America: The No Vacation Nation?

[skb12172]

As much of a free market guy as I am, I wonder if these other countries don't have a point.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/05/23/va ... index.html

[blackeagle603]

/heh/

There's quantity and quality issues with our style vacation.

re: Quantity of vacation
I'm over the 20 year mark and have been getting 5 weeks/yr since the 15 yr mark. In 20 years I've never taken more that 2 weeks at a time -- and that is rare. Usually only ever 2 years or so. Well, I did take 3 weeks 7 years ago but that was for back surgery. I'm not complaining. It's all a matter of managing your expectations. Though, I would love to burn a major chunk for extended exploration of the ALCAN. I've got 320 hrs on the books at the moment.

re: Quality of vacation
When I post vacation notice to working groups I support, it has to state the degree of availability I'll have for them.
e.g. ranging from "Offline" to "Checking e-mail regularly" with intermediate stops at "call for emergencies", "available by cell" and "checking e-mail occasionally"

So yeah, there's "vacation" then there's "vacation."

[Erik]

One thing I've noticed is that Americans are a lot better at actually using the times off work in the weeks and weekends than people are here.

I think it's very hard to explain to people that haven't actually been living and working in a country like for instance Sweden, but I'll give it a try.

People in those countries tend to think of the whole week as "work week". You don't go out to a restaurant, catch a show, or meet your buddies for beers during "work week", you do that on weekends, and you plan it days or weeks ahead. And you don't go to any weekend getaways, you save any trips to the vacation time you have in the summer. That is if you can afford it, with the taxes you pay it's not that easy to put away extra money for a vacation trip. Most people tend to spend vacation at home doing nothing much different than they normally would, except not going to work.
So the calendar is more or less split up in work and "not work" blocks.

Americans on the other hand make the most out of the time they aren't working, even if it's just a few hours after work or a short weekend or day trip. It's a different attitude to life and work, and I haven't yet seen any American living here go "I have to stay here because of the vacation time I get", and I haven't heard any European working in the US go "I have to get home so I can have a few weeks vacation every year"
Five weeks vacation sounds great on paper, but people don't seem to want it bad enough to make career decisions because of it.

[Rich]

One of the perks in the American military is 30 days paid vacation (leave) each year, with a maximum of 60 days.

The first couple of enlistments, I took yearly leave, and enjoyed myself. The next couple of hitches, I took leave every second year for sixty days each and really enjoyed myself.

But, toward the end of the career, I found myself taking a week, or maybe two, and selling back the rest.

So forgive me if I think the stage of life has an impact here.

Europeans need shorter vacation time, but really need to get away from it all.

Americans have too many "type A" a**holes running their companies, along with too much "bottom line" mentality. We really need to loosen up a bit.

[SoupOrMan]

I don't use most of my vacation days. There's enough holidays for state workers that I don't need them and can take care of most of my recreational travel on three-day weekends. I probably should take more vacation time, but there's just no real reason at the moment.

[Erik]

Frankly, I take days off just to burn them so I can get to 5 days carryover; and I spend an extra week or two at home every year around holiday times, just reading and relaxing.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I do too. My problem is that I seldom have anything I really want to do on a vacation that I cant do any other time, so what happens is usually that my boss wants me to schedule when my "summer vacation" is so they can plan ahead. That pretty much forces me to take a few weeks in summer, or sit at work being bored because everyone else is on vacation and there's very little work to do. I also tend to take time off around Christmas and new years for pretty much the same reasons.
Last job I had I was constantly on the edge of what I was allowed to carry over, both in overtime and vacation days, and I frequently had to have my boss make exceptions to allow me to keep more than the max ("selling" the time was a ripoff in taxes, and not an option to me). I ended up working 4 day weeks during the best fishing season, with one day out fishing while carrying my cellphone, just to burn off time.

[rightisright]

I'm self-employed. What is this vacation thing you are talking about?

[rightisright]

I can take long weekends here and there. But I find if I leave for more than a week, I'll come back to chaos. And I have a really good foreman to run the construction side of things. What I don't have is anyone who can run the business side of the business like I can.

[Frankingun]

After taking two weeks and three days last summer, my minimum is now two weeks for a summer vacation. I need that time to recharge my mental batteries. As time goes on I'll also need that time to get things accomplished in my life.

[Netpackrat]

I resemble that. My current employer gives me 5 weeks of paid time off per year, and I'm currently up against the maximum they will let me accumulate, and having to schedule extra days off so I don't lose it (they won't let us cash it out). I don't particularly care for traveling, and with the schedule we are on, I already have 3 days off per week. I'd probably be more inclined to take vacations, but it is so expensive to travel anywhere from Alaska, never mind the cost of hotels and rental cars when I have a perfectly good house and cabin and vehicles that I've already paid for at home.

It kind of drives my wife nuts, but the whole concept of frequent vacations is more or less foreign to me. AlaskaTRX and I grew up in a family run business, in a small town in rural Alaska. We almost never got to go anywhere together as a family, because dad usually had to stay home and work, plus it was expensive to go anywhere. So most of the time, we settled for going and visiting family down south on the holidays or whatever, but again, that was limited to years when dad had enough reliable staff that he was able to get away. And even then, there were a couple times he had to go home early. My brother and I are about to make a trip to the cabin, and I'm taking some extra time for that, but again, it was either use it or lose it.