I have to take enough days off during the year that by the September I have 26 vacation days left or the company either forces me to take some time off or pays me for unused vacation.
Also, also: If you work Mo-Fri and it happens that you have to be in job on Saturday (because of emergency, maintenance works, whatnot), you'll be paid double the standard rate.
@@rafal.zbojak yeah, I know, when I was working in Poland I had 30 days of vacation. That was 6 weeks. Basically 10% of the year you could be on vacation and of course as extra there were holidays. Much more holidays compared to Estonia.
(Austrian here) It's always fun, when CEOs from the US asking "Do we really have to give them five weeks off here? (per year)" "Yes." "And do we really have to pay that time?" "Yes." "Is there anything we can do about it ?" "No."
ja, selbst kündigen befreit nicht vom Urlaub...das überrascht Amerikaner auch gerne mal.
In Czech Republic it's even mandatory to take at least 3/4 of your 20 days of paid vacation. My Asian colleague was perplexed when our boss forced him off the work for three weeks and the poor guy didn't know what to do with all the free time.
I had a workoholic colleague in one job who kept not using his days off. I am not sure if it changed but back then if you had any days from last year left still unused by the end of October this year you had to have (by law) a schedule on paper signed by you and HR or your boss that specified which days in November and December you will use up all your remaining last-year days. So this colleague because he kept never taking any always ended up with 20 days off he needed to use in two months. So in November and December he had to not work every other week to use up what he had left from the previous year. And then next year this would repeat with days from this year. And all this was in a company that was a large Asian corporation with a comparatively tiny subsidiary here in Europe. Hearing Czech HR people trying to explain it to the Chinese and Taiwanese managers was priceless. It just did not compute for them.
What is mandatory is irrelevant, owners don't follow laws, everything here is half legal or literally illegal, they pay you on hand, they beg you go in sunday, again for money on hand, they beg you to officialy take vacation and then go to work anyway, again for money on hand. This is Czech Republic. And we work mostly for Germans. When you are in some bigger corporation, you are lucky, they are under watch of state, so they have to follow rules, but in small companies, that's wild west, they can do anything. And when you work at more important place (for example I work as CNC programmer and I am only one in our company) you really can't have 4 weeks of vacation, it's just not possible because company has to work or nobody will get salary, so you have responsibility for another 100 people. If you can send someone to 3 week forced vacation, it means that you don't need him and you can fire him. At least that's what employers think, I wish it was like that you can really have 4 weeks of vacation, but only people on unqualified place can have it because someone can replace them for few weeks. I plan to change work soon and I want to work at some lower qualified place, those people don't have much less money and they have totaly relaxed life, no stress, they just work and then they go home, that's what I wish.
@@Pidalin get out of there asap, what you describe is toxic and dangerous. I had to suffer an injury with some semi-serious consequences to realize that. Thinking like you describe your thinking (and what many employers want you to think) was one of the major causes of my accident. Now I will feel pain in my leg for the rest of my life. Don't end up like I did. Get out. Any company can get in a situation where they cannot work without you for more than a day or two for a time, that's not inherently bad. But if that is the long term permanent situation where you are you need to get out before something really bad happens to you. Someone with your qualification will always have options.
@@Pidalin If you work for germans, come to Germany. We need IT Spezialists like you. And we follow the Law.
@@hans-jorgwinzen4389 what is called "IT specialist" is mostly some network expert or something like that, which I am not, I just know how to build computer, but that's work for kids in China, and programming CNC machines is not literally an IT, it's somewhere between IT and labor work 🙂 it's pretty much pointless to move to Germany if you don't live next to border, which I don't, I live in central bohemia and I want back to Prague, not to Germany 😀
Its illegal in many European countries to contact staff when they are on holiday. It is also the companies responsibility to cover shifts/work of the person away on holiday NOT the employee! - as it is in the States.
Yes. In France it's called the "Right to disconnect" in fact i you read the law, vacation laws already state that workers are expected NOT to provide any kind of work when they are on vacations. But exceptions were carved as they are line of jobs where you are expected to answer... Then ythey had to reinstate a "Right to disconnect" as the exceptions were abused.
Covering shift is and always was illegal, it does happen however, especially in healthcare jobs.
What is legal is irrelevant, companies don't follow laws, they pay you illegaly on hand and when you are on more qualified place, you just can't have longer vacation, that's reality. And where do you think companies take that cash from? From Germans who pay also illegaly on hand to prevent paying taxes. Germans are the worst hypocrites, on public, they pretend how they are solid and follow laws and when nobody watches, they act the same as people from some post soviet countries. 😀 And here in Czechia, pretty much everyone work for german companies. They always have some weird deals with Czech owners of companies, it's everything half legal or literally illegal. Don't trust to Germans when they say you have 4 weeks of vacation, definitely not when you work for them. 😀 And workers from east who work for us have even worse conditions, they have to work 12 hours, 6 days in week, that's literally slavery. I also worked 12hours shifts in the past and I can tell you that I can finish more work in standard 8 hours than in 12 hours, but some employees don't want to see facts, they just think who has more hours is the best worker. 😀 I work as CNC programmer, I am trying my best to finish work in normal work time, I work few years to optimize programs and make everything faster, but I work only 8 hours, so I am worse by our owner than some Romanian workers who are here for unqualified work.
@@LeSarthois In Austria its also illegal, even though we don't have a name for it. If a company wants you to answer their phone/email outside your working hours they have to pay you for being "on standby" - which is normally about 50% what they would pay you for your real job.
@@anashiedler6926 50% for X amount of hours minimum I expect? 4? 8? Getting a 5 minute call can earn you a decent amount.
@@LeSarthois i remember my mother, when Paris was flooded, had to go to her job (she was working in the HR department of the Louvre) to move the art that was endangered by the floodings, this is th only time i've ever saw somebody getting called by their workplace to do something while they were on vacation
I think you are right about the "American bubble", if people don't realise workers in other countries are treated so much better, they don't become discontented with what they have.
If they are not discontented, they won't demand that things change.
It's like the elephant at the circus. The circus would attach a leg chain to a baby elephant so it can't escape. The baby would try to pull and break it, but is unable. Later when the elephant grows bigger into an adult, he is a lot stronger, but doesn't try to break the chain because in his mind it's hopeless.
I can't imagine what US Unions do, if they are unable to provide the most basic things that workers need...
Here in Oz if you got fired for taking your mandated holiday you could Sue the company for unlawful dismissal.
Unfortunately too many states in the US have laws that allow companies to fire employees for no reason. The fired employee can only sue if they can demonstrate that the company discriminated in some way against them. Ronnie Raygun did a fab job of wrecking the middle and working class in the US and eroding workers rights.
In the Czech Republic, if we have a national holiday and the employee has to go to work , he gets +100% extra pay (so he earns twice as much per hour as normal), weekends are +25%, night work is +20%, some employers also pay extra for afternoon shifts. This probably works in other countries as well.
I’m 48yo. I work for an American(!!) automotive company here in Europe (Hungary). Because of my age I have 30 days vacation per year (100% of my salary) and 15 days sick leave with 80% of my salary.
The American colleagues are so jealous, it’s always funny when I mention to them during a conference call that I will be out of office on the next 2 weeks (and this is only 10 working days out of my 30 days yearly vacation...) because we (me and my family) are going to vacation e.g. to Italy :D
In addition, there are 9 national holidays in Hungary on working days in 2023, this is not included in the normal holiday and the salary is 100% for these days as well. This means that in 2023 there are 39 days of vacation with 100% pay.
When we talk about this with our colleagues, we have the feeling that in the USA they immediately mention communism when it comes to employee rights. In my opinion, this is a huge piece of bullshit, capitalist exploitation. It's just an opinion, a feeling, it can be argued, even mandatory! :-)
Right. Paied vacation days on holidays are thing in EU too. In Latvia it is so its like extra 10 days too
I'm German. I worked for a German company in Pennsylvania for 11 months last year. The company sent me home every 2 months for 2.5 weeks + 30 days vacation and the 11 public holidays. They paid for flights, rental cars, everything.
I told my American colleagues that I have roughly 90 paid days off a year. They just looked at me like I was an alien.
And if I didn't want to fly to Germany, they still paid for the flights, for example to the Azores.
I know that's not a German standard either, but it's possible.
Yeas ALIEN!!! 🤣
Dreamer??
@@marc9080 US needs more dreamers. Cause zero vacation days and zero sick days is not OK!!!!
@@j.p.h.8126 The notion of sick days in itself is sick. It's not like you choose to be sick.
@@Arsenic71 Indeed and do you want to get paid for those or not?
A country that fights violently against having health insurance will not get paid vacation or sick time either ....
French national here, I'm about to take my 3 weeks vacation at the end of June, early August. It's just comforting to know that your company has your back and you can go out and relax without having to have a single thought about "work". I worked for an American company 20 years ago. Never again.
I could not take more than 10 days off at a time and they were calling me while I was on my break.
Here in AUs, holidays are mandated in law. 4 weeks a year, you don't lose them if you don't take them. You can in some places roll them over and get more time off. My dad used to not take holidays for a couple of years and end up having 3 months off. He spent that travelling around England and Europe. We also get 3 months paid leave after working at the same company for 10 years. It's called "Long Service Leave"
I had to be paid for the holidays I couldn't take for some time , then retired with 3 long service leave payments!
I have like 1 year of vacation, but I can't really take it as a CNC programmer, you just can't leave for few weeks when nobody can replace you, when I need more than like 7 days (+ 2 weekends), it's a problem.
@@Pidalin Bruh ... if you're literally irreplaceable, the company has a problem. What happens to them if you get hit by a car? They're fucked.
I get 5 weeks off - I can take in 1 lump or spread over the year. I do take the odd AL ( organised sick day) day here and there😊
@@Danceofmasks Problem is that they don't realize that, everyone says that we are just "pressing buttons there" and they don't care about some training of new people, which takes months to teach someone at least some basics how to work on that, but it can take years to teach someone how to program that without unnecessary accidents. Ofcourse, you will learn it over time, but you will crash it many times which you can't really avoid when you don't know what you are doing.
I'm an Australian living in South East Asia... I have been working for a company here for the last 9 years and even thought I've been offered more money elsewhere, I love the company I'm with and have no desire to leave - largely because they allow me to set policies regarding time off, which aims to give staff as much time off as possible - I set work quotas and standards, some senior staff are expected to be contactable during their time off but apart from that, I allow staff to do as they please. I see no sense in keeping staff in the office because they are getting paid but there is no real work for them to do.
End result is that my staff are happy, we meet targets, have high quality output and awesome staff retention - just by allowing staff to utilise dead time however they please.
In Germany we also have a mandatory 20 days of vacation a year. However, in most companies you get 10 days of extra vacation. You can also often use your overtime hours for taking extra days off. Of course national holidays and weekends are off, too. When working on holidays or weekends either way (at least in my company) I get paid 150 % more plus an additional day off.
Taking all that into account I‘ve got nine to ten weeks off a year.
what I always find amazing is the topic of sick days. you just can't know when and for how many days you'll get sick. What kind of system is this that is so illogical that people are expected to predict their illness. I guess a sick system.🤷♀
I'm in Germany .... I had 3 OP's on my cervical vertebrae (neck joints). The 3 OP's were done over a space of 1 1/2 years with 13 stays in Hospital, ranging from 1 to 2 weeks at a time. Not only was I off work for 1 1/2 years but my job was waiting for me when I was done healing. The first 6 weeks are payed for by the employer, after that the health insurance steps in and I got 80% of my wage until I went back to work. After going back to work I had 69 days holiday I had to take. I was at work for 1 week was then sent off for 3 weeks back for 1 week sent off again for 3 weeks, that got rid of 30 days. The rest I took later in the year. Not only that I didn't have to pay massive hospital bills.
I don't think OP as a shortening for surgery works in english (from another german)
@@justarandomgothamite5466 but for operation's. In English we say ... I was operated on my knee, not I had surgery works on my knee. Tut mir leid, wenn du durch meinen Kommentar (jetzt bearbeitet) in die Irre geführt wurden. Ich bin Engländer und lebe seit über 50 Jahren hier in Deutschland.
One thing they didn't touch upon is sick leave. I've heard somewhere that at least some Americans need to spend their holiday days for sick leave. Here in Finland I get 80 days of sick leave per year (need a doctor's note if more than 5 days in a row) ON TOP OF the 20 days of annual vacation. And those numbers will only increase when I get more years in the company.
My employer actually keeps emphasizing to us that the law mandates us to take at least 2 weeks of continuous holiday once per year, otherwise they will get in trouble :D
For example in Italy if your employees don’t use all their vacation days in a year the company is subject to fines and or more taxes, so at a certain point the HR department calls you saying: “hey man, we noticed you didn’t apply for vacation this period, would you like to schedule them? We kinda really need for you to enjoy some time off😂”
As a manager I have to keep a eye on people's holidays to ensure they take time off and even encourage them to take time off if they haven't used any holiday days
Ok, im maybe gonna blow your mind here... 30 days isnt even 4 weeks. Its 6! Because you only need to take off workdays, so 5 days equals one week! (the same goes for shift workers as myself, its actualy counted in hours, and shift workers do need to take off weekends too, but they need less hours per day so it amounts to the same number of weeks)
Yeah, here in Portugal it has also became a crime for your boss or colleague to contact you after working hours. Yet, it kind of still happens.
it's probably an EU regulation because it's the same in France
@@Dances-st6idthe only country that have a law is Portugal, in France is a kind of good sense, not to contact but it's not a law like in Portugal
@@joaomiguelsouto7290 it's a law in France since 2017.
I was on full paid sick leave from September to March, and it didn't impact on my 31 days paid Annual Leave, basically yes America needs to have a serious look at both policies
Hope you're doing better!
Being on sick leave for that long wasn't because you had a cold.
Here in Australia, depending upon your industry, you can get upto 10 weeks of leave per year. I get 9.5 weeks, that's 5 weeks Annual leave, (vacation) 2.5 weeks RDO, (rostered days off) plus 2 weeks sick leave which also can be used for a family member being sick and I need to stay home to look after them. Plus, after 7 years of working with the same company I get 6 weeks long service leave, plus an extra week for every year after that. Most I think don't use long service leave and when you leave the company they have to pay you out all of your accumulated leave except sick leave.
I am so glad that my parents migrated to Australia and that i was born here. When i hear this stories i realise that over here we are very fortunate. I love this country.
The US is a very very sick place when it comes to vacation days and it would profit a lot if the citizens had the time to learn about the rest of the world
It is actually up to the company you work for in the Us to provide vacation time,sick leave etc..
For example, the company I worked for had paid vacations, paid holidays, paid maternity, long term and short term disability, where I worked , I had 8 weeks of paid vacation, all federal holidays paid ,a 5 year bonus, and when I retired in 2017, I was paid the 6weeks of vacation time I had left for the year, all paid sick leave and my 5th five year bonus even though I was 3 months short of getting the 5 year bonus, BTW , I’m from the US.
The problem is most americans don't want to know about the rest of the world. They think there the greatest country in the world. And anything that makes there Life better is communism.
Long work hours and no vacation does in fact not raise productivity - at all. In reality it actually has the opposite effect.
In Japan (which has a somewhat similar expactation than the USA) some companies tested a 4 work week and to their huge surprise found out that the productivity was actually way higher when compared to the traditional work times.
4:10 It's still different. In Europe employers HAVE to give you time off. Here in Germany it is written in law that the employer has to ensure that you take your vacation.
Absolutely correct. There are companies in the UK that have reduced work days from 5 to 4 days and seen a happier more productive work force. Less tired, more refreshed, happier employee, and more productive employee who is more likely to love the employer
In the Czech Republic we have 20 days of paid vacation + 14 days of paid holidays. But many employers provide more days off as part of company benefits.
That's one aspect I never understood about the US, I couldn't do it, I already get lots of time off (4 weeks of vacation plus every other Friday off due to a flexible schedule, besides all the official holidays) and I still feel stressed at times and look forward to some time off to recuperate. The company I work for has a mandatory 10 days off of vacation minimum that must be taken during the year. Our personal profile page even tracks how long it's been since your last vacation and after a certain number of days it'll start showing you the link to the vacation request page saying you should consider taking a break because it's been a while since your last time off. Even our bosses make sure to keep reminding us that taking vacation is good for our mental health and that it's there to be used so I say it definitely makes a difference in productivity, nothing like a well rested employee to get newly motivated to keep being productive rather than feeling burnt out.
In Australia we not only get annual leave but if you stay with one company for a long time you get long service leave on top of that. It has changed but after I has worked 15 years I received an extra 7 week's leave. And still had my 4 weeks a year. All paid leave
Its not only that, but here you need to take your vaccation. HR will contact you towards the end of the year if you have too many days vaccation left over or if you have not had at least two joined weeks at vaccation during the year.
I remember having a discussion with our HR boss a few years ago because I had too many days left over and had planned taking them over the year change... I had to take a week extra before the year change to have the 14 days off at once duing that year, as the 14 days at once dont count if they are split over the year boundary.
In Australia most companies encourage their staff to take their allocated 4 week holidays rather than accumulating them so that they would have to paid at the hourly rate applicable at the time of taking such holidays. This was made mandatory in my particular place of work as some employees hadn't taken time off for years so that when they did the had to pay them at the current rate ,the company tried to pay at the rate when the actual holiday was due but after a visit from our extremely good union rep they were paid at the current rate and the new rule came into being , you have to take your4 weeks mandated holidays when due .they also now make you take your long service leave when it becomes due (we get 7 weeks paid leave for 10 years service), because people were waiting till they retired to take the time off at the current rate rather than the rate applicable years before a convoluted story i know but where money is involved people play all the angles . Fortunately I worked out very early in my career that I would rather spend time with my wife and kids than people i only reacted to on a sporatic basis ,so i took every hour off i was entitled to and my long service entitlements as they became due .t,his was over mywhole 55yr career and i was a healthier and happier valuted member of the staff rewarding the company with a good work record and only 4 days off through illness and counting 2days to bury my parents .
I got a couple of things to say in regard to this subject. When I came to Oz in 1971 and got my first job, I was quite stunned to be told I had 4 weeks (20 days) paid vacation every year. After about 9 months I went on my first vacation for 2 weeks. When I got my pay packet on the Thursday prior to the start, I expected to get my 3 weeks pay in it but was stunned to find there was significantly more than expected. Afraid a mistake had been made I went to see the people who did the pays and they explained to me that we got a "leave loading" of 17.5% when we went on leave and that it was also taxed at a lower rate. Stunned, I said: "You mean you guys are actually paying me more to be gone than to actually be here doing the job". They laughed and said yes. There is a reason for this, but too complex to cover in this comment.
Next, on my last job in USA I actually did get 2 weeks a year paid vacation but hardly ever used them. The reason was my job involve travel throughout USA, Canada and Mexico and I had to stay out in 3 week periods. I did not have to work on the 2 weekends I would be away so I got to do lots of good stuff like see The Doors live at the Whiskey a Go-Go, Knotts Berry Farm, Disneyland, Six Flags over Texas, Gambling bus day runs to Reno and Lake Tahoe, Joe Cocker in Dallas, Jerry Lee Lewis in Memphis, etc. My weeks kind of felt like vacation 2 out of 3 weekends. After a couple of years, one Friday when back at the office, I was called in to see the manager and told I had too much accrued holidays and effective immediately I was on 2 weeks holiday. On Saturday morning I loaded my car with some stuff and drove up to Winnipeg Canada. Had a great time actually.
The lack of vacation along with minimum wage and working several jobs, one's not surprised that people don't have time or means to go abroad.
One thing to factor in as well, is that lift in morale and spirit the last few weeks before you leave work for the vacation. So not only do you come back refreshed and more productive afterwards, you also tend to have a high spirit some time before since you probably have something nice planned, and you're starting to see "the light in the end of the tunnel". 😊
I'm from Czechia, I've got 24 days of paid vacation per year and we are actually encouraged to use up all of the days, since it then carries over to the next year and when you accumulate enough days your boss can literally tell you to pick a week and have a vacation 😀 I personally don't usually take long vacations, a week at most, and then a few days here and there throughout the year, but it's definitely nice to know that when you need a few days off to visit your parents a go to a festival in the summer or whatever, you can just tell your boss and if you have enough days left, you just take those days off without any worries about work or money...
We have reminders towards the end of the year to use up the remaining holiday allowance. Also sick leave is DIFFERENT to holiday! My holiday starts at the amandatory 20 days p.a. and then increases by one day each year of service for first 5 years. Plus UK have 7 additional public holidays per year (Service industries must compensate workers with pay or time off in lieu if they are required to work public holidays).
Nice comparisons.
Taking time off definitely benefits anyone and it also makes you more productive on your job.
Since Germany wasn't mentioned, here some numbers on what is offered in Germany:
By law, your maximum work time per day is 8 hours which can be extended to 10 hours if your average working hours over 6 months still are 8 hours per day, so you work less than 8 hours on some days to then work up to 10 hours on other days. The maximum work time per week is 48 hours which can also be extended to 60 hours if your average over 4 months reamains 48 hours or less.
By law, you get at least 20 days off per year even with those restrictions in place. Most companies offer much more, most people I know get around 30 days paid leave per year for vacations. In addition to those days, there are 10-14 national or regional holidays per year. On top of that, you can get up to 5 days per year or 10 days within any given 2 years to participate in a course that will enhance your skills in your job. You can also combine these days with your vacation so that you may take a course for 5 days abroad and then spend another 2 weeks (or more) there on vacation.
By law, you can take up to 6 weeks of paid sick leave per year during which your employer pays 100% of your salary. After those 6 weeks, you get 70% of your gross salary but not more than 90% of your net salary by your mandatory health insurance for up to an additional 78 weeks. Most employers do not even require a doctor's notice if you only call in sick for one or even two days. It is actually considered polite towards your colleagues to do that since you won't infect them with your cold or whatever you may be suffering from. Sick leave has nothing to do with your paid days off, so any sick leave is in addition to your paid days off.
A bit more on the differences between social security in the US vs. Germany:
Your mandatory health insurance is roughly paid in half by yourself and in half by your employer but it does not depend on your employer or even on being employed. If you lose your job, the insurance is paid by the state and you keep all the benefits you had while you were employed - or you get them even if you were never employed.
Your mandatory health insurance covers everything, you just need to pay a small part of the cost, e.g. 5 EUR for any medication even if it would cost thousands of EUR or 10 EUR per day you need to stay in a hospital no matter what is being done, all treatments and meals are fully covered. For dental work you may have to pay a surcharge depending on the type of treatment but routine checkups and minor repairs are covered. All payments are further limited to 2% of your annual gross salary, so no matter which sickness you may have, you stop paying any surcharges once you reached that 2% threshold. Nobody in Germany is afraid of calling an ambulance since it is always free unless you called it as some kind of joke and no matter where you are in Germany, either an ambulance or a helicopter will get to you within 8 to 15 minutes and either treat you where you are or if necessary take you to the nearest hospital that can deal with your injury or sickness.
By law, any employee is also covered by old age insurance so that you get a certain percentage of your income once you retire. This percentage depends on the number of years you were employed, your income and some other factors, e.g. if you took parental leave, that time will be included in your benefits. This is also paid in half by the employer and the employee and changing your job to another company does not affect it at all, you don't lose your earned benefits ever.
By law, parental leave is 36 months which can be split between both parents and it can also be interrupted, e.g. 12 months after birth, then 6 months when the child turns 3 and the remaining 18 months when the child gets to school. During parental leave, the state pays between 65% (if you earn much) up to 100% if you earn 1800 EUR per month or less. After your parental leave, your employer is legally obliged to keep employing you.
Just as a side note: Health insurance was introduced in 1883 and old age insurance was introduced in 1889 by Otto von Bismarck, so both are long established and work well.
Child care in Germany is also much cheaper than in the US, in my region, it costs 104 EUR per month for up to 10 hours of care per working day. On top of that, Germany gives 250 EUR per child per month to help with the cost of rasing the child. This is being paid until the child earns money after it turned 18. So if it is then still in apprenticeship or going to university or college at 18, it will be paid until that is finished, at the longest until the child is 25.
Here in Australia most businesses/companies are closed (or minimum staff) between Xmas and new year’s and some will be closed for the last week of December and first week of January. (Unless you’re in retail or emergency services) most businesses people get 3/4 weeks of holidays per year and we usually have about 8 sick days per year.
In Australia we are given 20 days per year and that accumulates over the years if you don't use it all, I currently have over 600 hours in my annual leave bank. I work 12 hour shifts so that is over 50 days if I want to take it all at once. We also are given long service leave if we stay with the company for 7 years of 3 months. Even if you don't go anywhere, just staying at home and unwinding, it's beneficial to your mental health. Of course, going somewhere is nice too, but only if you can afford it. On top of that we are given sick leave and depending on the company that can accumulate too. I am encouraged to stay at home when I am sick so I don't spread it to others and there is no guilt associated either. We are also given long service leave of 3 months if we stay with the company for 7 years or more. I think we have a very European state of mind when it comes to holidays but I think we also like to get out and enjoy our own backyard and the great weather. I think it shows in our laidback culture that some just don't understand. Work to live not live to work. I'm not anyone's slave. 😂😂
In AUS you can accrue up to 8 weeks holidays (ie 2 years worth) after which the employer can force you to take time off. This is to safeguard you from the perceived and actual stigmas you talk about, but also to safeguard the workaholics from themselves.
Yes, but most companies now write it into your contract that you will take the 20 days every year and not accrue them.
@@shaggytrails777 My company allowed people to bring some days to the next year...But it was maximized. Also because it's impossible to tkae free days when sick. If you would have the last 2 weeks of the year off but got a sickness just than those 10 days would be added to the holidya leave for next year....but had to be taken within the first 3 months of that year.
this is so intresting ! i'm french, and for my last job, i'have work for like 10 mounth in a pub, and when i wanted to quit, i had to take all my time off before quitting, witch was about 4 weeks
Just yesterday was Father's day/Ascension which is a mandatory holiday in Germany. I have 40 days off each year and i work in a smaller private company which isn't as generous, my brother has for example 2 more paid vacation days and 2 more holidays (since he lives in Bavaria) than me.
One thing that might blow your mind is that, aside that we get that minimum of 5 weeks (25 work days) off (most people I know have total of 6-8 weeks off in reality, or more) + the national holidays, we also get an extra pay for the holidays. Meaning that we get our normal salary plus a holiday bonus (often 1 extra month salary/year). And nobody answers job emails or calls during the vacation.
And, one really cannot get fired during a sick leave.
If you get fired, it's always a 3 month paid notice. And if you're in an union (like most are), you'll get paid a minimum of 80% for 300 to 500 days (depending on your work history) after that period.
And when you're at it, you might want to Google "parental leave in Finland/Sweden/Denmark" to get a shock.
Come here, we have paid vacations, rallye cars and black candies. 😄
You see those 20 days and think 3 weeks. However, don't forget that the work week is 5 days. You can usually take Saturday to Sunday the following week (9 days) and only use 5 of your vacation days (the weekdays)
Hello! A couple of things that might help with a clearer view:
- days off are working days; therefore 20 days means 4 weeks.
- bank holidays are counted different from one country to another (ex: my country, if national holiday is on Sunday, than you get the day off only if you work on that Sunday - other countries will add an extra day to your vacation time in the same situation).
In my country (and I assume in most EU countries as well, as legislation is mostly harmonized throughout EU) :
- bonus days are added for time spent in the company by low (ex: 25 days for 10 years working);
- all days off are mandatory by law. If there are days unused by end of year, they have to be taken in first 3 months of next year. If contract is interrupted, untaken days have to be payed.
- out of minimum 21 vacation days (in my country), a batch of 10 have to be taken uninterrupted (so you have to take/give 2 weeks in a raw vacation time);
- on top of vacation and bank holidays, there are event days (birth of a child, getting married, decease of first degree relative etc);
- child care vacation (with 75% income) is 1 or 2 years (second year you get bonus pay for early come-back at work if you want to). Child care training (usually for fathers), child sick care, pregnancy risk are extra days off (with medical documents).
- specific days off are mandatory for some jobs (extra stress, danger etc) or employees types (handicap, below 18 etc)
- medical leave is regulated separately and is driven by medics (your personal medic can give you 3-30 days medical leave, specialist up to 3 months, commissions of medics above 3 months);
- overtime (more than 40 h a week, with a maximum of 32 h a month) results in extra free time (to be taken in same month or next 3 months) , or double pay.
- august off seems nice but isn't really, as roads, transports means and accommodation are overcrowded (no one can build to cope with such high peak and not be used other 11 months a year); prices are highly inflated for everything; delays and canceling are nightmarish. Ex: last august flights canceling and overbooking were a general issue; you can still get up to 600 euros for damage and delays (on top of new ticket or voucher for what you paid) but it counts little against a ruined vacation that you have to have (you can't go back to work, and a 2 days delayed flight means you pays 2 days the hotel for nothing , without the possibility to extend your leave from it).
In Germany you have 20 vacationdays, when you have a 5-day working week, if you have a 6-day working week you get 24 vacationdays by the law. The most companies offers more days, i've 30 vacation with a 5-day workingweek.
Nice! my company in Spain gives 27 days after 3 years and 30 after 8 years. With bank holidays I've totally 43 paid days right now
Here in the Netherlands we don't have many public holidays, we have eight of them. But if you work full time you have 25 or 30 payed vacation days (workdays). I think it is nicer when you can choose which time you are free. Normally people take 3 weeks in a row in summer and use the rest for short vacations (christmas, spring etc.). I agree with the idea thjat if you have time to relax, your work production is more efficient
I'm in the UK and currently get 27 days that I can book pretty much when I want (within reason), as well as 8 or 9 days of what we call Bank Holidays (effectively state defined holidays such as 2 days at Christmas, 2 at Easter, a handful more scattered through the year, and this year we had an extra one for the Coronation). I left school in 1977 and my first job had 20 days holiday (+ Bank Holidays) which I could start to book from day 1, and I've never had a job with less than that (even before the working time directive came into force). It is expected that people will use all of their holiday, and towards the end of the year anyone that still has a lot left to take will be contacted by their manager to find out why they haven't taken it, and urged to use it before the year ends. As for comments in the video about people not being able to afford to go away, I often can't afford it but I still have the time off to relax, do something with the garden, catch up on books/films etc.
Here in Italy , it differs from job to job if you can "transfer" your vacation days into the next year. In most places (mine, for instance) you HAVE to use them all up. In some other places they pay you the days you did not use. And "sick time" is unheard of. You cannot foresee if you will be sick, when or how long, so sick time is... when you're sick. The doctor certifies that you are, and the certificate goes to your employer and to the statal institution that pays for sick days ( you have to be at home at certain times of the day, in case a doctor comes home for a control). So there is no "defined" maximum amount of sick days.
P.S. maybe more americans would like to learn more about different countries or regions, if they could just visit them on vacation... am I wrong?
Greetings!
Here in Germany it is mandatory to take at least 3 weeks at a time (15 days plus 3 weekends) as a holiday once a year. At my old employer I had to sign a form every year that I would voluntarily take 3 x 2 weeks vacation instead of 3 weeks plus 2 weeks plus 1 week.
That not universally true: According to § 7 Abs. 2 BUrlG (the federal law regulating vacations) the minimum is 12 consecutive workdays. (That's two weeks, since that law defines a workday as Mo-Sa). That the minimum, though, so those three weeks you mentioned could be a due to a state law or collective agreement.
I'm an Intensive Care Paramedic in Australia. I get 6 weeks annual leave per year (but get 8 weeks pay in the form of leave loading). If I'm sick during my paid leave, that leave gets re-credited to my leave balance and I get paid sick leave instead. Sick leave accumulates at 114 hours per year (pro rata) and unused sick leave carries over to the subsequent years. I currently have a paid sick leave balance >800hrs if needed.
We also get paid long service leave which accrues 8.7 weeks leave at 10 years of service and an additional 4 weeks for every subsequent 5 years of service (all pro-rata). This LSL can be taken in addition to your 6 weeks of annual leave. Unused AL and LSL accumulates and is carried into subsequent years.
We have a number of other additional leave options such as Personal Carers Leave (PCL) and Family and Carers Leave (FACS). PCL can be used for example, when a direct family member, such as my wife or kids are unwell, and they need me to care for them. FACS can be used for funerals or last minute emergency medical appointments for parents/ grandparents if no other options are available for example.
I used PCL last week to take a paid day off work when my normal child care arrangements fell through and I had to stay home to manage the kids.
Hi, I'm french and having days off is essentiel to work well. For example, this week I have 2 days off, thursday and friday, cause thusday is a public holiday and our company gives us friday, so we can have a four days week-end. And we have another public holiday on monday. In august, I will be on vacation 3 weeks in a row. Here it's normal. In France, normally, you have to take your paid vacations, at least twice a year, and for once at least 3 weeks. So most people takes 3 weeks in summer, 1 for Christmas or New Year's Eve, and one in February or for Easter. And we cas travel easily due to the fact that the country is "small"
I have 43 vacitiondays in Germany. 28 days basic, plus 3 days for Working at Night, plus 12 days instead of a wage increase.
Here in Greece we have 25 paid working days per year (5 weeks) for vacation plus you get a "vacation benefit" that equals to half of your salary. You can take all days in one time or you can split them in periods. Also If there are days left by the end of the year, these days are automaticaly added to the following year. It is prohibited by law to be "interrupted"by your business during your holidays. Finally there are a number of national holidays and two more benefits, half of a salary for Easter as well as a full salary for Christmas.
Lol today I was "forced" to book 2 weeks off work as well as a 4 day weekend 😂
I've been building up too many days.
I started the job in January 😂😂
8:19 Promenade des anglais (Nice)
French don't have 30 days, it's 5 weeks and depend on your job, if you work 5 days/week it's 25 days vacations, if you work 6 days/week it's 30 cause 5 days * 5 weeks = 25 and 6 * 5 = 30.
Last week I met 2 ingenieur from the US (one was from Chicago) here in The Netherlands where in a town not far from where I live, we were on a kind of "springcruise" so they were showing us the windmills and all and one if them was at work on vacation amd that was pretty sad actually, you're away for something special but still at work
Greetings from The Hague and if you have time come visit our little beautiful country
For clarification about France's 30 days off:
It's actually 5 weeks off, the way days are counted by law is a little weird. So in most situations (5 day workweek), it's really 25 days off per year.
Also the way they are paid is basically this: every year, an extra 10% compensation is set aside to pay for your days off the following year. As 5 weeks per year is about 10% of the work time, you get paid about the same on your days off as you do on your normal work days.
It's important for temp workers, as they don't have contracts long enough to allow for vacation, they instead get a 10% pay increase as paid time off.
Also the holiday number is misleading. We have a lot more than the Pentecost Monday:
jan 1st, may 1st, may 8th, jully 14th, aug 15th, nov 1st, nov 11th, dec 25th
I suppose they only showed 1 holiday as it's the only one that is guarantied to always fall on a work day. Depending on the year, the others may fall on the weekends in which case they don't give any time off.
My Dad took all his vacation days at once in the summer holidays, plus overtime he did the whole year. He had 6 weeks off. And he worked at the Ford factory in Cologne. 😉
I've heard that here in Australia the government is considering the switch off laws due to employers increasing the out of office hours demands from employees.
8:18 That beach looks like the city of Nice on the Cote d'Azur on the Mediterranean coast. I am not certain since my one and only visit was more than 30 years ago. It could be Marseille, or any of the smaller towns along the coast.
Edit: here in Germany the workaholic employees usually have a little talk with HR at the end of the year discussing how they will take their mandatory days off by the end of the first quarter of the following year. The 20 days minimum is for part-time employees, full time get 24 days minimum by law. But most companies increase that to 28 or even 30 vacation days (paid). On top of that there are the 10-15 public holidays that depending if they are always on a certain weekday like Easter Monday, or flexible like Christmas give additional days off.
Next, if you get sick during your vacation, and you get a doctor's note declaring the length of your sickness, those days are refunded as vacation days. Sick days are NOT vacation days. You need vacation to recharge your batteries, not recover from a sickness. Each week there is also one day mandatory off. If for some reason a company can't adhere to that rule they are required to give you three consecutive days off every 14 days for every week without a free day (usually Sunday). In addition working overtime, late or night shift adds a certain percentage of additional wages, and working on Sundays or public holidays at least 100% bonus. But these need exception rules and can't be enforced. An employee has to voluntarily offer to work on these days.
Most of the cases your paid vacation is mentioned in your work contract...everyone have 20 days in EU + national holidays + depending of your job etc you can have bonus days added (dangerous environments)
My wife starts 9 days of vacation at 5pm this evening, and because of the statatory holiday on monday, and she doesn't work weekends, and the banked time she had built up from working late over the last year, she only had to use 1 day, of her four weeks of vacation time. (I live in canada by the way). She asked me to disconnect her smart watch from her work email when she gets home, so she isn't constantly getting alerts to the watch on her planned vacation time.
Another point is the money. During vacation you receive your normal salary in Germany. But most company's give you a 13th salary a year - so you get an additonal half salary in june to help cover holiday expenses and another half salary in november to help with christmas gifts.
For a 40 hour/week contract in Belgium the minimum is 42 days.
20 base.
10 are the holidays. Christmas, Easter, don't know what it was but this thursday we had a holiday and we skipped Friday so most people in my business had a 4 day weekend.
And 12 because 40 hours is longer than a full time job.
Working longer than full time means you get to take that time off.
2 hours/week, 8/month, 12 days a year.
I'm a basic deskworker and have 55 vacation days every year. Working 10am to 6:30pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
I live in Denmark, and get 6 weeks of paid vacation per year. This year, due to two project deliveries in August, I'm not able to take summer vacation as normal. I got called into a "concern conversation" with my manager where she asked me if everything was ok, whether I need somebody to step in and take over some of the workload or whether she needs to speak to my clients about this. I assured her that it is ok and that I'll just take my vacation later...
Just for a moment imagine you are a UK Resident that has just finished all you school education and now are working and the Boss tells you at the interview that you are entitled to 28 day vacation per year PLUS National Days off ie Easter, Christmas/ New Year. That is what we in the UK are used to. This is NORMAL Working life in the UK. Even at a time when over 6 million were out of work we NEVER got threatened to take less holidays to keep our jobs. Most workers in the UK work a maximum of 40 hours per week over 5 days. Tony in England
As a shift worker in Australia I received 5 weeks vacation plus I also received 18 days sick leave. Every 10 years we receive 3 months leave classed as long service leave. We also receive redundancy payment if the company wants you to leave. Because of Covid I applied for and received a redundancy payment of 102 weeks pay tax free after 28 years service. Happily retired at 62. 😂
I get in a normal basic non executive job, 10 public holidays, 25 paid leave days as standard, An option to "buy" 10 extra days a year. Also as it's a sort of customer service role a small number of staff are needed to work the public holidays, those that volunteer to work those days get to choose between double pay or 2 days off in lieu.
This leads to my company having one of the best customer service departments in my country and collects awards for it every every year.
Only downside is that I have to book time off a couple of weeks in advance as there is a certain number of staff needed at given times. In practice though I have had to take emergency leave without notice and the managers will sort out getting coverage and offer any help they can give in getting you back to work.
It is really simple... If you want competent motivated staff treat them well, give them decent wages and conditions and watch the competition flounder while your business flourishes.
In Luxemburg I work 4 days a week and I have 9 hours day/shift and I have 32 paid days off a year. The differences are huge, the US feels like going back centuries. What we considder as standard you call extra
Here in Europe, we have at least 21 working days off. Usually, you have 30 days (That excludes weekends and national holidays). So you have 30 working days (Mo-Fri).
In one word, you have about 6 weeks off. It is also mandatory to take at least 10 days off connected to each other otherwise the employer will have a penalty from the work regulation authorities.
Another thing, If you take, let's say 15 days off in year one, then in year 2 you are entitled to 45 days as the days remaining are being transferred to the next working year. You are forced though to take the days off which you didn't take in year one until Q3 of year 2 .
Also, if you quit your job or get fired, they must keep you a minimum of 1 month at work and must pay all the days off remaining. So if you quit, they pay you all those 30 days of holiday (6 weeks).
If they fire you, they need really strong reasons to do so which almost never happens. So they will pay you 3-5 months severance money to quit.
Germany here, usually you should take at least once a year 2 weeks of in a row. You are not supposed to be contacted during your break. You can negotiate between 20 to 30 days of paid vacation. Plus public holiday. If you got sick during your vacation, these days are not counted as vacation time. You are supposed to take all vacation days in 1 year. Usually you can only bring 5 days into the next year and these 5 days needs to be taken within the first 3 months, otherwise they will get cancelled.
Most workplaces in Australia also after 10 years have long service leave as well as annual holidays
I've been working same job in Finland for 15 years, now I have 38 paid vacation days, plus 9 holidays this year.
Just 2 weeks left and then I'm off to my 4 week paid vacation. And still have 7 days left for christmas and winter holiday in february
Lithuanian here. 20 work days if 5 day work week, 24 if 6. Can take in parts, one part can not be shorter than 10(12) work days. Additional 3 days after ten year at the same job, then additional day every five years.
yeah and as french you don't forget those 30 days can make you 6 to 7 weeks per year depending how you spend them. most people here work 5 days a week so to have a full month (4 weeks) vacation you only need 20 days if you can target weeks with included days offs like may 1st, mai 8th you can have up to 8 days off for 4 days vacation spend.
Watching this on one of my paid vacation days, ...feels good 😊✌️❤️
9:12 You get 30 days off, but those are 30 work days off, which means that it's more when you add weekends, at least in UK. For example if you take 10 days off work, you actually have 16 days off if you work standard Monday to Friday shifts. And weekends do not get deducted from your holiday count, so you have 20 more days of holiday to take
Here in Croatia, minimum vacation by law is 22 days a year, but how many days you actually get depends on how long do you work and about collective contract of company you work for. Some companies give you extra day every five, some everty ten years and top limit doesn't exist. On vacation they count your wage like only labour days, no night shifts or sundays. They don't include them in wage on vacation because they are more expensive. And about sick leave it's not limited. Your doctor must give you paperwork since when untill you need to recover. On sick lesve you get 70% of regular wage.
As a Danish Public Pensioner and a former craftsman, I had 6 weeks paid for vacation + the loose, mostly in spring. At my job we negotiated when to have vacations among ourselves, as we worked all year around and at most two people wasn't working. Out of 7 people it was easy to find room for an offer to visit China in December or to Bali in January/February. I also walked long distance during long weekends in mostly Belgium. 😄
In this video, vacation time is expressed in days of paid leave, not in weeks (where it seems to be the most common US time off unit). That means that when you have 30 days of paid leave per year in France it isn't four weeks (4x7=28 (+2) days) but five weeks ((6 "jours ouvrés" (business days)+sunday)x5).
Where I worked when I was 18, in IT, i was really a gopher, the first yr I got paid sick days and time off. Someone who worked with me left for about 6-7 moonths off and still had his I job when he came back.
Here in Belgium you have to take all your vacation days. If you have a whole bunch left by the end of November, your work will alert you that you still have x number of days to take before the end of the year.
8:17 that is the Boulevard des Anglais in Nice in the south of France
I'm Norwegian. Back in the day here companies were allowed to literally buy your vacation time, i.e. compensate you if you gave up your vacation. I've done that many times. Even felt pressured into doing so. Even in one of the most social democratic countries on the planet, if you work for a large multinational corporation they find workarounds :)
More to the point the working week is considered of 5 days so if you have 20 days of vacation means you actually have 4 full weeks, if you have 30 days vacation that is divided by 5 so you have 6 full weeks vacation, all payed on the average salary/week you received in last 12 weeks prior any vacation.
Sweden here, 5 weeks paid vacation for all, some can get 6 weeks if they don't paid overtime, If you work for the state you get 7 weeks when you turn 40 years old. You must use at least 4 weeks of your vacation per year and you can save the extra vacation to another year.
I used too be able to take a month off and we had 13 public holidays and 10 sick days a year and long service leave of 13 weeks after 10 years, this is Australia, and in some companies you unused sick leave would accumulate,as your holiday leave would accumulate
In Germany, you will rarely find less than 30 days paid holiday (20 is legal minimum). + 11-13 paid public holidays depending on the federal state.
I get 42 days holiday + 13 public holidays in Bavaria. 36 days holiday per year + 6 days compensation for night/shift work as IT specialist in a hospital.
Work is 36.5 hours per week, once a month on a weekend and once a week at night (10 pm - 6 am). This is supposed to be changed now so i have night shifts less often but more days in a row (dont know what to think about it yet).
The working times are certainly somewhat suboptimal (+ no flexitime), but holiday entitlement and payment is good.
Even though I might earn more in the US, I still wouldnt want to work there, less holiday, more work hours and could be fired at any time...no, thanks...
the refreshed idea was the basis for the annual leave granted to australians way back when, then it was mandated by the government and controlled by fair work australia, they determine things like annual leave, sick days, barevement leave (3 days off if a member of the family passes away) as well as maternity and paternity leave.
In Sweden we have 5 weeks of holiday and when you turn 50 in certain professions you get another week of holiday and you have paid holiday.
Since in Sweden we only have a 40 hour work week, then you have a slightly different way of working, some jobs you work 7 days in a row every weekend is a 12 hour shift BUT then you have the next week off.
I have 36 PTO days per year. In 2023, I can expand it to 65 PTO days if I combine it with national holidays like Easter, Christmas, etc. For example, the national holiday 'Ascension Day' fell on a Thursday, so I only needed 1 day of PTO to have 4 days off in a row. This was also recommended to me and all my colleagues by management, because then the company was closed for that time. We call this 'bridge days' when a national holiday and the weekend are separated by a work day. Depending on the year, this happens more or less often, and usually management instructs us to do it that way. My contract also states that once a year I must have three weeks of vacation at a stretch. I usually use this time for a long-distance trip to Africa or South America or a sailing trip along the European coasts. The rest is for traveling with friends to concerts or festivals all over Europe. We don't know what 'sicks days' are. When you are sick then you're sick, this isn't vacations. When this happens in your vacation time then you've gonna go to a doctor and with his note the lost vacation days are credited to you back by your company. BTW I'm German.
Great video! While paid leave is not common for most jobs in America, some IT companies like Netflix actually offer unlimited paid time off. It's amazing that employees have the freedom to take as many vacation days as they want. It promotes work-life balance and shows the importance of employee well-being. Although not every company offers this, it's encouraging to see progress in providing better benefits. Let's keep pushing for equitable benefits for all workers!
Here in the UK we also have bank Holidays where most of the country shuts down for national events/Holidays which are not a part of the mandated annual leave so we get more days than just what the chary shows
German here. I get 35 paid vacation days and never receive any phone call from the company during that time and I don‘t read any of the e-mails either. In September we are always requested by the mangement to plan and take the remainig vacation days for not losing them.
8:15 "Beautiful area, where is this?"
La Promenade des Anglais, in Nice. French riviera.
Here in Germany I had a job in 1998/99 where I only got short term contracts with backdoors attached that enabled the employer to deny me my holidays. They fired me after 13 months and were looking in disbelief when they found that I actually worked so much overtime (Sometimes even over weekends when I was needed) that my working hours totalled up to 15 months worth of work.
I can tell you from first hand experience that my skill and quality of work had suffered so badly that they fired me for it.
When I see where the U.S. employees get their motivation for working, it isn't so much the home of the brave but the home of the scared, isn't it? Fear of being made redundant, afraid of losing the standing with the **** in the big wig office, afraid of this, worried about that… Quite honestly, when you find you work for a total ****. there should be a means to kick them in the ******!
Hi guys, a German here.
30 days vacation. Paid.
Also about 10 to 12 days of public holidays per year on top...
If I get sick during my vacation, these days are gonna put back in my vacation account again.
Feels good.