The average American is lucky to get 11 vacation days from their employer each year.

In many parts of Europe, it’s common for workers to take off weeks at a time, especially during the summer. Envious Americans say it’s time for the U.S. to follow suit.

Some 66% of U.S. workers say companies should adopt extended vacation policies, like a month off in August, in their workplaces, according to a Morning Consult survey of 1,047 U.S. adults.

  • Ricaz
    14·
    11 months ago

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

    • suction@lemmy.world
      6·
      11 months ago

      No. 20-30 days per year doesn’t mean everybody takes those consecutively. The French are known to use all August, but other than that people like to spread them out over the year.

      • theragu40@lemmy.world
        6·
        11 months ago

        I think they mean 5-7 weeks paid time off in total. Mainly because a 3 week long vacation for someone in the US isn’t just problematic, for most it’s a literal impossibility. Not now, not ever. So suggesting 5+ weeks straight isn’t even on someone’s radar if they are in the US.

        From what I’ve seen 5-7 is still a bit high for European countries as an average (someone correct me if my experience is too limited to be correct). But the difference is that sick leave policies seem to be much more employee friendly. In the US it is most common that PTO and sick leave are combined into a single bucket. If you have 4 weeks of PTO and are sick for 3 weeks, sorry you only have 1 week to take vacation.

        So even given equal PTO buckets, usually the effective number is less for someone in the US. Our work culture sucks here.

        • iawia@feddit.nl
          7·
          11 months ago

          Having a ‘sick leave’ limit is just incredibly weird. As if you could just stop being sick when the time runs out!

          I mean, we do get a company/regulatory doctor assigned if we’re sick for a longer period of time, and after, like, a year you will go to a reduced insured income. But counting it as if it were discretionary does not make sense.

          • theragu40@lemmy.world
            2·
            11 months ago

            As if you could just stop being sick when the time runs out!

            Yuuup. The delightful logic of US working culture.

            But counting it as if it were discretionary does not make sense.

            You are absolutely right, but alas… This is how it is. You can’t get fired for being sick, but you can definitely get fired for not showing up to work for too many days in a row which can definitely happen if you’re sick. It’s very stupid and very fucked up.