Life in a no-vacation nation
 

This should be required reading for all prospective "move to the US-ers"

BBC - Capital - Life in a no-vacation nation

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

Site isn't accessible in the UK?

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

That will be your TV licence fees hard at work :(

I can only suggest a quick search on the bbc.co.uk website as I can't see why the same article wouldn't be on there...

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

When it come's to paid time off and vacation time, the US is like a 3rd world nation! I'm currently battling with my employer about my family leave, which I'm entitled to legally in CA. I plan to go down to 4 days a week for 20 weeks. They weren't happy and implied I wouldn't be able to do it. I implied back they had little say in the matter. The problem is, My employer, and I'm sure they are not alone, are used to bullying staff and getting there own way. My job in the UK though at the BAA was heavily unionized. If the company started messing folk around, they stepped in and sorted it. Whereas I obviously don't have a union membership here, it has at least given me the confidence to stand up to my employer, as I have had to do with the case of my family leave. That plus a mentality that work always comes second to my personal life helps to.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

There are many employers in the UK where you would struggle to get that agreed.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I think they have to accommodate you nowadays.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

We get 2 to 3 weeks in British Columbia depending on how long you have been with your employer and it doesn't carry over to a new employer, so if you have 3 weeks at your current employer and then move over to a new employer the new employer is only required to give you the basic 2 weeks.

Some employers offer more then the minimum but I haven't encountered one yet that does.

It's frowned upon at many places not to take too much time off even when entitled, the employer won't refuse as long as your request is within what the law requires, but you may find that you wont move up or along as quickly as someone who is taking limited or no time off.

Not taking vacation tends to be rewarded. Canada (BC anyhow) is only marginally better then the US since its required, but there is no vacation or time off culture here, its work as much as you can and do the corporate grind just like in the US.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

Maybe. My point was though that my employer is trying to stop me taking off time that I am legally entitled to. I have 6 weeks available. Legally they are not allowed to deny me this time off, yet they are still trying to stop me taking it. I even got the line that as a department head, I should think about my work responsibilities. Nah, I think I'll think about my responsibilities as a new dad thanks.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I don't know what type of a job you are working at but don't you think that your requirement of how you need to take your vacation is a little extreme even for a country like France? The only type of vacation schedule that would seem more extreme would be if you took off different hours on different days to take your vacation.

How does the employer cover your time off if it has to be covered? Does the employer use an employment agency but gets a different person each day and it takes the employer all day to train that person and the employer pays double the rate since it is only for one day each time? Does the employer force other employees to cover your days off? Does the employer just close up shop because every employee has that type of vacation schedule and he can't get or keep customers because of unreliability of his company?

If you were a government employee, the people may just accept the fact that the government can't tie it's shoes and if the country laws allows all employees to do the same, people just accept that products and services throughout the country are crap and over priced but if you are working for a company that is competitive on the world market, who is going to buy your employer's products when they are so inferior and over priced compared to all products produced by other countries?

Although I'm left of center in the American political spectrum, I would not be in favor a law requiring what you describe.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I can see both sides on it. We were talking about it because people with family responsibilities have to be accommodated where my husband works. Not sure if that applies nationally. It's kind of cool, and kind of difficult if you want to get stuff done.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I worked for great companies that accommodated employee's needs. If the employee needed to do something like that, usually the company will agree. If the employee wanted to work from home, the employer generally was ok with that. If the employee ran out of vacation time and the employee needed unpaid vacation, the employer generally was ok with that. But I worked as a programmer so everything was flexible but if the call center wasn't reliable, the company would probably ship the jobs to India since being unreliable or not understandable is the same and the cost is 1/10th.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

Who cares how they deal with it, it's the cost of doing business.

How would they handle someone taking all of their accrued time off at once if they wanted and were able to?

Speaking of, ironically, the missus hasn't been able to take time off due to lack of cover, folks quitting and what not. She's going to lose 320 banked hours of PTO come the end of the year, that doesn't get paid out. She's got another 200 mind, but still.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

Obviously the rules vary depending on where you live but this is how employers do it here since there is a difference between vacation and leave.

For vacation:

The employer has the right to refuse a request if it interferes with business needs provided the employer provides the time off within the 12 months its earned in. So for general vacation, the employee cannot force an employer to give them specific time off.

For leave it depends on the type of leave but the government has specific rules depending on the type of leave, and as long as the employee's request for leave is within those guidelines, the employer cannot refuse the request.

For leaves depending on length employers generally either leave the position open, have another employee cover, use a temp agency, or direct hire a temporary employee.

Length is dependent on type of leave. Maternity for example is a total of 17 weeks and in addition to that 17 weeks, the new parent (including the father) is entitled to an additional 37 consecutive weeks that starts immediately after maternity ends, so a new mom gets a total of 54 weeks, and the dad can take up to 37 weeks.

The 37 weeks of parental leave also applied to adoptions.

We also have compassionate care leave, and a few others.

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I guess that's ok if you are living in the Euro Area countries with a 12% unemployment rate where the high wage manufacturing jobs will likely never return, the unemployment rate won't ever drop, and the remaining can work in low wage retail (if they can find a job) with crappy service and over priced products (unless they are imported).

Re: Life in a no-vacation nation
 

I have had to call npower a few times and they employ people with such strong Geordie accents that it's really hard to understand them.

Two things that have changed in my lifetime are parental leave, and that when a senior person gets a job they quite often have as a condition that their spouse must get one too.