August 10, 2004
WASN'T LIKE THAT AT THE POSTER SHOP...:
America on vacation: Americans spend less time away from their jobs than workers in any other Western nation. What do we have against vacations? (The Week, 7/16/04)
How much vacation do Americans take?On average, just 10 days a year. And as companies get leaner and meaner every year, the trend is toward less time off, not more. About one in four Americans either gets no paid vacation or chooses not to take all the vacation time allotted to them. One recent study found that American workers give back 415 million days of vacation days to employers every year. Europeans and Canadians, says psychotherapist Barbara Bartlein, view this behavior with a mixture of amazement, pity, and scorn. “We are looked at as the workaholism capital of the world,” Bartlein says.
What’s it like elsewhere?
You don’t want to know. The British take an average of five weeks, and the Italians and Germans six. In France, the law guarantees everyone five weeks, and most full-timers get two full months.
The rest of the West is getting older but less mature, we're the only adults. Posted by Orrin Judd at August 10, 2004 2:56 PM
A country with 2-3 weeks of vacation each year is going to spend more time at the job & outproduce a country with 2 months of vacation/year.
It's that simple, even if it flies in the face of I WANNA!.
Maybe I'm dragging the rest of you down, but I get 5 weeks of vacation a year. Of course, that includes all my sick time.
OJ, how much vacation do you get?
Posted by: Robert Duquette at August 10, 2004 5:26 PMNone. A Cabana Boy's work is never done. the job I left in March I was up to 24 days a year after nine years there.
Posted by: oj at August 10, 2004 5:35 PMI receive the requisite "summer off" from my teaching gig. Start back tomorrow for another grueling 9-month stint. ; )
Posted by: Bartman at August 10, 2004 7:15 PM