I would not mind a split between paid and unpaid vacation.
I see no reason (unless contractually specified) why a company should pay me for not working.
I don't live to work. I work to live.
Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
101–110 of 424 posts
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#102[deleted]
You can get away with taking a vacation while running a startup. There's an opportunity cost to it, but there's an opportunity cost to everything you do. You just need to do a bit of planning and check in from time to time.
Hell, running a company makes it easier to take a vacation, as long as you've got people you can rely on in your absence. I've done it a few times, and the world's never ended. My cofounder's done the same.
And with that, I'm off to go pack - I'm leaving tonight for five weeks in southwest France. (If you live in Bordeaux, Arcachon, St. Emilion, Bergerac, Périgueux, Sarlat, or Biarritz and would like to drink some wine with me, send me an email!)
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#103The flip side of this is that we have Summer vacation for schools (unlike the rest of the world) and have institutionalized Spring Break for college students. Sadly we see the idea of vacation as being for the very young or the very old who retire.
That can’t be true. Bavarian schools, for example, have a five-week summer vacation this year and additionally eight weeks of vacation spread over the whole year (one week in spring and autumn, two weeks for Easter, Pentecost and Christmas). There are also quite a few state and federal holidays but, as you can see, vacations are already clustered around those holidays. I think there are maybe two or three additional…
As far as I remember, American school kids and students have most of the summer off (unless they go to summer school, ...)
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#104[deleted]
If you're building a business for yourself and your family, but have very little time to actually enjoy time with your family, then what's the point of building the business in the first place?
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#105There is a good article from another software developer around here who told his boss he was taking a 3 month vacation. He made the point the business needed him more than he needed it; he was a competent developer and could easily get work, didn't have any living/large financial dependencies. At first I thought it was absurd, but the more I thought about it, he was absolutely correct. Take a long vacation some time.…
Here it is, and it's awesome: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/02/two-weeks-vaca...
you can do that only if you are a senior dev.. what do junior devs, recent college grads do?
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#106The flip side of this is that we have Summer vacation for schools (unlike the rest of the world) and have institutionalized Spring Break for college students. Sadly we see the idea of vacation as being for the very young or the very old who retire.
Latvia chiming in here: Mid-june till september off for schools. July and august off for college students. One week prior to christmas and one week some time around easter off for both. Four weeks paid yearly vacation for the 9-to-5ers. Two weeks additional paid vacation for working students finishing their graduation works. National holidays and sickness don't count towards your vacation time. If a national holiday…
Same in Lithuania actually. But.. 9-5ers? Do you really have 35 hour work week as opposed to 40 ( (17-9-1h lunch) * 5) or was it just digested for the American reader?
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#107When I complained to an employer that it was too hard to request my vacation time (it's in my contract, they made it very hard to pick dates by always having an emergency deadline, etc) they replied "It's like that everywhere", as if it was a legit answer. Many employers also lump in sick time with vacation time, as if that's a replacement since you didn't come into work. That would probably be okay, if you had an op…
Think about your choice of words up there, and you might just come up with your solution.
Force.
As in, my employer is forcing me to take shorter vacations. My employer is forcing me to work my vacations around their schedule.
That's not what he's doing. He's coercing you. It's different. He's implying that if you take the vacation you want, there might not be a job waiting when you get back. The answer to that is "fine".
If you truly don't care whether there's a job waiting on the other side, he loses all leverage. If you know for a fact that you could pick up another dev job inside of a week with a Facebook status update, he loses all leverage.
In other words, the only reason you think your boss can "force" you to do anything is because you've given him that ability. Quit thinking in those terms and you'll live a much happier life.
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#108[deleted]
"Vacation may be the thing for students and corporate drones..."
If your attitude towards people who work for a paycheck is that they're "drones," then you have the wrong attitude to be starting a business of your own.
If you succeed, you'll need employees--hopefully lots of them. They aren't "drones," they're the people who are going to make your company succeed or fail.
You need to learn to respect the concept of work/life balance if you're going to be able to earn the respect and loyalty of your employees. It sounds like you could stand to have a little balance in your own life.
Even Richard Branson takes vacations.
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#109Usually the only time Americans can take long vacations is between jobs. I wonder how many actually change jobs just for this reason. I asked for 4 consecutive weeks off to travel Europe once at a previous employer (I had worked there 5 years with no more then a week and a half off) and they denied the request. So I found another job and made sure I had a 4 week break between the two.
I've done this, though I didn't realize what I was doing at the time. I was working for Sun Microsystems, which gave me two weeks of vacation time. Sun was doing a forced shutdown over the week of the 4th of July, which burned 4 days, and then there was the inevitable "shutdown" over christmas break, which burned another three days. This left me with 3 days of "elective" vacation time. A wedding took care of those. I…
I think this is why Germany, Sweden and other northern European contries are able to compete: americans work many hours, but are semi-burned out, so the total amount of work are the same, vacation or no vacation.
Re: Why is America the 'no-vacation nation'?
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here it is, and it's awesome: http://www.expatsoftware.com/articles/2007/02/two-weeks-vaca...
you can do that only if you are a senior dev.. what do junior devs, recent college grads do?
Save up for a few years so you can take your dream trip once you've gained some leverage?