The best jobs, absolutely cream of the crop jobs that Americans can hope for give you 2 weeks of paid vacation, and half of the time you don’t get to use it because they deny your shit or give you the run around. I have never met anyone who gets more than 3 weeks, and I have known/had family in high paying corporate jobs, government positions, the secret fucking service, and a cousin who was a fucking post master. The idea of 7 weeks of leave, to an American, especially one like me who’s never even had a job that offers paid leave at all, feels like so much it seems like you’d never actually be at work. 7 weeks? Out of 52? Even though I know it, I support, I advocate for it, have for years, every time it comes up, it’s fucking mind blowing how incredibly unlubricated the fucking of the american worker is
I get 30 days of PTO + 12 holidays at my job in the US. Of course I know it’s not normal, none of my friends get even close to that but most of them get 15-20 days of PTO + 10-15 holidays.
Edit: some typos and missing words (don’t drink and post…)
Federal job lets you accrue up to 240 hours of leave to carryover to the next year ( at rates of 4/6/8 hours per two weeks accrual, depending on years of service), in addition to a flat 4 hours per pay period of sick leave (which is uncapped). This is considered god-tier amounts of PTO in the US, and its still shit compared to Europe.
Yep. Public sector is where it’s at, from an American point of view. Still shit compared to Europe, but for US? It’s fucking great.
I earn 180 hours/year (four and a half weeks/year) in vacation, can carry 250 hours of vacation (6 weeks and 1 day) over to the next year, and I get 3 weeks paid sick leave/year with infinite carryover. Finally, 11 holidays.
I’ve also never had a vacation or sick leave day denied, but that’s more because of the people I work with, not the company policy.
Theoretically, yes. Realistically, if anyone tried, there would be a long line of people wanting to talk with that person that tried to deny sick leave, and the first ones in line would be HR.
Vacation is more likely to be denied, but I’ve never had it happen and have never denied any myself.
Yes. Plus if you work somewhere like, say, the post office you can work most of the holidays and get another two weeks paid leave. Nine weeks paid leave after three years service. Leaves private sector people very jealous of what is otherwise a relatively atrocious job.
I have a colleague who has been at my company in the US for over thirty years. As a result, she was grandfathered in for many major benefit changes, like keeping her pension and the old PTO system. The old PTO system (90s) added days every other year or something with no cap. So she’s constantly on vacation with all her PTO. The most you can accrue for long service now is 4 weeks, and that takes decades in theory.
If it makes you feel better the company I work for it was 6 weeks when I first joined it only went up to 7 once I’d been with them for 3 years (as a loyalty perk). Though, that’s because I joined at the lowest level of employee, managers get 7 weeks from day one.
They’re also really crap with sick pay, only giving ten days at full pay then it drops down to my country’s statutory rate.
I live in the US and get 7 weeks now, and that doesn’t include my sick days and floating holidays they give us. No I am not some high up person or C suite exec. My company just values work life balance. Helps that we are small and not some mega corp.
Wow. I’m in a desk jockey job and will get another 2 days holiday in January, bringing me to 37. Plus public holidays and the option to ‘buy’ an extra week, which I absolutely do every year.
At my company, this is the same situation for the lowest paid full time job to upper management.
10 days is kinda standard, with some jobs giving more bar on longevity (e.g… every 2 years you get 1 more day per year, up to a maximum on 15 days).
I’ve got it way better than most Americans with my public sector job. I get 10 days vacation 1 “personal holiday” (like vacation, but can be used towards overtime his like a business closure day), 15 days sick leave, and we’re closed every federal holiday except for June Juneteenth.
I also attend a lot of night meetings, and get 1.5:1 comp time when I go over 40 hours in a week instead of OT wages, so that is my main source of vacation. I probably get another 2-3 weeks just from that.
I just took a week off for Christmas and have another 3 weeks saved up and I’ve only been with the city for about 14 months.
Only fools take the whole summer off, it’s so expensive to go holiday during peak time.
Better is;
2 weeks in the spring
2 weeks in the summer
1 week in the autumn
1 week in the winter
1 week kept spare so you can have odd mid week days off or a Friday and a Monday.
The best jobs, absolutely cream of the crop jobs that Americans can hope for give you 2 weeks of paid vacation, and half of the time you don’t get to use it because they deny your shit or give you the run around. I have never met anyone who gets more than 3 weeks, and I have known/had family in high paying corporate jobs, government positions, the secret fucking service, and a cousin who was a fucking post master. The idea of 7 weeks of leave, to an American, especially one like me who’s never even had a job that offers paid leave at all, feels like so much it seems like you’d never actually be at work. 7 weeks? Out of 52? Even though I know it, I support, I advocate for it, have for years, every time it comes up, it’s fucking mind blowing how incredibly unlubricated the fucking of the american worker is
I get 30 days of PTO + 12 holidays at my job in the US. Of course I know it’s not normal, none of my friends get even close to that but most of them get 15-20 days of PTO + 10-15 holidays.
Edit: some typos and missing words (don’t drink and post…)
As a French this is crazy.
Federal job lets you accrue up to 240 hours of leave to carryover to the next year ( at rates of 4/6/8 hours per two weeks accrual, depending on years of service), in addition to a flat 4 hours per pay period of sick leave (which is uncapped). This is considered god-tier amounts of PTO in the US, and its still shit compared to Europe.
https://www.opm.gov/policy-data-oversight/pay-leave/leave-administration/fact-sheets/annual-leave/
Yep. Public sector is where it’s at, from an American point of view. Still shit compared to Europe, but for US? It’s fucking great.
I earn 180 hours/year (four and a half weeks/year) in vacation, can carry 250 hours of vacation (6 weeks and 1 day) over to the next year, and I get 3 weeks paid sick leave/year with infinite carryover. Finally, 11 holidays.
I’ve also never had a vacation or sick leave day denied, but that’s more because of the people I work with, not the company policy.
Wait, they can deny you to be sick?
Theoretically, yes. Realistically, if anyone tried, there would be a long line of people wanting to talk with that person that tried to deny sick leave, and the first ones in line would be HR.
Vacation is more likely to be denied, but I’ve never had it happen and have never denied any myself.
Yes. Plus if you work somewhere like, say, the post office you can work most of the holidays and get another two weeks paid leave. Nine weeks paid leave after three years service. Leaves private sector people very jealous of what is otherwise a relatively atrocious job.
I have a colleague who has been at my company in the US for over thirty years. As a result, she was grandfathered in for many major benefit changes, like keeping her pension and the old PTO system. The old PTO system (90s) added days every other year or something with no cap. So she’s constantly on vacation with all her PTO. The most you can accrue for long service now is 4 weeks, and that takes decades in theory.
If it makes you feel better the company I work for it was 6 weeks when I first joined it only went up to 7 once I’d been with them for 3 years (as a loyalty perk). Though, that’s because I joined at the lowest level of employee, managers get 7 weeks from day one.
They’re also really crap with sick pay, only giving ten days at full pay then it drops down to my country’s statutory rate.
I live in the US and get 7 weeks now, and that doesn’t include my sick days and floating holidays they give us. No I am not some high up person or C suite exec. My company just values work life balance. Helps that we are small and not some mega corp.
Wow. I’m in a desk jockey job and will get another 2 days holiday in January, bringing me to 37. Plus public holidays and the option to ‘buy’ an extra week, which I absolutely do every year.
At my company, this is the same situation for the lowest paid full time job to upper management.
Where do you get 35 vacation days? I only get 30 from my public service contract.
I’m not American.
Very few Americans get 30 days.
10 days is kinda standard, with some jobs giving more bar on longevity (e.g… every 2 years you get 1 more day per year, up to a maximum on 15 days).
I’ve got it way better than most Americans with my public sector job. I get 10 days vacation 1 “personal holiday” (like vacation, but can be used towards overtime his like a business closure day), 15 days sick leave, and we’re closed every federal holiday except for June Juneteenth.
I also attend a lot of night meetings, and get 1.5:1 comp time when I go over 40 hours in a week instead of OT wages, so that is my main source of vacation. I probably get another 2-3 weeks just from that.
I just took a week off for Christmas and have another 3 weeks saved up and I’ve only been with the city for about 14 months.
Me neither.
Lidl UK. It’s 30 days when you join and goes up after 3 years to 35.
Well in Europe there is a peak holiday week every season. Since the schools have at least one week off every season outside of summer.