There have been multiple accounts created with the sole purpose of posting advertisement posts or replies containing unsolicited advertising.

Accounts which solely post advertisements, or persistently post them may be terminated.

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

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.

Especially_the_lies ,

And the other 33% are either nativists or bootlickers

Midnitte ,
@Midnitte@kbin.social avatar

If I can't have both, I'll take either this, or working 4 days (i.e. 32 hr) a week.

MTLion3 ,

I’m glad to be getting 15 days of PTO to spend when I’d like (with permission) starting next July. Currently I’m at 10 and it feels a little restrictive. I think 15 sounds decent, but 30 days worth of PTO to spend would be just lovely. I too would also take a 32 hour work week and stay at my 15 days off, tho. Easy money lol

MapleEngineer ,
@MapleEngineer@lemmy.world avatar

The US company I work for offers unlimited vacation whch is a means for a company to avoid the financial liability of an entitlement to leave. That is illegal in Canada so for Candian employees we have unlimited vacation with a minimum of four weeks.

Opafi ,

In Europe, vacations are paid time off. That wouldn’t work with unlimited days.

dhork ,

“Unlimited PTO” is just a scheme for companies to not have to keep track of PTO owed to the employee (and not have to pay unused days out when they leave). It’s generally a raw deal for the employee.

In a company with traditional PTO, an employee could save up 4 weeks, and with adequate planning, take it all at once, even in the US. Their manager might grouse if it is near a key deadline, but if the employee has the time banked up it will generally get accepted. But in a company with unlimited PTO, the employee doesn’t have that documented evidence that they have been saving PTO, and the manager has more leeway to reject the request if it is at an inconvenient time.

aard ,
@aard@kyu.de avatar

51% support slower employee response time outside of work hours

Uh, what? That does not compute. Either it’s work, or it is not work (and I don’t respond to anything, and don’t get contacted in the first place)

dreadgoat ,
@dreadgoat@kbin.social avatar

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.

aard ,
@aard@kyu.de avatar

“Salaried worker” over here means just that you’re being paid for fixed, regular working hours - typically something like 37.5 or 40 hours per week. Anything on top of that is overtime, which needs to be compensated either in time off, or paid out.

On call rules also vary a lot by country, but typical it’s something like being paid 20-25% of your regular hourly wage while on call, with overtime pay when you’re taking a call.

WarmSoda ,

Where is “over here”?

aard ,
@aard@kyu.de avatar

Pretty much all of the EU, at least - country specific regulations vary, but the basic framework is based on EU regulations.

Kur4c ,

Yep can confirm everything you stated.

Source: am from Europe

rynzcycle ,

I'll never forget at my first job once I moved to Europe, boss reminded me to take my vacation days. "Yeah, I'm hourly, not salary, what vacation days?"

Yes, holiday pay/leave is accrued for casual hourly workers too, by law.

That said, when I switched to salary, off in lieu is a sticky loophole, not sure if it was legal but one place would wipe any leftover OIL on 31 Dec with no payout, so it was on you to take it, which wasn't always possible (pay and time off is better, but work/life balance can be just as F-ed in Europe).

feyo ,

Yes, holidays can, by law, be reset on Jan 1st.

However, the company needs to have reminded you that it will, and also allow you to actually take the time off.

If you have 30 days on December 1st, then they need to allow you to either take the days forward into the year or take it in December.

30mag ,

one place would wipe any leftover OIL on 31 Dec with no payout

“Use it or lose it” policies are dumb.

brygphilomena ,

We have salary exempt and salary non-exempt in the US. The exempt part being overtime pay.

Salary exempt would be jobs like managers who may have to work outside of normal hours to ensure continuity of the business. Such as making arrangements for sick workers.calling out.

Salary non-exempt are for positions in which they are paid a set work week but their function does not have unplanned work outside of their normal hours. So things like HR or accounting may be paid salary, but there really is no reason for something to come up outside of their work day. These people should be clocking in and out or at least capturing their time in some manner, because if they do end up working greater than 40 hours a week they are entitled to overtime pay.

Asafum ,

Then I guess a few companies I’ve worked for are breaking the law… Go figure. Our non exempt employees wouldn’t get overtime, they just worked for free if the were needed to work longer hours… Yay murica… Coincidentally those companies didn’t have their salaried employees clock in or out

brygphilomena ,

Oh yeah. Wage theft accounts for more stolen dollars than any other form of theft.

Redscare867 ,

I work in engineering. Every job I’ve ever had has been overtime exempt. Shit sucks.

brygphilomena ,

I work in IT. I’m exempt too. :(

Damizel ,

I don’t think capitalism would ever allow less than 365 days of work a year in many companies. People at the top only see one thing, and it’s money incase it wasn’t obvious. So less production and less money at face value are not something they would entertain.

Hank ,

The cool thing is that humans tend to be more productive when mentally well adjusted so if you're not doing a mindless 'cattle' job like callcenter support vacation days are in the interest of even the most heartless CEOs. If they're aware of it is another question.

redders ,

The Communists of the USSR didn’t like vacation time, but accepted it as necessary for workers to reset and return to work refreshed.

They believed that once their systems were perfected vacation would become unnecessary and workers could work all year without breaks.

It’s pretty terrifying that there are still people in leadership positions who haven’t accepted these fundamental facts of work!

jnp ,
@jnp@feddit.nl avatar

I don’t think it is capitalism that is causing that. It is the idea of maximising shareholder value that the American economist Milton Freedman injected into the minds of political and corporate America.

I live in a capitalist country with, in law codified, employee protections including a minimum of paid time off. In addition to that, a strong union that keeps companies in check.

Capitalism works if the rules balance the power of the workers and the capitalist accordingly. But Freedman had other ideas and those are bad for everyone except a few rich guys.

doublejay1999 ,
@doublejay1999@lemmy.world avatar

Have a look into how those laws came to be :-)

jnp ,
@jnp@feddit.nl avatar

Again, not capitalism, the economic system, but political ideologies that cause it.

TheWheelMustGoOn ,

The problematic thing is that the capital has the high ground in capitalism… Therefore it always tries to get those pesky rules removed by just threatening politicians through taking away jobs and industry to other countries with lesser worker rights for example.

jnp ,
@jnp@feddit.nl avatar

I don’t agree ‘it has the high ground’. It is given it the high ground. Capitalism is all about high risk that can lead to high reward. If the rules are changed to low risk will always result in high reward for a few individuals, you end up in a system like this.

However, the system only works when the democratic systems are sound, and let’s be frank here, the democratic systems of the USA are nowhere near sound. The fact that, what you rightly addressed in your post, capital has more influence in politics than votes have, is a red flag.

So, don’t blame capitalism if it is your political system that is at fault. Because if you don’t fix that, no other economic system will function accordingly.

Darkard ,

They have dropped that “take a month off” thing like it’s some crazy regular thing that happens.

I don’t know about the rest of Europe, but in the UK you normally get 25 to 30 days of Annual Leave, companies often give extra days for long term or exceptional service, some have salary sacrifice options to buy more. Where I work you can even win some in charity raffles. The expectation is that you book them in advance with your boss when you want to use them.

If you want to save it all and take a month off then so long as the boss is okay with it, then off you go. But you won’t have any leave days for the rest of the year.

Haphazard9479 ,

Do you get paid during your month off?

Lazylazycat ,
@Lazylazycat@lemmy.world avatar

Of course.

Hotzilla ,

In Finland you get paid 1.5x your normal monthly salary in the month you are in vacation. History of it is that to ensure you continue working after the vacation.

Edit: it is not in the law, it is just something that unions have negotiated

li10 ,

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.

fiah ,
@fiah@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Here in Germany taking 3 consecutive weeks off is pretty normal, for me that’s also the maximum that I can take off in a row without jumping through additional administrative hoops. A whole month isn’t normal, but it could certainly be arranged

Jagermo ,

Same, we have to cover about 4 weeks of closed child care and 6 weeks of closed schools. So we take a bunch of our 30 days and turn them into a 3 week stay somewhere.

RootBeerGuy ,
@RootBeerGuy@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

Like so many things in the minds of Americans, when they think of social benefits in Europe, they think of Sweden.

In Sweden it is actually not unusual to take 4 full weeks off every year in Summer. Especially if you have kids. Can be even 6 weeks for some years if you still got enough parental leave to take. And that is in addition to time off around Christmas, although then maybe not more than 1 1/2 weeks or so.

eramseth ,

Parental leave? Lol

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

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.

Darkard ,

In the UK the government mandates that your employer pay you whats called statutory sick pay for up to 28 week should the illness require it, which is a minimum of £109 a week.

In addition, your continued employment by the company is protected and they cannot fire you for being sick.

In reality the company will often support staff members for much longer if needed. That’s just how things are expected to be. I’ve had a member of my team go on very long term sick with leukemia and he was supported by the company for over 4 years while he was in and out of hospital, letting him work part time and from home when he needed to, at his discretion.

Expectations on companies here and the protections offered to worked in regards to thier employment and unfair dismissal situations puts the “land off the free” to shame

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Not surprised. I would honestly move there tomorrow (my father was English and I was born before the 1980s cutoff, so I could get citizenship), but I don’t want to abandon my dogs.

feyo ,

Why not take the dogs with you, if that is „all“?

FlyingSquid ,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Well, I don’t know UK law, but generally that means putting the dogs in quarantine for months and I don’t want to do that to them.

Phoenixbouncing ,

Same in France.

doublejay1999 ,
@doublejay1999@lemmy.world avatar

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

Very_Bad_Janet ,

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.

eek2121 ,

Paid sick leave, no, but your job is protected by FMLA.

Haquer ,

It’s only protected by FMLA after you have worked there for a year, because fuck you I guess.

brygphilomena ,

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.

statues_lasers ,

It’s even more than 5 weeks if you take days off adjacent to bank holidays. One can easily stretch it to 6+ in many countries.

bdonvr ,

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

Damage ,

Strike

Damage ,

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

lunarul ,

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.

1050053 ,

Afaik one month vacations are something out of the norm in Europe, but sure there’s some countries that allow that, just don’t come in with your good old fashioned American uninformed claims and expect it to be the norm. One week to two week vacations are more common afaik.

Vlyn ,

Three weeks is easy too, especially over Christmas (I do 3 weeks every year and have done so in 5 different companies so far).

I also had a colleague once who built up too much vacation days (we get pestered about using them by management), so he took a whole month off and went to Australia.

The thing is: Every day you don’t take goes over into the next year, but the company has to build reserves for this. Because if you leave the company they have to pay you out that vacation day (if you don’t use it up before leaving). So if you have 300 employees and each one has 5 days over at the end of the year, that’s around 12000 hours you have to be prepared to pay out.

So HR and your manager usually pushes you to actually use up your vacation days each year (which is a good thing) :)

Norgur ,

Team leader from Germany here: This might oversell European holiday-regulations a fair bit here. Not one of the people in my team will get one whole month off in summer. How's that supposed to work? I can spare two people on holiday at any given time, So if all of my 13 workers want to have a week or two in July/August/September, none of them can have more than three weeks, and you'd have to be lucky for 3 weeks to align with the other's wishes. Otherwise, two weeks is realistic.

RagnarokOnline ,

2 weeks is still exceptional. 2 weeks off at the same time happens in the US, but it’s rare.

I’ve found most people in the US use PTO to have a 4-day weekend when a national holiday is also occurring.

Norgur ,

People here will use their holidays for such things as well (single working days that fall between a holiday and the weekend even have a name here: "Brückentag"/"Bridge day").

bdonvr ,

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

friendlymessage ,

Also team leader in Germany here. I’m currently on a three week vacation. Two members of my team take 4 consecutive weeks of vacation each. There are only 8 people in my team so impact of one person missing is even greater. There are weeks when only half the team is not on vacation. Our labour agreement doesn’t even allow us to deny vacation requests. We just “simply” plan ahead and don’t take on projects we can’t handle during that time. So it highly depends on circumstances whether this is possible, it’s definitely not generalizable.

Murvel ,

Well, in Sweden the employer is required by law to offer at least four weeks of continuous vacation during the summer break.

So there are obviously differences within the Union is what I’m saying I guess.

Mvlad88 ,

A lot of people seem to be confused by the “entire month of August off” thing, there is a bit of background to that, namely that factories shut down production in August for 2, sometimes 3 weeks. I’m not sure if this is a general thing, but all the factories that I worked with across Europe were doing this.

doublejay1999 ,
@doublejay1999@lemmy.world avatar

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”

Damage ,

A lot of it comes from August being fucking hot, which makes it hard to work. Not everyone is an office worker in an air conditioned environment.

AA5B ,

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

RiikkaTheIcePrincess ,
@RiikkaTheIcePrincess@kbin.social avatar

I came here hoping somecritter had asked what "OOO" is. Nocritter has, so I've decided that it must mean "Object-Oriented Overtime."

(Okay, I looked it up and it seems to be "out of office" but that's not as funny)

notabot ,

Surely it means ‘Objecively Outré Outerwear’? Everyone should have a chance to wear unusual clothing in August.

markr ,

Only occasionally obtuse?

derf82 ,

It’s sad. The real issue is an odd application of American capitalism and, believe it or not, unions. Yes, those same people that take credit for the 40 hour workweek and weekends prevented guaranteed vacation benefits.

Back in the New Deal when so many benefits were being codified, the unions began lobbying against going too far. The reason was their fear that if employers were forced by law to offer too good of benefits, then people would have no reason to join a union.

Of course, union membership has since collapsed, so we are now all stuck with the fallout and employers thinking 2-3 weeks of PTO is somehow enough. And never mind that as it turns out, European nations generally have higher union membership anyway.

Here is a source: npr.org/…/europe-vacation-holiday-paid-time-off

LoveSausage ,
@LoveSausage@lemmygrad.ml avatar

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.

derf82 ,

Perhaps in Europe, unions pushed for mandatory vacation laws. But listen to my link. They pushed against it here. Not that I am discouraging unions. I’m just pointing out how greed effects everything in the US.

Jagermo ,

I know lots of us people with “unlimited time off” type contracts. No one ever takes more than a week because they are afraid that their bosses wouldnt like it.

electriccars ,

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.

AA5B ,

I’m sure you’ll keep that job for several months. The other part of American “work culture” is how quickly and easily we can lose that job. Be happy that you have some worker protection

Kalkaline ,
@Kalkaline@programming.dev avatar

Americans are too afraid to unionize. They don’t actually want a better life, they just want to raise up the rich and punch down the poor and middle class because of some fucked up sense of “work ethic”.

HellAwaits ,

Yeah, they’re so afraid to unionize that…they unionized in Starbucks, UPS, railroads, hospitals, maintenance management…

AA5B ,

en.wikipedia.org/…/International_comparisons_of_t…

agent_flounder ,
@agent_flounder@lemmy.one avatar

For some that’s true.

But we undergo a great deal of brainwashing. Unions are demonized, billionaires lionized, puritanical (insane) work ethic lauded, anything less than that vilified, etc.

Attempts at unionization are aggressively subverted and crushed by large corpos.

And most people are given just enough to not want to risk it all to get a bit more.

It will be a while, yet, before US culture shifts enough that more people side with unions, join unions, and build critical mass. Although, younger generations seem to be more aware of the anti-labor BS more than my gen (x) was at a similar age.

_Sc00ter ,

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

Squizzy ,

What is the difference to vacation and personal days?

FlanFlinger ,
@FlanFlinger@lemmy.ml avatar

Attending funerals, births etc aren’t really holidays

Crackhappy ,
@Crackhappy@lemmy.world avatar

I don’t know about that. Depends on who died…

FlanFlinger ,
@FlanFlinger@lemmy.ml avatar

Depends on where you live, the two European countries that I’ve lived and worked in my employers would allow additional leave for funerals of aunts, uncles, cousins and some even allowed for the death of a pet.

Jagermo ,

Exactly, we get days off for this on top

Squizzy ,

Oh, we have bereavement and paternity/maternity leave.

AA5B ,

A lot of the time the difference is in how much notice you need to give work before taking the time off.

Sometimes they are treated different for expirations as well. For example, accrued vacation time usually has to be paid if you leave, might have some or all rollover to the be next year, while other types of time off are more likely use it or lose it

_Sc00ter ,

Personal business is for things that need to be done touring business hours but aren’t vacation. Things like doctors appointments, meeting a service person to fix something at your home, or some delivery that requires you be home. Those kind of things

lenathaw ,

deleted_by_author

    •
    hemmes ,
    @hemmes@lemmy.world avatar

    I…do not know what’s being said here.

    Jagermo ,

    In Germany, you get at least 28 days of holidays per year. Company even has to budget for them, so if you don’t take them, it creates a huge headache for them in regards to finalizing their yearly results because they might have to keep money back. Sorry, I don’t have the correct economical term, in German it is a Rückstellung. So there is a very high insentive to get all of your people to take their holidays, because otherwise it’s a pain in the ass and will delay everything.

    lud ,

    Does Germany also have a maximum amount of days an employee can save before they are legally required to take them out?

    AA5B ,

    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

    rdrunner ,

    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

    Damage ,

    That is why time off is supposed to be mandatory

    TenderfootGungi ,

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

    Bo7a ,

    I am definitely an outlier here. We have unlimited PTO and 98% of our workforce is in the US so most people never take more than three or four days at a time. And often end up at the end of the year having taken less PTO than they would have as a regular hourly worker.

    But not me… I’ll take 3 weeks at a time if I have plans. They can fire me if they want. I have a nice 3 months worth of severance written into my contract if they are the ones who terminate it.

    That would give me a month more of break and then 2 months to find a job.

    I know this isn’t possible for everyone. But if more people stood up for themselves, even within the confines of these contracts, we would all be better off as management and executive get used to it over time.

    toynbee ,

    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.

    marron12 ,

    It can be to limit how much vacation time the company has to pay out on separation, or to limit how much “liability” for vacation pay they have on the books at any given time. If your employees get 5 days of vacation a year, use it or lose it, you don’t have to deal with someone who (the horror!) has built up 2 weeks and wants to use it all at once.

    There are no state or federal laws that give employees a right to paid vacation time. Only 10 states require the company to pay out unused vacation time when you leave (CA, CO, IL, IN, LA, MA, ME, ND, NE, RI). In most of those states, use it or lose it policies are illegal. Everywhere else, the company policy basically decides if it gets paid out or not.

    markr ,

    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.

    GiddyGap ,

    Then don’t vote for Republicans.

    BossDj ,

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

    GiddyGap ,

    But many independent voters who want these policies vote for Republicans. If they want these policies, voting for Republicans will not get them there.

    NathanielThomas ,

    Biden is in power right now. Where’s the beef?

    markr ,

    Nominally in power. In reality Congress is deadlocked and has been since his term started,and the USSC has aggressively blocked just about everything he has attempted via executive orders.

    We need a lot more center left democrats in office, at the state and federal level, to get any significant reforms passed. That also means getting the geriatric Clinton era neoliberal democrats out of office.

    GiddyGap ,

    These things require 60 votes in the Senate and approval in the House. Republicans are blocking them in both.

    dhork ,

    I’ve worked in companies with a presence in various European countries over my career. Whether or not everyone takes Summer leave at the same time very much depends on the company, and the country. I specifically remember working with a Finnish contractor firm who planned to have no billable time available at all in August, from anyone. But our offices in France and elsewhere never fully shut down in August, they were just very lightly staffed. Everyone took some multi-week summer holiday, just not the whole place at once.

    It’s not just summer leave, either. There are people all over the world having kids and going out on maternity (or even paternity!) leave for months at a time. When my wife and I had our kids in the US, I didn’t get any extra paternity leave, and just used saved-up PTO. I particularly remember that my wife had to stay in the hospital for a bit after my first kid was born, so the two weeks I had saved up flew by in a flash. I recall my boss strongly encouraging me to dial in to a conference call on that last PTO day, and when I did his boss lashed into me for taking so much time off. I started sending out resumes shortly after.

    On the other hand, when the Europeans I worked with later got their summer or parental leave, their Project Managers just dealt with it, and if it meant their schedules had to slip, they slipped, no temper tantrums required. And I think that is the key difference. American bosses and PMs are much more likely to get away with assigning blame for schedule slips downward, perhaps because not as many people are unionized.

    sep ,

    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.

    Bo7a ,

    This is exactly why every worker should be supporting unions even if their industry doesn’t have one. Rising tides and all that.

    Zekas ,

    There’s a lot of unionisation. Further, there’s industry-wide collective agreements, which pretty much do the herd immunity thing.

    lazyslacker ,

    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.

    ParsnipWitch ,

    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.

    freebee ,

    Which is often still the result of strong union actions in the past, even if only 20 or 30 % are currently unionised.

    Living in EU, mid thirties, full time office job getting about 33 days off per year all together. Max 4 weeks in a row tho, and must match schedules with colleagues so all keeps on running, no full closing of offices. The older you get, the more vacation days you get. Older colleagues complain they have too much holidays…

    Parellius ,

    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.

    HughJanus ,

    100% of Americans want a million dollars

    Andjhostet ,

    Tbh a good percentage of Americans would turn down a million dollars if it meant minorities didn't get it.

    GladiusB ,
    @GladiusB@lemmy.world avatar

    Just take it and then siphon some off

    markr ,

    In reality they would oppose it if minorities also qualified.

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • [email protected]
  • random
  • lifeLocal
  • goranko
  • All magazines
    •