doctor scrumpy

After the revelationthat many jobs in the USA only offer a weeks paid leave pa for the first year or two, what other tips / warnings are there for the ex pat about to move over there ?

bromleygirl

Find a job with good benefits - including the number 1 - health insurance. If you don't have that you are in serious trouble!

Don't get me started on annual leave. I get 28 days but out of that I have to take 6 days for holidays i.e. Christmas Day, New Years Day plus mick sick comes out of that too which is 10 days allowance. It's as though they are saying if you don't get sick then you can have more vacation. Plus you have to earn it before you can take it - which is very different to the UK.

If I had known what I know now I probably would have pushed more to move back to the UK when my husband left the military.

ScarlettHill

Yes the sick day thing is a weird innovation. You can only take a day off sick if you have earned it first. My hubby earns one sick day for every month he works (that's generous by most standards). He used up a year's worth and more when he got pneumonia last year. If you have no sick days earned it gets taken off your measly holiday allowance or you don't get paid.

Which is why I turned down a job offer that only offered 3 sickies per annum and five days holiday. Having two kids I knew I would need more than that just for doctor visits (which also come off sick time, ditto dentist appointments). Sick days you've earned can also be used to take time off to look after dependants who are sick.

Regards
-=-
Scarlett

Yosser

EVERY company is different, so when you go for a job interview don't think just $$$ signs, look at the overall package, some companys offer medical and dental insurance, sick days, personal vacation and paid public holidays and some offer 401k (you pay into a private pension and they match it the best they can)....
You will be very lucky to find a company that can offer all of the above. Just like every brit has found out over here, 10 days vacation is about the max BUT you have to build that up over time. I have taking alot of time off unpaid just so I can enjoy some long weekends off with my family.

Pulaski

Listen to your own advice Yosser, every company is different, and there are also industry norms - if you work in industry, manual labor, or low grade retail (fast food, Walmart, etc) then you can expect less vacation than in white collar occupations.

It is also common, usual even, to give more leave to "managers", which may start with supervisors jobs fairly low down the promotion scale. Managers where I work get twenty-one days a year, plus paid public holidays, and that increases with an extra five days after five years, and I think another five days after ten years service. So that is similar to the UK.

However the local factory where we used to live in Virginia had no paid leave entitlement at all for the shop-floor workers!

Taffyles

Don't do as I did LOL I innocently asked the procedure for when you are sick....answer "you don't get sick". I get two weeks vacation, one day at Christmas, 4 of the 7 public (bank) holidays, no sick leave, 401K. I can however take unpaid leave for sickness etc and my old boss would allow me a couple of weeks extra leave unpaid for a trip home, but that was only at his discretion and because I'm good at my job and he wanted to keep me.

My husband is an Executive Vice President- he gets health/dental/vision (me too), a company car (and they pay my car payment), gas and fixed expenses, one week at Christmas mandatory, 5 public holidays, no sick leave per se but they would probably pay him if he had to have time off- dunno he's never had a day off, BUT he only gets two weeks holiday (and he doesn't take all of that most years).

doctor scrumpy

who were they ? Bloody Unions over here would have a fit if they had to put up with that lol

Pulaski

The banks around here are closed on the following days, so I assume that their staff get all these days off.

New Years day
Martin Luther King day
Presidents day
Memorial day
Independence day
Labor day
Columbus day
Veterans day
Thanksgiving
Christmas day

Which makes ten, by my count!

Taffyles

LOL yep you're right but apart from banks and POs the rest of us have 7, or a few of the big seven - how many people get Columbus Day or Veterans Day or Martin Luther- Wall street doesn't even shut down on those days.

candy wy.

my husband gets 7 days off every 4 weeks plus he gets 14 days holiday a year and this does not include public holidays i think its about 6 of them he gets. i think it very much depends what industry you work in.

Pulaski

Wall street does close for Presidents and MLK days, but not Columbus day - though they do get Good Friday instead!

Taffyles

Umm I don't think so.

nathan barley

Jeez, where do you work?

bromleygirl

Basically Scrumpy, I don't think that you would ever find a position in the States regardless of what field you are in that is as generous with annual leave and time off in general as employers in the UK and the rest of Europe.

This is one of the reasons why I have chosen to move back to the UK. For me I can't see the point living here in the States if I have to always wonder when and if I have enough annual leave to take my children home so they know where they come from.

Lion in Winter

It's also one of the reasons why I've found ways to be self-employed over the last few years, and one of several reasons why I'm plotting the move back. I just can't get into this idea that your job should be the be all and end all of your life.