And if I have to fly to the east coast, I need to get up at 4 am to leave my house at 4:30 am to be at the airport at 5 am for a 6 am flight. Just standard operating procedure. And if I fly to Asia for a workshop, I get to lead 4-day workshops for 40-50 people where I have to be “on stage” when my internal clock is completely turned around and I wake up at 2 am and can barely keep my eyes open at 4 pm. You just drink a lot of coffee and plow through it all. Just life.
PG, my kid always says he wants to be the boss so no one tells him what to do!! Joke’s on him!
No kidding. Mine is CEO and President on papers only.
I hear ya, pizzagirl. DH is in a similar situation. Conference calls with Asian and European colleagues mean he’s on the phone by 6 many mornings (early evening in Asia, afternoon in Europe). He takes the 6 am call at home because Metro won’t get him there early enough, and the garage at his building doesn’t open til 6. But he’s up at 4:40 to take a shower and get dressed, because when the 6 am call is over at 7:30, he has to get to work (1 hr 15 min, assuming no problems on Metro) in time for another call/meeting at 9 am. If I’m going into town that day, I’m behind the wheel and he’s working two phones in the passenger seat. When he travels overseas, he leaves on Saturday for Monday morning meetings, though there are times where he goes straight from the overnight flight to the meeting. He’s generally leading these meetings or is the expert on the topic at all these things, so he’s on stage, too. When he’s in Europe, if he doesn’t have a dinner meeting, he is on the phone/online with colleagues for “second shift” til midnight, since at 6 pm in Frankfurt it’s only noon or 1 pm in DC.
When we go on vacation, he is in touch with work constantly. I kept a tally while we were in AUS/NZ last fall. 42.5 hours of work in 15 days – and we were off the grid a good chunk of the time. He has actually left while on vacation overseas to head elsewhere for a work meeting – I look at the silver lining and use that time to see the things he has no interest in visiting…
He gets five weeks of vacation; we’re lucky if he takes three. I worry that one day I’m going to get a phone call. He does not know how and when to slow down.
@Momofadult , will briefly pause this thread to share a great casual place to eat in Paris - http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g187147-d2623304-Reviews-Restaurant_Kosher_Pitzman-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
In the Marais neighborhood - kosher restaurant. AMAZING falafel sandwich. Bagels the size of your head but oh so tasty.
Back to our regularly scheduled thread…
D gets 5 weeks PTO. Her company closes between Christmas and New Years. Christmas Eve and day as well as well as New Years eve and day are paid (not PTO needed). They can take the extra days unpaid or paid (if they have PTO). They get all the other regular US holidays.
During crunch time they can work up to 70 hrs/week. This lasts for about 4-5 weeks.
And although they have to go to the office April 16th, not much happens for many days thereafter (yes, she’s in tax). They take long lunches, play video games or stream Hulu.
This is in silicon valley.
And for a bit of perspective:
She just took a trip that started on a Saturday in Amsterdam. One of her party’s luggage went AWOL. It was 3 day weekend. Nothing, and I mean absolutely not a gosh darn thing could be done to even track down the luggage and certainly not to get it to it’s owner. Some prescription medication was in the lost piece (they were not well versed travelers). Finding a doctor to refill these was difficult enough, but finding an open pharmacy on a Sunday was close to impossible. They were told there was exactly ONE place that could fill the prescription - and that’s in all of Amsterdam.
The person finally got the luggage item 5 days days into the cruise.
During a trip my luggage did not arrive in Frankfurt. It was on a Thursday evening. It wasn’t set to arrive at the airport until the next day - which was Friday. Nothing, and I mean nothing, moves on the weekend. So, I finally got the luggage on Tuesday because they couldn’t start dealing with the problem until Monday morning.
S is doing an 8 week internship in Germany. He is entitled to 3 day of vacation during that period of time. If he were to work 91 days or longer he’d get an automatic 20%deduction for their medical system. This is in addition to any and all other taxes. The rate is around 40% for a W2 wage earner.
Yes, they work less hours and are taxed differently.
I just hosted visitors who live outside of Geneva. They waited 6 days to get their luggage (from a United flight) delivered. Just because the Europeans work fewer hours doesn’t mean that Americans are any more effective.
Interupting for brief message: Thanks, abasket! I think I passed this place last fall. I’ll try it next trip.
End of station break.
I get 5 weeks of vacation each year, plus I can earn and take extra time along the way. Sometimes I use it all, and sometimes I dont. My husband gets the same amount of time off, but works pretty much 7 days a week, except maybe Christmas and a couple of other days during the year. He doesn’t have to, that’s just what he does. Even when we go someplace like Hawaii, he works. He says he’s not as bad as one of his peers. There was some “data coming in” and that man left his family on vacation so he could start looking at the data. I work to live, and he lives to work. For many years I could not get him to go on a two week vacation. We did go thIs last winter, and he did enjoy himself, but he had to do some work while we were away, or he would have had a nervous breakdown.
I understand that when your work is depleting you, its stressful, not really what you want to spend your time doing, or just the means to an end- ( money), that you would want to take two or three months off from it.
Thats great-if it works for you.
But when you have worked hard to acquire your background & skills, whatever that means to you, why would you need to turn your back completely on it so you can enjoy yourself?
Maybe travel is part of your career.
I know quite a few photographers and writers, who cobble a life together doing what they love.
One photographer for example, works for Boeing. Hes traveled all over the world doing that, but he also loves music, and is getting more & more recognition for those shots. Hes really quite good, and is successful doing what he loves.
I’ve lost luggage more times than I can count. It’s not even notable at this point. I only check when absolutely necessary. That said, that was pretty naive to pack Rx medication in checked luggage.
Before we met, H used to routinely lose vacation days because he wouldn’t take them all by the end of the 12 month period and they exceeded the number he could carry over. (He was entitled to a vacation day every other week and 1/2 a sick leave day every other week, in addition to paid federal holidays.) Once we got married, he’s never had any problems using all his vacation days before they expired. 
S seems to strike a nice work/life balance and is happy that he doesn’t take work home and when he travels for work, he is compensated for it with comp time that he can add to his vacations. He starts at 9 and ends at 5 and takes a nice lunch break, often with colleagues, I believe.
I don’t check luggage either, I have to wait for it. It takes time, I can’t afford waiting.
I had six weeks when I was in Germany and in addition to all the official holidays our office closed between Christmas and January 6 (Three King’s Day). My younger son is doing an internship currently with an NGO based in Europe, though he’s in the NYC office. For a six month internship he gets 3 weeks of vacation and only has to check emails form home on Fridays. They are very good about comping time if he works evening events. He’s going to be spoiled if he works for an American outfit.
Personally, I think American hours are crazy. A lot of this came with the Internet - we are expected to be always available. Working through lunch. Coming home late. It’s not healthy.
Interesting to read these perspectives.
My cousin in France was also explaining to me her retirement system. Now, I don’t know if this is for everyone in France or just for her employer. She is 59 - so a couple years away from full retirement. She has been at her job for at least 30 years. She said that since she is getting close to retirement her company gives her the option to continue to get paid, but to actually work for another non-profit/social service program at 60% of her working hours - but she gets paid 100%! WHAT?! So her original job was working for an internet provider/communications/cable system as a customer service trainer and now she is fully enjoying working 3 days a week (60%) going school to school teaching children about violence, sexual abuse, etc. She loves the change, the community benefits and her company not only supports the community, but maintains her paycheck and then they bring in new staff to start working (hopefully for 30 years like her!) - that’s unbelievable to me.
@katliamom Just curious…was their luggage stuck in Geneva or another non US airport? If so then the delay would be at that end since United couldn’t do squat if it conflicted with a holiday or work schedule. If on the other hand the luggage was just hanging out at a US airport then the failure would be United’s.
My luggage stayed behind in SFO on my last trip to Warsaw. United had it to my hotel room the next day.
D’s luggage was missing when we arrived in Panama. It took two days and the intercession of a kind hotel manager to get the Panamanian side to even deal with the issue.
Luggage that went AWOL on trips back to the US tended to show up within 24-48 hours.
@pizzagirl I have an upcoming 5 week trip which includes time in Rome, a warm climate cruise (with truly elegant dress events); inter European flights to cold climates, long days of car travel, stays with relatives, a visit with study abroad kid and knowing my H…goodness knows what else. Would you please come and pack for me!!! ^:)^
I’ve also had good luck the 2 times my luggage didn’t make the plane for some reason. My friends’ story was more complicated because the bag appeared to have arrived in NYC (where they first landed) but somehow never made it to the luggage claim. It took NYC people more than 2 days to locate the bag (at the airport!!) By the time it got to Denver (where I live) my friends had already left for San Francisco, their next stop. United was notified that the bag should have been forwarded to SF, but instead, a day later it was sent back to NYC!! It took another couple of days for United to deliver it to SF. The whole story was one big mix up – my point in citing it is that stuff happens even in places where people “work more,”
People I know who work in London law firms or banks work insane hours … Worse than here in some cases. Especially young people. There was that Goldman Sachs intern in London who died a couple of years ago from seizures brought on by lack of sleep. They had to institute rules that interns could work only 16 hour days after that. I’m not sure how widespread it is but I know several young lawyers who did stints in London and said that it was worse than New York big firm hours (which are horrendous).
That’s really sad story.
As a federal employee, I don’t get paid as well as I would like, but I do get a lot of time off.
I get 20 days/year of vacation, plus 13 sick days, and the federal holidays (10 maybe?).
We can keep 240 hours (30 days) of vacation from one year to the next. Anything over 240 hours is “use or lose” which means it goes away at the end of the year if you have it left.
Sick leave keep adding up and will be added to my length of service when I retire.