It's not like me to talk about my feelings, but...

[ELIZABETH]

I would say this is standard for whoever asked about America. Same as I get. 3 weeks next March!

Wavex......I feel for you, brother.

Yep, I agree that 2-3 weeks is pretty standard in the USA. I am very lucky in that I get 22 days a year. That is pretty rare. (But I think it's to make up for the cr@ppy pay!!)
I can't imagine getting 23 weeks. Seems like you would need 2 employees for one job, each working just about 1/2 of the year! Lucky Aussie! :thumbup:

 

[Gilo-FZ6]

Quite the paradox.. only 10 days hols but countless 1000's of miles of amaizing scenery..life just isnt fair

 

[Wavex]

Eh? Are we in the dark ages here folks? This is 2009 you know. 10 days is stupid. I get 25 days plus the statutory 8 days bank holidays. I'm on leave today cos summer hols have started and my sons holiday club doesn't start til next week.

Is that stanard in the US??? If so it sucks!

Yep, in my company for example, you get 2 weeks when you start, and you have to work................................................ 10 YEARS :spank: in that same company to get 1 more week off... YAY... amazing... :ban:

The good news though is that I have 8 years in this company (holy crap, it's been 8 years already), and they said they would count the year of internship as well, so I should get my extra week next year :cheer:

The bad news is that the president of my company just sent a memo to everybody today stating that due to the tough economic times, we will have 20 days of FORCED vacation in FY2010 (company shut downs) so while I am happy I'll get 4 weeks, I am unhappy because 2 of these weeks won't be paid, and since my wife stopped working (long story, but she's a teacher in california, and they would not let her work part time anymore...), this is going to be tough

Hope Cuba doesn't see this!:rof:

I have a dude I work with and he goes crazy when ever I bring up the French getting 4 weeks vacation right out of the box at any job. Says they are lazy, that's why France is on its butt and can't produce anything, blah, blah, blah.

Fact is, American's ARE the most productive, because we are the most over worked.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm with you, we need to make it a standard for 4 weeks, instead of 2, and we would all be much less stressed.

I had read somewhere that the French are actually VERY productive when you ratio it to the number of hours they actually work. Right now they work 35 hours a week (by law), so it means they get a Friday off every other week. Then they get an average of 6 weeks of vacation a year, plus about 10 holidays (and if the holiday is on a Thursday or Tuesday, it's automatically a long ass weekend)... so if you do the math, they actually work about 12 days a year LOL...

Seriously, they have it made... most of my friends are currently enjoying their 4 week summer vacation on the French Riviera right now... bitches! They make less money on average then us here, but what's the point of making a lot of money if you can spend it on travelling and enjoying your family? Sometimes I am tempted to take my family and move back there...

You're right Oscar, 4 weeks should be a minimum... the point of life is not to work, it's to have fun!

 

[Mattberkshire]

So in the States you aren't allowed to spend time with your children? Pretty medieval. What hours a week do you work? I do 37.5. In at 8.30 out at 5.

I reckon even though the weather is **** the houses are small and expensive and we house every illegal immigrant who travels through europe the UK seems a better place to live than America. Even with our dumb-ass government who couldn't run a p!ss up in a brewery.

Dunno about you but I work to live, not live to work

 

[oldfast007]

I still can't fathom that much time off...We don't want to live to work, we don't have a choice... I couldn't get that much time off if I DIED

My wife's employer has a policy that you do not get paid time off for holidays, you have to use your accumulated time. which max's out at 300 hours...LIFETIME. If you take more than 3 days of unscheduled time(sick/other) off you get a written warning, more than 5 days, your terminated !!!

 

[Nelly]

bastards... all of them!

















.

Andz has a point, don't be to hard on yourself Dave.

Nelly

 

[Botch]

My wife's employer has a policy that you do not get paid time off for holidays, you have to use your accumulated time. which max's out at 300 hours...LIFETIME. If you take more than 3 days of unscheduled time(sick/other) off you get a written warning, more than 5 days, your terminated !!!

That... is about as wrong as you can get (although "termination" would be a blessing!).

I swore when I left the Air Force I'd never work for the Government again, but after enjoying my FIVE days of vacation the first year in private industry sitting at home while the plumber/furnace/roofer was soaking me, I went back. For ten years I then worked 9 hr/day, every other Friday off, and 30 vacation days a year :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Now, six months ago, I accepted an upper management job (Chief Engineer) to go back to 10-hr days/6 days a week.
WHY did I do that???

 

[DaveOTZ]

Its ok Wave... Sometimes you've got to feel your feelings...

Akira Kurosowa says its ok... Sorry Im a dork, Big fan of Samurai movies where they talk about their feelings...

BTW Im on a steady diet of vicodin (prescribed)... so I may say some silly things the next few days

 

[Fz6Sa]

Move to Denmark,- by law we get 5 weeks every year (with pay ).
On top of that most people get an extra 1 or 2 weeks off.

 

[Hellgate]

I feel your pain, but in the opposite. The last 4 years I worked in semiconductors and we had at least two, up to four furlows a year for one to two weeks each time. Unpaid unless you had vacation. I was lucky and had vacation time, 280 hours at one point. It was great to have the time off but the mood of the company was/is terrible and once the furlow was over it was a 50 hour weeks to get caught up and keep projects on track. Oh, and pepper one to two lay offs a year in there. Not fun. Now I work at least 40 a week and don't earn a penny looking for work and trying to start a business! Oh well...

Besides if you need time that is what sick days are for, "sick of work".

Do you get more vacation as you've been with your company longer?

There is a saying in the Army, "You can sleep when you are dead."

Had a great interview three weeks ago with a start up and I was invited back for a second interview. Finally...

 

[keira]

So in the States you aren't allowed to spend time with your children? Pretty medieval. What hours a week do you work? I do 37.5. In at 8.30 out at 5.

Yup, that about covers it. If you want to spend time with the family, you have to be in education, and even then, it really depends on the school district (and job). In my last district, teachers were contracted to work from 7AM-3PM, plus five days on each end of the school year. They are also in one of the higher paying districts in the state, with salaries starting around 29K. Granted, summers are off and you get all school vacations and stuff, but 29K is not enough to support a family (nor is it low enough to qualify for welfare if there's only 3 of you). The job I am going for (counselor) starts closer to $35K, up to $40K in some districts, (with master's degree, so extra student loans to pay off), but require longer hours, usually til about 4 or 5PM (starting at 7AM), and an undetermined number of days in the summer for scheduling and new student registrations.

Most companies require a 40 hour work week here, but many people work more than that in order to do their jobs. No overtime in most cases. Bad vacation, bad sick policies, etc.

Oh, and if you want to have a baby, guess you'd better start banking some $$. Gov requires that you be allowed up to 12 weeks leave, but it does not have to be paid, and you only get it if the company has over 50 employees and you have been there for over 12 months. Otherwise, you are SOL. Not to mention, you are only guaranteed A job when you get back, not necessarily YOUR job. So while they can't pay you less, they can give you more responsibility, worse hours, etc.

And men are allowed to use this leave too, but companies haven't caught up and are WAY harsher on men trying to take time off to support a family. Rob had to take Vacation time when we came home from the hospital because his company's FMLA kicked in for men AFTER one week of vacation, and then it was unpaid FMLA.

You guys in Europe don't know how good you have it.

 

[Botch]

Good luck on the 2nd interview, Pete! :thumbup:

 

[Andz]

I work 8-5 (well I'm supposed to but usually work 7-4) and get 4 weeks paid leave a year. On top of that we get all the statutory public holidays. In this country if a holiday falls on a Sunday we get the Monday off.

April was a mental month, there was the Easter long weekend, then we had a general election on a Wednesday, and the last week of the month both Monday and Friday were holidays!

 

[abacall]

It's all about what you are willing to trade. I was working for a bank doing environmental research, 2 weeks a year vacation. I couldn't handle that, so I went back to school and got an MA in education.
Now I make about 1/2 the $$, but I have about 4 months a year off, great benefits, and I actually like my job.... All trade-offs.

 

[thetimanator]

I gotta say most of you have got it good.

I generally work 7 days a week (I include travel days even though I don't get paid for them). This coming weekend will be the first weekend I have had off since early June. I've had one day off in the past 30 days!

I am an audio engineer working full time for a company doing concerts and touring. I work in the shop during the week, fixing gear and prepping shows and then go do the shows on the weekends. It sounds crazy but I do enjoy my job most of the time.

 

[Soap]

Work to live, not live to work. I think I get 25-28days holiday per year but I only do 4 days a week (Currently 3 but coming off shifts).

 

[Wavex]

So in the States you aren't allowed to spend time with your children? Pretty medieval. What hours a week do you work? I do 37.5. In at 8.30 out at 5.

I reckon even though the weather is **** the houses are small and expensive and we house every illegal immigrant who travels through europe the UK seems a better place to live than America. Even with our dumb-ass government who couldn't run a p!ss up in a brewery.

Dunno about you but I work to live, not live to work

I spend time with my children in the evening when I get home from work between 5:30pm and 7:00pm. So I have between 1h30min and 3hours to play with my princess. I work 8:00am to 5:00pm with an hour for lunch.

As some people said, it's a trade-off. I make more money here than I would in France, and while I don't get anywhere near the same amount of vacation, it's great for my career, the weather is awesome, I basically live on the beach etc... so there's positive and negative things about both sides of the pond

I do agree though, that the mentality in the US (capitalist country!) is more that you live to work, and not the other way around... Everything is about making money around here... $$$ is number 1!!!!

I still can't fathom that much time off...We don't want to live to work, we don't have a choice... I couldn't get that much time off if I DIED

My wife's employer has a policy that you do not get paid time off for holidays, you have to use your accumulated time. which max's out at 300 hours...LIFETIME. If you take more than 3 days of unscheduled time(sick/other) off you get a written warning, more than 5 days, your terminated !!!

That's just exploitation.

Andz has a point, don't be to hard on yourself Dave.

Nelly

lol Nelly :Flip:

I feel your pain, but in the opposite. The last 4 years I worked in semiconductors and we had at least two, up to four furlows a year for one to two weeks each time. Unpaid unless you had vacation. I was lucky and had vacation time, 280 hours at one point. It was great to have the time off but the mood of the company was/is terrible and once the furlow was over it was a 50 hour weeks to get caught up and keep projects on track. Oh, and pepper one to two lay offs a year in there. Not fun. Now I work at least 40 a week and don't earn a penny looking for work and trying to start a business! Oh well...

Besides if you need time that is what sick days are for, "sick of work".

Do you get more vacation as you've been with your company longer?

There is a saying in the Army, "You can sleep when you are dead."

Had a great interview three weeks ago with a start up and I was invited back for a second interview. Finally...

I should get 1 more week of vacation next year, after working 10years for them... stoked I think I'll get a fourth week is I stay 20 more years LOL

Good luck with the 2nd interview Pete... when is it scheduled for?

 

[Wavex]

back on what I originally wanted the topic to be about though: Cali_Rider and DefyInertia finished their 4 day ride yesterday and I hear all went well... we just need the pics and stories now!!!! John? Nate? comon!



:edit: here it is http://www.600riders.com/forum/touring-traveling/18895-4-days-motocamping-bliss-norcal.html




.