Post #76, I feel the same when people in America complain some people grow up with lack of resources, etc… The Cubans have also soldierEd on with much less resources in the past 20 years, amazing people, why are Americans complain so much?
In fact, since I like organic gardening, I might visit there to learn how they do it.
My kid is an entrepreneur so I have a healthy respect for small business. She provides jobs to other people, but it’s hardwork. It’s much easier for me to go to work and get a W-2 than owner of a small business. She has to worry about a lot of things. America needs to make it easier for small business to operate, not the other way around.
We are both retired and enjoying life tremendously. My career allowed me to work part-time throughout the years and see patients when I could. My H retired a few years ago so we were both footloose and fancy free before age 60. We are enjoying life tremendously and consider ourselves to be in a very fortunate position. One of my Ds is a teacher so she gets generous amounts of time off; the one who is a lawyer started with four weeks vacation time, as did her sister who is a social worker; the one who is an actor in the UK is totally flexible with her time off, and my youngest who is doing her residency will eventually be in a very good position to control her work life. This is typical for Canadians so it’s not just in Europe, and I can assure you that the quality of life is equal to/ better here than in the U.S. It does surprise me, although it shouldn’t, how many of my fellow U.S. citizens have a difficult time imagining that there are other places to live in the world that people consider to be great. I should link to Will McAvoy’s speech here! 
It is disingenuous to compare the situation in Greece and allude to the lack of such problems in the U.S. Greece has had problems for a long time, with people expecting huge entitlements but not paying their taxes! That clearly isn’t going to work for long. High unemployment and a huge problem now is the result. Few other countries are in that position.
The way DH worked, we became masters of the short vacation. He had all summer officially off, as a prof, but enjoyed researching. The one thing that could tear him away for a couple of weeks was Maine. And later, sailing. I got to like shorter trips.
Couple of weeks is a short trip? 
Not for Mr. B! We take a couple of days off around a weekend most of the times, so anything longer than 5 days is a long vacation in his book.
This weekend was a first of sorts - Mr. B did NOT bring his computer with him and kept his work iPhone locked in the safe. So maybe there is hope!
God bless the Europeans and their long vacations. It means that D comes home next week and can stay for a full month! woo hoo!
Wow…I guess I’m the exception here. We have always taken a 1, 2 or even 3 week vacation during the summer. And no work is done during that time—it’s all play and relaxation time.
The grass always looks greener, right?
Personally, I think these romanticized views of Europe tend to be based on what people observe on short stints in European countries (a couple of years or less) and/or while on vacation. Remember, other places always look better when you are not living there.
Generally speaking, the better the job you have here in the US, the more vacation time you will receive. As an engineer, I earn 3.9 weeks of time off per year, not including paid holidays. Not too bad if you ask me, plus I have much more disposable income to spend on vacation compared to similar engineers living in most European countries.
So you lived in Europe and did not like the lifestyle?
My husband can’t pay his staff well. (An internationally oriented business) But to get educated, internationally-experienced workers fluent in foreign languages, he gives them 3 weeks vacation from day 1, plus sick leave. Despite the fact that the salaries are very modest, he’s never had a problem with hiring. In fact, he has people giving him resumes with hopes of being considered SOME DAY. (Even though his turn over is very low). He’s had people turn down better paying jobs for a shot at the longer vacation.
Fact is, surprisingly MANY Americans like the vacation/salary trade-off.
I lived and worked in Germany for five years and in France with a French family for nine months. I’m pretty aware of how things worked there. My architecture firm never had more than a dozen employees, so we aren’t talking about a big firm. There were lots of things I didn’t like about Germany but the work/life balance wasn’t one of them. Nor was healthcare.
" As an engineer, I earn 3.9 weeks of time off per year, not including paid holidays."
19.5 days? Hope you can use that half day! My biggest pet peeve is these fractional days given to salaried employees who cannot take a half day off because they are salaried and have to take time off in full day increments - combined with the company’s policy that does not allow vacation carryover! It is amazing what some employers can get away with.
That half day is a result of how the vacation time is accrued. We earn a number of hours every pay period. It just happens to work out that when I sum the hours over the year, I end up with an extra half day.
We can also carry over up to a certain number of hours of leave per year.
Senior engineers generally earn 5.2 weeks of leave per year, not including holidays. Not too bad compared to the European model.
I was in a similar situation with monthly accrual, so I know how this works. Ours was like .8 days a month, but then the company decided that it would give the vacation hours, fractions and all, to everyone on Jan 1 and “encourage” everyone to take their vacations by not allowing carryover. You can guess what happened to the fractional days…
“Personally, I think these romanticized views of Europe tend to be based on what people observe on short stints in European countries (a couple of years or less) and/or while on vacation. Remember, other places always look better when you are not living there.”
Personally, I think these romanticized views of the American vacation system tend to be based on what people observe on short vacations in the US (a couple of weeks or less) and/or while never ever having lived in Europe. Remember, other places always look worse when you have never lived there.
Lol, nobody romanticizes the American vacation system… with the exception of those in good jobs, it’s generally pretty lousy.
People do however romanticize America for the job opportunities, wide open spaces, higher income, and geographic diversity, among other things. The price to pay for all of that is putting up with generally inferior vacation time. It is what it is… if you’re not satisfied, then move to Europe where you will, on average, have more time off. Not everyone shares the same views on Europe being some pinnacle of perfection.
“Not everyone shares the same views on Europe being some pinnacle of perfection”
As someone who does believe that Europeans are saner than Americans about their work/life/benefits, I say, Amen to that! They have lots to learn from Americans – good stuff, I mean
Forget Europe, come to Canada! Even better here!
I work for a very large company, one most travelers have experience with. The max any salaried person gets is 22 days. 4 weeks + 2 days. The 2 days were added just this year, prior to that addition it had been 20 days for at least the 30 years I’ve been employed here. My husband, a Senior Engineer with 35+ years gets the same amount. We get the week between Xmas eve and New Year’s off in lieu of some government holidays and a birthday. This was negotiated into Union contracts lord knows how many years ago.
Being given the vacation days in fringe benefits and actually being allowed to take those vacation days are two totally different things. I repeatedly told my manager for the 3 years prior to taking my 3+ weeks off last fall that I was going to do so. Even so, it took a lot of coordination and there were some grumpy faces. For years I went to domestic locations and took my laptop and my phone. I’m not an exec, not even a manager. This was expected. I now go to foreign locations where export controls mean no work or work phone calls can happen.
The business reality is that there are no backups; many of us are single-point failures. I like and want to keep my job, but hold no illusions that this is the best there is.
I like Canada but maybe for 3-4 months best.