Just returned from a 9 day trip to France. Relatives could not understand why we ( D1, D2, my mom, me) were not staying at least 3 weeks. In France, it is typical to get 5-6 weeks of “holiday” each year - plus the regular holidays. They were horrified that many Americans get 2 weeks and that’s it! WHAT ARE WE DOING WRONG HERE??!!! 
I am lucky enough to get a bit more - 3 weeks + regular holidays. I can use my days up in hours, days or weeks. Many American jobs require you to take a whole week at a time. I don’t know if I could live with that - we tend to take many long weekends instead.
Why the difference between American and European time off? Are Americans getting ahead by working more? Or just getting exhausted??? How liberal is your work policy? What would you do with 6 weeks off each year???
I do know I’m ready for another vacation!!!
After 2 years here in the UK, H and I are beginning to really enjoy his 6 weeks of vacation. Typically the British take 2 weeks at a time. Most holiday packages to sunny locales (Florida, Caribean, Greece, etc) are 2 weeks long. We have been able to go back to the US for 2 weeks at Christmas and still have plenty of vacation time left. We have really enjoyed renting cottages for a week at a time in various locales. We also have quite a few Bank holiday long weekends to enjoy. I must say that it is nice.
But, you have to remember that most European employees are paid much, much less than US employees doing the same job. H took a large cut in pay to come to the UK. With the high cost of living here - the only real perks are lots of vacation time, and of course nationalized health care (which is both good and bad).
We all would like more vacation time, with someone else paying for us not to work! The more, the better, right? But I don’t think that low hours of work and large amounts of vacation have helped the French economy much. It always comes down to this… who pays?
In full disclosure, I get a European amount of vacation. But many people at my company sell theirs back for cash payments.
Yes, I did hear about the health care from my family in France. But we also discussed cell phone/cable/internet fees - I think 1/2 my salary goes to those three bills and in France, their fees are a fraction of what we pay! I am not aware of the salary differences - but I did wonder about that.
I don’t know, everyone I talked to were taking some very nice vacations with their holiday time - no one day visits to the amusement park!!!
They don’t get paid much and the cost of living is more expensive, result lower standard of living. You want more vacation to compensate.
I feel pretty lucky. I get 5 weeks of vacation (a new hire would get less to start), and holidays (which also includes a week off between Christmas and New Year’s). Our company also allows us to “bank” and “borrow” time off across weeks to allow more flexibility on time off. And like you we can use it in hour increments. Only down side, is our “vacation” time is not separate from sick time so we use the same bank of time off regardless of the reason.
H’s job took us abroad for a few years and they definitely take their vacation time there a lot more seriously. I would say they also enjoy a better quality of life and that is especially true in France. Most of Europe’s business community pretty much shuts down for the month of August. We usually took that month off to travel with H being available by phone or email when absolutely needed. We never gave up that habit when we came back to the states, and pretty much work it out so as a family we have most of August as a vacation month.
I value time more than money (and H and I have downgraded our standard of living in exchange for time), so I think the European model is great. And many of their economies are doing just fine, regardless of humane vacation time.
The US is more productive than many European countries (GDP/capita). We also have higher disposable income.
Look at the cost of living in say, the UK or France, and it is somewhat depressing IMO… Significant VAT on nearly everything, cars cost an arm and a leg, gas is almost twice as expensive, housing costs more… all of this combined with salaries that are generally lower than what we have here.
The price of cars and gas matters little if you live in a place with great public transportation. Our friends in Stockholm sold their car and only use a Zipcar-like service when they need it. They have no regrets about that.
Americans take a perverse pleasure in working longer hours and taking less vacation days they anyone else. I think it makes us think we are important.
When we lived in Germany we felt as rich as we ever have. DH’s income as a post doc was no different than it wouldn’t have been in the US and as an architect I was making more there. Not only did we have six weeks of vacation, but there were a lot more official holidays - especially in Bavaria which celebrated all the important Catholic ones. A friend of mine described it as 2 weeks for skiing, 2 weeks for the beach and 2 weeks for sight seeing. We took a lot of five day weekends for shorter trips when those Catholic holidays hit mid week. As far as I could tell our office was just as productive as the typical US one. Most people in that office did work over 40 hours a week, but our time was quite flexible - no one was in the office after 3 pm on a Friday.
This is why our European family comes to visit us. They have both the time and money… and their jobs are not any more prestigious than ours are.
Another reason why we’re considering moving to Europe 
I believe that Americans are used to working hard. And what small business can afford to pay someone to not work for several weeks? Many are struggling to stay afloat, and may not, with increased health care costs.
I don’t think overly generous benefits have done much for Greece. They are imploding as we speak.
Hey, I’m all for as much vacation possible. But, who gets to pay for it? I doubt everyone would be interested in more weeks of vacation if it resulted in a commensurate decrease in salary, though some might.
My daughter is working in the UK this year. She gets five weeks of paid vacation time. However, she is paid less for the same job working for the same firm she worked at in the US. Nonetheless, being over in Europe, she can really take advantage of the days off and travel. Her firm is even paying for her travel for a week to Kenya next month, for a pro bono project she is working on.
Yes, basically much of Europe - and essentially France – “goes dark” the month of August. I would never schedule a business meeting or workshop there during that time - they simply won’t attend.
As someone with clients all over the world, there is a definite distinction between how America works / vacations and how the rest of the world does. I routinely have European clients who just disappear for 2 weeks. And when they disappear on vacation, they are GONE. They don’t check emails, nothing, everything just stops. So be it. Here in the US, I really don’t feel I have the luxury to disengage for more than a few days - if nothing else, to read / process / forward emails so that stuff is taken care of by someone else in my office.
The other distinction is when I hold workshops in other countries. In the US it is routine that we work through lunch - that we take a 15 min break to grab lunch and then everyone eats their lunch while I / my colleagues continue through our presentations, etc. In other countries, esp S America - it is a full hour stop for lunch, and the idea of a box / working lunch is met with horror. The downside, of course, is that in many countries the work day ends later, and there is a lot more pressure to have loooong business dinners with drinks til the wee hours which I don’t find in the US. It’s exhausting when I lead a 4-day workshop where I am “on stage” from 9 - 5 but at least in the US at most I would be invited out for dinner one of those 4 days and I can crash / re-group the other nights - and clients would understand if you took a pass. In Brazil, for example, I’d be invited out every single night for a dinner that wouldn’t start til 8 pm and would last til midnight.
I could write a book on all the cultural differences! The funniest is that in China, if you are in a business meeting and your cell phone rings, instead of leaving the room to take the call, they duck underneath the conference table and talk on the phone, in a conversational tone of voice. It’s quite a site to see. The Chinese will also work wayyyy into the night.
Just as an example, abasket: I have one client where I need to schedule week long workshops in Japan, France, and Brazil, among other countries. The materials will be ready mid-July for France - but we are not going there until Sep 14. There is simply no point in scheduling anything in France end of July through beginning of September.
France has double digit unemployment.
Do they have enough work for people to have more time on the job?
Not all Europeans know how to vacation. When we lived in Munich, they thought we were adventurous to a nutty degree. They may have made those two week travel plans, but our friends and neighbors had little spirit of pick up and go, just for the heck of it. When I booked a flight to Turkey, they thought we were crazy not to go via a formal tour, to some massive hotel/resort, with two stuffed suitcases. (The agent was so concerned, she hesitated to book us. I eventually fibbed and said we had friends there making our hotel arrangements.)
YMMV. We did a lot of those saints’ fests, too, going off to the little villages.
I think it makes a difference which US company you work for. I think my H gets 3 weeks of vacation time a year plus regular holidays and an 8 week sabbatical every 7 years. Last sabbatical we combined vacation with sabbatical and took a ten week cross country road trip.