5 responses so far ↓

• 1 David T // May 17, 2007 at 1:02 pm

  http://www.vault.com/nr/printable.jsp?ch_id=420&article_id=3810101&print=

  “According to Hewitt Associates, the country with the most vacation days is Denmark with 31, followed closely by Austria and Finland at 30 days. France and Norway are at 25 days, Germany at 24 days, Belgium, Ireland, the U.K., the Netherlands and Switzerland each at 20 days. Non-European countries measured include Brazil at 22 days, Australia at 20 days and Colombia and New Zealand each at 15 days. The U.S. is second from the bottom with 10 days, tied with both Canada and Japan. Only Mexico, with a piddly six days, offers employees less vacation time…”

  Of course we all know correlation doesn’t prove causation, but it does seem that in Europe, where vacations are mandated by law, people do in fact get more vacation time. Whether this is a good or bad thing is a separate question.

• 2 Christopher M // May 17, 2007 at 1:24 pm

  The idea that it’s reasonable to spend only two weeks per year not working, from age 22 to age 65 or so, is one of those notions that just seems so utterly bizarre to me that I literally can’t understand how people just accept it.

• 3 Brian Moore // May 17, 2007 at 2:25 pm

  “The idea that it’s reasonable to spend only two weeks per year not working, from age 22 to age 65 or so, is one of those notions that just seems so utterly bizarre to me that I literally can’t understand how people just accept it.”

  The only notion more bizarre would be assuming that your preferences are the universal truth, and should be applied by force to everyone else through the application of mandatory vacation time.

• 4 Jadagul // May 17, 2007 at 2:50 pm

  The idea of spending two entire weeks without working seems a bit bizarre to me. Admittedly, I’m a student heading for academia, so I’m a bit unusual. But I can’t generally last more than a week before I go nuts.

• 5 Timon // May 17, 2007 at 8:29 pm

  Christopher M, have you ever had a siesta? (And btw, they’re not for sleeping.) If you had you’d amend your comment to include, “The idea of working between 12.30 and 4 is just one of those notions that seems so utterly bizarre etc etc.” I haven’t had a vacation in almost 2 years, but I’ll be done with a big project soon and will really, really make up for it, which is a trade-off that shouldn’t be prohibited by law. And if there was a choice between mandatory siesta and mandatory vacation it would be so utterly bizarre to plump for the latter.