(Paid) vacation time
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15 days minimum in the US is BS. First off, if you even get 15 days, nowadays that's combined vacation/sick leave. If you're sick for 3 weeks, you get no vacation time. Furthermore, a lot of places don't even give you vacation time until you've been there 6 months. Then you're lucky if you get a week. Two weeks (10 days) is the norm, and you may get another week after you've slaved away for 3 years at the place. And don't forget not to get sick. But that explains in part why people come to work sick, because otherwise they have to take the time off unpaid (which many cannot afford) or take their vacation time to lie in bed and be miserable. Hence, the booming market of drugs to supress symptoms and quick fixes. X| Marc
I worked for a short time in New York where I was given 10 days annual leave, which would rise to 15 days after three years. In between projects, they pulled out a small-print clause that stated they could force me to take my annual vacation at any time. Anyway, I get a phone-call one Monday morning to tell me that my 10 days had just started.... ....in the middle of February. So, I got on a plane at Newark and flew back to good old Blighty never to return to the US. Escape From New York?:rose:
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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/11/061113093726.htm[^] And yet Canada ranks as the 10th happiest country, only 4 places behind Finland....must be something worthwhile up there... Meanwhile, my beloved, uptight, greedy USA maintains mediocrity in both lists.:mad: ...suddenly i'm tired...
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Ravi, You moved to Vietnam? whoops, didn't sort it. So Canada? But it sounds like no matter where you go its up to the employer. At 5 years I have 18 days vacation plus 9 holidays. It inches up every couple of years, and at 25 years we get 31 days + the holidays.
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Hahaha - yeah, good spot. Using the same criteria as everyone else, good ol' USA has 10 days mandated minimum holidays. Coupled with the excellent public healthcare & welfare system too. They've got it sooooo good over there... :~
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Hahaha - yeah, good spot. Using the same criteria as everyone else, good ol' USA has 10 days mandated minimum holidays. Coupled with the excellent public healthcare & welfare system too. They've got it sooooo good over there... :~
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Remember, You never hear old people say they wished they had worked more when they were younger..
"I wish I saved more" isn't an uncommon refrain though, and the way you do that typically involves working more or spending less (which translates to spending your vacation sipping beer in your backyard instead of rum in the Caribbean. EDIT: and at the point of not going anywhere on vacation you might as well just sell it back for more money in your savings account.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Yeh, but you have to compare this table against a table of "How many days in the year you are forced to work for the government for free" - i.e. taxes. Also, vacation days are negotiable with your employer.
mfhobbs wrote:
"How many days in the year you are forced to work for the government for free"
don't worry, "green time" is getting more popular in the USA. It started with government contracts (lowest bid), where the company bids that their workers will each put in 1 hour a day for free. It is slowly spreading through other industries, manditory work without pay. :)
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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15 days minimum in the US is BS. First off, if you even get 15 days, nowadays that's combined vacation/sick leave. If you're sick for 3 weeks, you get no vacation time. Furthermore, a lot of places don't even give you vacation time until you've been there 6 months. Then you're lucky if you get a week. Two weeks (10 days) is the norm, and you may get another week after you've slaved away for 3 years at the place. And don't forget not to get sick. But that explains in part why people come to work sick, because otherwise they have to take the time off unpaid (which many cannot afford) or take their vacation time to lie in bed and be miserable. Hence, the booming market of drugs to supress symptoms and quick fixes. X| Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
or take their vacation time to lie in bed and be miserable
many companies do not allow this. Vacation time requires several days to several weeks notice. So if you are home sick and out of sick leave and didn't notify your boss you would be sick a week in advance, you are on leave-without-pay.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
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Yeh, but you have to compare this table against a table of "How many days in the year you are forced to work for the government for free" - i.e. taxes. Also, vacation days are negotiable with your employer.
mfhobbs wrote:
"How many days in the year you are forced to work for the government for free"
Tax Freedom Day, is about 120 days this year.
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
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mfhobbs wrote:
"How many days in the year you are forced to work for the government for free"
Tax Freedom Day, is about 120 days this year.
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
Given the large difference between the net tax rate of someone making $20k/year and someone making $120k/year, the idea of a national tax freedom day is ludicrous. IIRC mine is closer to day 100 than 120.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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Given the large difference between the net tax rate of someone making $20k/year and someone making $120k/year, the idea of a national tax freedom day is ludicrous. IIRC mine is closer to day 100 than 120.
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
It varies by state. In Oklahoma, it's around 102 days.
"A good athlete is the result of a good and worthy opponent." - David Crow
"To have a respect for ourselves guides our morals; to have deference for others governs our manners." - Laurence Sterne
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You just have to be in the right business for the right length of time. I'm in education (administrative support) which gives me 13 days for holidays and 23 days (25 starting next year) for vacation. Add in 2 days of extenuating circumstance (optional usage) and 23 days of sick leave, it's a pretty nice package. The problem is that I keep losing sick leave days because I'm too healthy, and I'm sick of it. -- Lilith
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I'm in NL, and I don't know anyone who gets anything even close to the "minimum" listed -- my current contract has a clause that states that I must take at least one holiday a year of two weeks or longer. Another clause states that only four days (non-incremental) can be carried forward to the next year, and all other days must be taken. Having come here from Britain, I nearly died of shock when I read the contract. The downside is that we're currently in the middle of the Summer holiday season, and half the staff is away sunning themselves for three-weeks at a pop. While too many cats are away... It's ****ing impossible to get anything done! (So if anyone's bored, and wants to pick up a few Bugzillas...)
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china?
-- You have to explain to them [VB coders] what you mean by "typed". their first response is likely to be something like, "Of course my code is typed. Do you think i magically project it onto the screen with the power of my mind?" --- John Simmons / outlaw programmer
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People have the opposite here in Australia (particularly when they work for government or big business), they have sick days each year (usually around 8 or so) that don't accumulate, so if you don't take your sick days, you lose them. The effect is that every month to six weeks, an employee will take a sickie (ie: use one of their sick days when they aren't really sick), so that they don't "lose" their sick leave entitlements at the end of the year. I think it works much better if people basically have an unlimited number of sick days available, but require a doctor's certificate each time they take one. That way they don't feel that they are "losing" something by not taking their sick leave, and have plenty of days available if they really need it. Of course, having my own business means that I have neither paid holidays or paid sick leave, but hey, that's the trade-off for the big bucks and flexibility... lmfao. D.
------------------------------------------- Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow; Don't walk behind me, I may not lead; Just bugger off and leave me alone!!
_Damian S_ wrote:
I think it works much better if people basically have an unlimited number of sick days available, but require a doctor's certificate each time they take one.
In the U.S. this would be a nightmare. The already geometrically-increasing insurance premiums we have to pay would go through the roof if everyone wanting a valid sick day had to go to the doctor for a note. There are 3 people in my family (myself, my wife, and my son who is 7 years old). I pay nearly $600 per month in insurance premiums already, and that number increases each and every year (regardless of the fact that we are nearly never sick). Not to mention the fact that some problems simply don't require the attention of a doctor, but are bad enough to keep you out of the office. Have some dodgy Kung Pao the night before? You won't need to visit your doctor, but you may need to visit your toilet every 15 minutes for the remainder of the day. Our health care system is obviously problematic, but you don't move a free market economy to pseudo-socialized medicine overnight. The government will find themselves having to pay back a LOT of student loans for doctors who invested that money with the understanding they'd be earning $200k annually in their future. Those docs certainly won't be able to afford their med school loans when socialized medicine limits their earnings to around $60k per year. Personally, I would GLADLY take a cut in pay to have [substantially] more time off each year. Some say "Time = Money", but not to me. To me, "Time > Money". We spend too much time perfecting our work and not enough time allowing our work to perfect us. But that's another conversation...
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What about contractors, is there anywhere where they get paid holidays.
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I like the way they fiddled the numbers for america to make it not last lol. The column is called "Minimum paid vacation days" but the note at the bottom for the US says: *** In the United States, federal law does not mandate pay for time not worked. Vacation policies vary widely, many organisations provide one week of vacation after six months of service, two weeks after one to five years of service and three weeks after five to 10 years of service. i.e. they don't have to pay your for vacation and they don't have to give you vacation ... with majority of the other countries (as far as I can see) the numbers are for the minimum legal requirement for paid holiday.
Dang you got us. Great example of data-massage though. In Holland (the Netherlands) the minimum is 20, but the average is probably closer to 30. I get 25 days to pick myself and 6 determined by the company. Those are generally used to give us a long weekend when a public holiday is on tuesday or thursday.
--------------- don't P A N I C
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Marc Clifton wrote:
or take their vacation time to lie in bed and be miserable
many companies do not allow this. Vacation time requires several days to several weeks notice. So if you are home sick and out of sick leave and didn't notify your boss you would be sick a week in advance, you are on leave-without-pay.
_________________________ Asu no koto o ieba, tenjo de nezumi ga warau. Talk about things of tomorrow and the mice in the ceiling laugh. (Japanese Proverb)
In Holland there are 2 wait days for ill employees. That means the first 2 days of your illness are at the expense of your boss, more days are covered by their insurance. If you become ill during a holiday it is converted back to 'ill'. Wether you get a surprise medical check at home is company dependend.
--------------- don't P A N I C
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I'm a contractor - so I've all the time off I want - just no pay. Public Holidays? A day's wages lost! (Actually, I can work at home, but reality is that family is also home and so it becoems a day off). But wait! It's a matter of perspective. I just consider the amount I earn on an annulaized basis. Rather than count it as day-by-day or hourly. One could pretend that they're paid more per hour than they'd get if they were not self-employed, making up the difference. Still, there's the psychological factor . . . Only one drawback (in USA, at least): employees must pay FICA (Social Security tax), as must their employer. When one is self-employed, they get the honor and privilage of paying both sides of this! There's a little pay-back at 'tax time' - as the "extra" it's deducted as a business expense, but, buy and large, given the same hourly rate, I'd have an instant 6.25% raise if I worked for my employer, instead of contracting to him. On the other hand, I can create my own hours, and, so long as I attend scheduled meetings, no one is concerned. What would I do with 9 weeks paid vacation? Time is so much more precious than money. Next time, I'll just be born rich, so I don't have to concern myself with this.
"The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein