41–50 of 353 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair question. I think many Americans in higher income brackets would say yes; it’s just that they’d never had the option. Ditto on a 4 day work week.
Americans with higher incomes likely have very good vacation policies. I get 25 days per year.
> While the average American is lucky to get 11 vacation days WHAT? Does that count sick days as well, or is that a myth? Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days per calendar year, plus any sick days, and thats fairly normal. Edit: Sure the absolute salaries here are lower, but the cost of living is vastly different and the social support structures and healthcare are different, too. That should definitely be kept in…
Also, vacation days are not always used for fancy instagram post holiday. As random as life is, there are non-medical emergencies that one needs to attend to occasionally. Being able to see family is another one. Not everyone has their parents located within 1 hour driving distance.
My personal preference is to work as contractor and charge only for the days when I work. It takes away the feeling that the employer (or client) has a full control of your life and can dictate whether you will take 4 or 5 days off within a year or try to guilt trip you into working over weekends for no proper reason.
> While the average American is lucky to get 11 vacation days WHAT? Does that count sick days as well, or is that a myth? Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days per calendar year, plus any sick days, and thats fairly normal. Edit: Sure the absolute salaries here are lower, but the cost of living is vastly different and the social support structures and healthcare are different, too. That should definitely be kept in…
> Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days Does this include public holidays? Or do you have public holidays?
For context UK can commonly have 20 to 30 working days and that won't count public holidays (which depend on the country, and should be around 9-11 days which includes new year's, xmas).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the US salary hold up against the benefits you get in a well-off EU country? Namely free healthcare, automatic payments into pension fund, strong social system if you're ever in trouble, etc.? It seems to me that, as high as US salaries are, they arent that much higher compared to European salaries when you factor all this in, plus the face that a month of that work youre paid for youre OOO
For Germany: "Free" as in waiting for months to get an appointment with a specialist? "Pension fund" as in gigantic ponzi scheme that requires 30% of the state‘s yearly budget, with no party having any kind of plan how to save the system? "Strong social system" as in being taken advantage of with the world‘s second highest taxes? Sure, I’d rather be super poor in Europe than in the US. But anybody above the poorest,…
It has been shown that you need around 14 days of interrupted rest to recover from stress etc. The European laws are not some random thing we made up because we are lazy. It is to ensure workers are well rested and ready for a new working year. Hence in long term it will also benefit employers. Some personal anecdata: I notice an immediate difference when I come back after a long vacation. The first 2-3 months I work…
In the case of the UK, much of the working hours, weekends, time off for bank holidays etc were hard-won agreements and rights from the Industrial Revolution era to the 20th century. The UK led the charge with many of these things too
I wish more people understood this. We had basically slave labour, workhouses, horrific factories etc
> While the average American is lucky to get 11 vacation days WHAT? Does that count sick days as well, or is that a myth? Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days per calendar year, plus any sick days, and thats fairly normal. Edit: Sure the absolute salaries here are lower, but the cost of living is vastly different and the social support structures and healthcare are different, too. That should definitely be kept in…
When I first joined a US startup, they said "you can take unlimited PTO -- we suggest starting with a week per year"... I negotiated that up to the five weeks that are standard here in Denmark.
Americans should also stop focusing on bullshit stats like "working two jobs or more". The percentage of Danish people who work two jobs or more is roughly the same as in the US. The real problem are the long working hours and lack of vacation in the US.
Water is wet?
> While the average American is lucky to get 11 vacation days WHAT? Does that count sick days as well, or is that a myth? Here in Germany, I get 30 vacation days per calendar year, plus any sick days, and thats fairly normal. Edit: Sure the absolute salaries here are lower, but the cost of living is vastly different and the social support structures and healthcare are different, too. That should definitely be kept in…
A huge percentage of US workers don’t get paid time off at all.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does the US salary hold up against the benefits you get in a well-off EU country? Namely free healthcare, automatic payments into pension fund, strong social system if you're ever in trouble, etc.? It seems to me that, as high as US salaries are, they arent that much higher compared to European salaries when you factor all this in, plus the face that a month of that work youre paid for youre OOO
For Germany: "Free" as in waiting for months to get an appointment with a specialist? "Pension fund" as in gigantic ponzi scheme that requires 30% of the state‘s yearly budget, with no party having any kind of plan how to save the system? "Strong social system" as in being taken advantage of with the world‘s second highest taxes? Sure, I’d rather be super poor in Europe than in the US. But anybody above the poorest,…
Why is that a problem? At macro scale you can't really save money. As long as the pension payouts are somewhat balanced to pay ins each year it is kinda fine.