66% of Americans want European-style vacation policies, like being OOO for the entire month of August

It's actually quite a bit less than 50%, but their votes have a bigger impact because of a broken system.

Socialism is a very nice son of rationalism. It is time for a review

If you're a skilled salaried worker the law doesn't really consider you to have work hours. Furthermore, you aren't required to be compensated for time you are on-call unless you are required to physically be present.

US labor laws are truly horrifying if you start asking yourself a few "what-ifs." The entire system is built on good faith.

30ish percent of Americans identify as Republican (depending on the poll), so these types of questions are always ~66% of Americans in support

Many types of workers in scandinavia is not as heavily unionized either. Perhaps the ones that are not, enjoy a form of herd immunity from worker abuse from the ones that are.

Depending on the country, there aren't that many people in unions. Most countries in the EU (not Europe in general) have laws that protect the workers better than workers in the USA. The result is a different work culture.

Just an anecdote related to the first part of what you said: I'm in the US, PTO season seems to be December at my company. Both because some portion of people's PTO hours will expire at the end of the year, and obviously because of being adjacent to Christmas and new year.

I'm on the UK and taking paternity leave in December. By using some of my holiday allowance plus a Christmas shutdown I'm turning my 4 week paternity leave into 8 weeks off in total. It's hardly a holiday (seeing as we'll be lookin after a newborn and my other half will be recovering from a c-section/childbirth) but god-damn I am looking forward to two months of just focusing on mu family.

I don't think they even responded, their mouth were probably full.

My company has this and just about everyone I work with utilizes the unlimited time off. Most people land in the 5-6 weeks of vacation a year + sick + personal business + holidays.

There are the few who make work their hobby too, but you can't do anything for those people IMO

Research shows that people with unlimited time off take fewer days than people with set amount of time off.

I have unlimited PTO, and it's a total scam. I'm a contractor, and contracts have required hours within required time-frames. These time-frames don't have margin for taking off a couple weeks at a time. Any time you take off, has to be made up, so it's not really time off

I've been told that generally, this is so the company doesn't have to pay you back for unused PTO if you leave the company.

I can't vouch for this as true, but it makes sense.

That is why time off is supposed to be mandatory

If I'm stuck in the USA, I'm gonna find an unlimited time of job and actually use that benefit like Europeans. Fuck American work culture.

If you get such a contract, make sure to read it closely. I had it once, phrased more like “there is no policy restricting time off”. It’s really up to your manager and it means there is an invisible limit that may be different for everyone, you won’t know about until you hit it.

In my case, I had a good manager, but sure enough, got dinged after taking off two weeks in the year (the worst part was no actual vacation but individual days off for kid’s appointments). I much prefer an actual limit, because then you can take it

Yeah because it’s a fucking scam who’s primary purpose is to eliminate pto liability from their accounting. It’s the equivalent of the 401k scam that eliminated corporate pension plans as a standard benefit.

European here. Like me, many people from the poorer european countries don't have any place to go on vacations in august. Everything is expensive and there's always a rush to booking. For someone who doesn't have a "family summer house" and can't afford to rent a place in august, mandatory august vacations (like it's usual here) is just a waste of vacations. Too hot and no place cool to go. Also, august is typically the month where everything is flooded with small children. If you're not too fond of that either, then august is really the worst month to be on vacations. ALSO, it's lovely to work in august, because usually your workplace has AC and most of your colleagues are hundreds of kms away, trying to buy a melted ice-cream for 40min in a crowded beach.

Uh, lots actually. People who self identify with work, and the shitty management class who are workaholics.

Also, the self employed and small business owner who never gets vacation time.

Three possibilities. a) people who bought into the propaganda that being exploited by your employer means you're more dedicated. b) the temporarily embarrassed millionaire effect. They're willing to take the exploitation on the off chance they might be the one exploiting people in the future. c) they already are the ones exploiting people.

"sounds like COMMUNISM to me for sure buddy !"

Because they will think of someone else who "doesn't deserve it" getting it and mald.

Something, something socialism is bad.

Realistically, they are probably the small (and large) business owners that will have to pay for a month off work for their employees.

some people are that bad of workalohics. never take time off and think others who do are weak

That's double the amount of time off I have here in the U.S.

And I only get a week of paid sick days, which I've already used up due to an illness which hasn't even been properly diagnosed yet.

I even have to make up time if I go to the doctor.

Yep - it’s a tired misconception I first encountered working for an American 20 odd years ago.

While it’s true that it’s difficult to get much out of France Spain and especially Italy in august - it’s because it’s holiday season - not because everyone is gone for a whole month

Cool, I get zero sick days and get paid a lump sum "vacation" bonus every year equivalent to one week's salary.

I get no real paid time off otherwise

25 days off is 5 weeks (because days off would only be the work days.) That's over a month.

Most positions in the US seem to give 10 days of annual leave a year. Some may also include sick pay as well.

Do you get paid during your month off?

25 to 30 days of annual leave is unheard of in the US. And it translates to 5-6 weeks, which is well over a month. It's common in a lot of European countries to take 4 of those weeks off in a single continuous summer break, usually August (some prefer July to avoid the August crowds). Yes, there's a misconception that everyone in Europe takes August off, it's ultimately up to each individual how they allocate their days off, but there are companies that do assume everyone will take August off and all but shut down during that month.

I don't think its a Federal requirement to offer employees any vacation or sick leave in the US. For many office jobs you have to earn leave time over the course of months or years - it's not unheard of to have zero leave time the first six months of employment.

Same in France.

Yeah, I’m also from the UK and not sure where tf this “August off” thing is from, whether it’s something other European countries do.

People usually take 1-2 weeks off at a time for a holiday then the odd day here and there, a month is ridiculous.

I was gonna say that you’d burn out if you used up an entire month at once, but I guess Americans would be used to that kind of shit anyway.

If you want to save it all and take a month off then so long as the boss is okay with it

Yeah, most bosses aren't ok with that.
Where I am now I get two consecutive weeks max

I work in IT for a major telecom provider in Scandinavia, and almost everyone takes 3 weeks summer vacation, mostly at the same time.

Management recommends taking as much as possible over the summer, as we have a 5-6 week "slow period" when people's 3 weeks don't align.

Other than that, it's common to just take the rest during other school holidays.

We get 6 weeks by default and earn our way up to 7 weeks after 5 years.

German here as well - this hasn't been an issue in any company I've worked so far, all didn't have an issue with 3+ weeks.

My prior gig, all of our EU people took like 3-4 weeks off at a time. Probably industry-related?

Which gets into an entirely separate (though related) issue, where workers with children get benefits and accommodations that childless workers don't.

Sometimes it's overt and blatant like in your case, others, it's more limited to interactions and relationships.

A few jobs ago, I worked in a small office where the owner was good about approving PTO, but didn't want more than one person in any given dept out at the same time (ridiculous, but that's how he was).

I planned a vacation of a long weekend one summer and got my PTO approved in like February for this long weekend in June.

Literally 3 weeks before, this lady I worked with tells me that I "need to reschedule my PTO".

After looking into it, I learn that what's really going on is that she wanted to take a week long vacation with her kids since they'd be off for the summer, and one of my days overlapped with the week she wanted to take.

I refused, saying that my friends and I had already made arrangements.

And then she blew it up, in the office in front of everyone, and told me how I was being so rude and mean and inconsiderate, that I could go and do things whenever I liked because I didn't have kids...and that I "just didn't get it" and could never possibly understand how hard her life was because I didn't have kids.

I assumed that my boss and other coworkers would see how ridiculous she was, but while they mostly kept quiet, the ones who did speak up actually did think I was being unreasonable for not canceling my vacation to trade with her, seeing my plans as less than hers, just because she had kids.

I learned to get comfortable with coworkers thinking I was an asshole, though, and enjoyed every moment of that getaway.

I think it really depends on the place you're working. My company honestly encourages us to take all of our leave in one chunk, because it's easier to plan with. At least you should take one week at a time. I personally don't like it though. I like looking forward to having a few days off every month. Having a whole month off and then working troughout the year is not for me.

I work in the automotive industry in the US, but we regularly interact with German suppliers (software and hardware). In my experience, in August especially it seems like half of their office is just out the entire month. I'm sure there's tons of industries where that isn't the case, though.

Here in England there's a guy I work with who's taking six months off soon to go to Thailand. Thing is, we're working for the local authority and they're pretty good about holidays and sick pay because the wages aren't very competitive and they need to retain staff.

Lol as an American I feel uncomfortable putting in more than 2 consecutive DAYS in a row and I'm salaried, not a service worker or anything. I can't even imagine having 2 weeks off. I've only been able to manage that once in my adult life during one of my transitions to a new company.

Pain

The reason we have vacation time is unions. The thing about a minimum pay in law is not needed here as everything needs to be bargained for. Even if you yourself is not a union member , the bargains are for all employees. Memberships are higher here but on the down in many places , especially if you consider the time before today's regulations.

And it shows in how weak the union are in some places. Everything gain is always under attack.

The only way for you to get same benefits as we have is throug the union.

Not when you remember that capitalism is the state religion.

There's not a law because most professional jobs have PTO at level that would meet any mandatory minimum level.

Nederlanders actually are able to talk to each other, come up with solutions to intractable problems, and plan beyond the next political cycle. They also have empty churches.

Dutchie here; while this certainly happens, it's not the norm at all. Everyone working full time in the Netherlands gets a minimum of 20 paid days off per year. Many companies increase this to 25-ish days, with some outliers going up to 40+. At my company, taking >2 weeks has to be requested far in advance and planned around. If my prolonged leave would cause the workplace to fall apart, it wouldn't get approved.

That said, yea it's definitely better here in Europe regarding vacations :)

Same; I'm Scottish, so anything over about 35C will literally kill me. A week's diving in Malta during October, though? Lovely!

Agreed, I was on vacation earlier this month for a couple weeks since it was the only time that made sense with my work schedule. It was just brutally expensive to stay anywhere because things were booked up.

We don't specify when you go on vacation in Europe it's just 5 weeks of paid time off

I think 5-7 weeks vacation is normal in most of western European countries.

Some of it comes from heavy industry, with the time of machinery that you just don’t turn off and on . The big steel makers for example, would only stop the furnace for the summer break (last week of July first week of august). And Christmas. Holiday was mandated at that time - known as the “factory weeks”

There are industries that do this in the US too, such as car manufacturing. However even then, the plant is shut down for a week or two, and you are required to take your vacation during this period. …. Except of course the people going in to do all the plant maintenance, who are prohibited from vacation during that period

your vacation has been approved for August

Well yeah. I deserve that vacation. Not those other people though. You know the ones I mean.

Because neither party would? The red koolaide people would dismiss this idea immediately, because it's clearly scary communism. The blue koolaide people would pretend to support it while asking for your votes, then proceed to conveniently forget about it entirely, or pretend to try to do it while also receiving lobbying money from nearly every corporation and anti-workers-union type organization.

The people that would support this are not part of either party.