How much paid vacation do you get?

[BritishHuman]

Poll question: How much paid vacation do you get?

As a Brit, I'm constantly amazed by how little holiday Americans get - particularly since every study shows that more holiday = more profits.

I get 26 days a year (not counting public holidays - another 9).

How about you?

[GOPisEvil]

1. I earn 11 hours of vacation time per month.

That equates to 16.5 days per year.

Right now, in the ol' vacation hours bank, I'm up to about 100 hours. Shit! I need a vacation! :P

[BritishHuman]

6. Jeebus!

I couldn't cope with that little.

How would I choose between a going-away holiday and all the lazing-around-the-house days? I've got to have both!

[GOPisEvil]

9. Hell...that's a lot for being in the US.

Keep in mind I've been employed by the state of Texas for 11 years. When I started I earned 96 hours per year. We get some pretty good holidays, and there are some days when we are required to be open, but, if you work, you earn compensatory leave.

I've never had a vacation of more than one full week of work. The longest I was away from work was over the Christmas holidays (3 days off work for us). I think it was 16 days from my last day of work until I returned the day after New Year's.

[BritishHuman]

13. My longest work vacation...

...was 15 working days (about 21 days including weekends and a bank holiday).

Ironically, it was visiting the US!

[Interrobang]

14. I don't get any.

My employer is the spawn of Satan, but he's a pretty good spawn. I do get the (legally-mandated) minimum of "vacation pay," but not held in escrow for me; it's just attached to every paycheque.

That said, I am taking 9 days to go to Pennsic (an event in Pennsylvania) starting Tuesday next, anyway!!

[Loonman]

2. 2 weeks

Paid, per year(no rollover).

[MercutioATC]

3. 19.5 days/year (federal gov't. with 12 1/2 years of service)

At 15 years, I'l get 26 days/year (plus federal holidays, plus sick leave).

[BritishHuman]

8. So after 15 years...

You'll be where I am after two?

I'm sorry, I'm rubbing it in, aren't I?

:evilgrin:

[GOPisEvil]

10. If you'd like to offer me a job...

...I have a valid passport. I'd love to live overseas. ;-)

[BritishHuman]

15. There are openings for EMDs in October...

I work for the Ambulance Service - we'll be taking on a bunch of calltakers for the Emergency Control Centre (Emergency Medical Dispatchers). They don't tend to last long; more from poaching than from burnout. Our phone training apparently is highly prized amongst call centres.

I guess dealing with someone screaming about their defective toaster is a piece of cake to someone who's dealt with people screaming about how their defective toaster just electrocuted their kid.

[GOPisEvil]

16. Talking on the phone?

Whew! You'd HAVE to give me a lot of vacation time for that! If there's one thing I really don't like...well, it beats digging ditches.

Boy...that's a job with some responsibility.

[BritishHuman]

17. It's quite something to watch.

Sitting in on a call while a 17-year-old female EMD talks a hysterical 14-year-old through delivering her baby because the ambulance is still ten minutes away - that's something.

[GOPisEvil]

18. I'd need a drink after that!

A strong one; several, in fact.

[BritishHuman]

20. The break room lacks a bar, unfortunately.

They get ten minutes off after a call like that.

I know I sure couldn't do it no matter how long I got...

[GOPisEvil]

21. I need a job significantly less mentally stressful...

...or at least with decisions that do not involve life or death.

One of these days, I may decide to chuck it all and move overseas. I've been toying with the idea for a while now...:think:

[BritishHuman]

22. Me, I'm toying with moving to Canada

You can take the test here.

Canada is just like everywhere else - except nicer.

Can you imagine a nation with a grudge against Canada? No. It's not possible. It's part of their insidious scheme to conquer the world with niceness.

[GOPisEvil]

24. I took the test...

...you need 75 points. I only can muster 69. :-( Now, if I can find some nice Canadian woman to take me in...or...if I can get a job offer from a Canadian company, I'm there!

Oh well...I keep telling myself Texas isn't THAT bad. :eyes:

[BritishHuman]

25. That was my sticking point too.

I need a Canadian job so bad. Surely they must need someone who knows how to rub two sticks together to make fire!

And British Columbia is so convenient for popping down to Washington State. That would be good.

[GOPisEvil]

26. For you, yes it would!

Actually, for me too...I like Washington State. Plus, I think I'd like British Columbia.

You'd think Canada would be chomping at the bit to take a mid-level bureaucrat like me. I'm surprised they aren't soliciting me daily. ;-)

[BritishHuman]

28. Monster.ca is your friend

http://jobsearch.monster.ca/

Not mine, alas. "My skillset is undervalued", as they say.

[GOPisEvil]

29. Learn to drive a forklift!

Or retail management...:-)

[BritishHuman]

37. That'd be nice and relaxing.

No deadlines... No peoples lives hanging on my software being 110% reliable... No minions to herd...

Although I can imagine people's lives being at risk with me behind the wheel of a forklift.

[SOteric]

43. What would Moe and Larry be like in a forklift...?

Would Moe be spending most of his days trying to find fun and creative ways to cart crates 156 through 234 to a destination not required or useful to anyone?

Would Larry be tell you that you hadn't gotten the crates to the proper, documented location, when your knowledge and the document in question proved you had?

Perhaps most importantly...

Would you be able to waste time playing games and downloading porn from a forklift?

[BritishHuman]

47. Aieee!!! No porn!

Moe would undoubtedly have a much better idea for ways to move stuff than a forklift, that unfortunately prevents him from actually moving stuff.

It turns out that Larry would be constantly telling me that he didn't actually join the company as a forklift operator but I wouldn't be hearing him.

[MercutioATC]

56. Sad, ain't it?

:)

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. 15 days per year

after 5 1/2 years with the company. If I survive 10 1/2 years, I get 20 days. Plus national holidays. 8 sick/personal days per year.

[FatbackSlim]

5. Three weeks

For my 7th anniversary with the Phone Company I got my third week. We also have six personal days/optional holidays, although one of those is a 'mandatory optional holiday' to be taken the day after Thanksgiving. So call it four weeks all told.

[nedlogg]

7. Before I retired I was getting 5 weeks

But then again, I was working for a British company.

[BritishHuman]

11. I worked for an "American" company for a while

It was in the UK but founded by an American couple. I got 17 days a year to start, but accrued an extra day a year up to 22 - this was explained by the American-ness. When it was bought out - by an American company, Equifax - my holiday immediately jumped from 20 days to 24...

[JayS]

12. What is a vacation? :) n/t

.

[Scout]

19. 20 days

that's after 20 years with the same company, or by changing jobs twice in the same industry/same geography and negotiating... I think they called it a "bridging of service" or "competitive hire" , something like that.

It just so happens that I do (just) have 20 years experience, but I have have the experience at three book manufacturers all in the same area.

edited to add: plus nine paid holidays

[Melsky]

23. I'm self employed

So I can take time off whenever. I end up working every day though, as I need the income and I enjoy what I do.

I want to take my husband on a little trip - if I can make enough I would love to rent a cabin in the mountains if business goes well for me this month. We are in the desert and it's so hot! But if we do I will be taking stuff to paint along with me. It will be nice to have some new scenery.

[underpants]

27. About 12 days a year + 11 holiday days.

Not bad for 'Murka.

[SOteric]

30. Vacation?!

Paid?!

What the hell is vacation?! I do not understand this funny word you speak.

[BritishHuman]

34. It's like sick days

without the guilt.

:evilgrin:

[SOteric]

36. As if

you could ever be made to feel guilty. :P

[BritishHuman]

41. I think I'm evolving a "shame" gene

as I get older. :evilgrin:

[leftist_rebel1569]

31. Well...

I do have roughly 3 1/2 months unpaid vacation from school...

[BritishHuman]

35. It's the "unpaid" part that's the kicker.

I had 8 weeks unpaid vacation a couple of years ago, although the technical term was "being fired".

[pmbryant]

32. 10 measly days

2 weeks is really the bare minimum. I really feel for those who have even less than that, and no doubt there are huge numbers of them.

Who are all those people with 25+ days of vacation per year!?!

--Peter

[BritishHuman]

33. Presumably the non-USAians...

It's not awfully unusual for people with 5 years or so in Europe.

[ikojo]

60. Vacation days and sick days

I work for a large HMO and our sick days and vacation days come out of the same bank.

I "earn" approx. five hours of PTO (paid time off) per pay day. If I don't call in sick that equates to approx. 16 days off per year. If I call in sick then I get charged an "occurance" and if that happened five times in a rolling year (meaning if I called in on April 1 that "incident" remains on my record until the next April 1) then I could be placed on verbal warning. If I continued to call in sick then I could be fired.

We get ten paid holidays throughout the year. Before the company was bought out we got only seven paid holidays so that has improved even if the sick time s*cks.

Isn't American business grand?

Of course the higher up the corporate ladder one goes the more vacation time one gets. I think supervisors earn eight hours per pay and managers earn even more.

MJ

[GoddessOfGuinness]

38. Vacation? PAID?! AHAHAHAHAhahahahaha!

Freelance musicians don't get paid vacations because we "play" for a living.

I don't expect to retire, either.

I've gotta love what I do, or I wouldn't be willing to sacrifice...

[Redleg]

39. None! Can you believe that?

As a college professor I do get summers off (unpaid) and don't have to punch a time clock so I guess I can get over not having paid vacation and sickleave. I am paid pretty well for my work so I can't complain- it is the best job in the world.

[BritishHuman]

40. If you love what you do...

Vacations are secondary.

[Redleg]

57. Yes indeed.

I have plenty of flexibility in my job. Thing is, I like it so much that I often work more than 40 hours per week. At least it's my choice and not the choice of a stingy, greedy employer.

[BritishHuman]

42. 10-15 is the winner

Man, that's stingy.

[SOteric]

44. Patience, Grasshopper.

Those numbers might yet evolve over the course of the American evening. I know you're on your way to bed, but it's not but 3:00 p.m. on the American West Coast.

[BritishHuman]

46. Uh-oh...

I know how much ladies hate it when I finish prematurely.

Not that I would ever post just to kick my own thread. *cough*

[Nikia]

45. Five days this year

I got none my first year. I got three my next. Next year I'll have seven for a few years. I think the most you can get is fifteen after 20 years. I wish that I would have asked about this before accepting this position. I will ask before accepting a job again.

[BritishHuman]

48. That is remarkably awful

I suspect their employees get through an awful lot of sick days...

[Nikia]

50. We don't have paid sick days

We are allowed to take eight unpaid sick days though. The result is that some people take all eight days unpaid while others will show up deathly ill because they do not want (often cannot afford) to lose their wages for that day. Then there will be four or five people in the next several days absent who were infected by the deathly ill employee. I'll know better next time. I just need to find an employer that pays decently, gives alright vacations, a few sick days, and offers health insurance right away.

[davidinalameda]

49. my partner gets 5 weeks

the smary bastard!

[BritishHuman]

51. It sounds like a lot

until you look at how you end up taking it.

A day here, a long weekend there...

[Darth_Kitten]

52. I get 4 weeks!!!! almost at 5 weeks!!!!!!

:evilgrin: in another couple of years I get 5 weeks a year!!!

YEAH....I consider myself lucky. :(

[Berry_Goldswatter]

53. 21 days vacay after 10 years

of service for the Fortune 500 insurance/bank company I work for.

One problem with American companies is they often give new
employees only 5 days of vacation in the first year of employment.

The company I work for recognizes the 10 holidays that all USA banks
recognize each year.

[TheBigGuy]

54. 8 hours every two weeks, plus holidays.

I think thats arond 25 days a year + 10 holidays.

[baldguy]

55. What is this thing "vay-ka-shun" you speak of?

[union_maid]

58. Three weeks

I started work for a non-profit agency in the beginning of the year. The money is not great, but you accrue three weeks the first year, and something like 10 sick days and then a couple of personal days. It goes up pretty fast, too. It took me six years at the private company that I used to work for to get this much vacation.

[BonjourUSA]

59. 7 weeks/year + national holidays

I'm not a teacher because, in France, I'd get about 5 months of vacation and I'd work between 25 and 30 hours/week ! And I'd be retired at 50 or 55 years old.

[Touchdown]

61. I got two weeks in 1 year.

After 7 (now) I have 15 days, 2 personal holidays, 2 union negotiated holidays (Good Friday, and day after Thanksgiving), 2 flex days (split up into 2 hour increments), 2 more unpaid I don't feel like it days.

After 15 years, it'd go up to 20 vacations, 3 flex and 3 personal holidays. After 25 years, it would be 25 days and 4 holidays.

I'm union, which is not quite America anymore.

[cmf]

62. What's more depressing than the amount of vacation

that we earn is the fact that we don't get to use what we are entitled to. Most of my coworkers have hundreds of hours banked that they won't use because there is this guilt complex that goes along with vacation time in the US. My H is in the Navy and has 40 or so days of leave banked right now because he's never given an opportunity to take leave.

[denverbill]

63. 2 weeks, plus 10 holidays, plus 2 personal days.

Our whole damned continent sucks for vacation. Canada isn't any better than the US vacation-wise.

[Ekaterina]

64. after 23 years here

I earn approximately 43 days per year. HOWEVER, that is WITHOUT paid holidays (when the office is closed on Christmas, New Year, etc it gets docked from our "vacation time") and the total days includes sick days......We are also NOT allowed to take more than one week off at a time and we do not earn any OT or comp time regardless of how many hours we put in each week. And that is after 23 years here (the policy was changed from a much more liberal one about six years ago)...it blows.