Does your world stops turning in August?

[Faber]

Hi!
As you probably knows Italy stops everything in August.
August is the traditional 'holiday' month in Italy. Actually something is changing as the big industries are experimenting a holiday-shift, but it's hard to find everything you're looking for in this period.

I know that US is totally different, but is there something similar in your countries?

Bye!

[kingdaddy]

Not even close, our biggest holiday is Thanksgiving, most get off for 2 days, plus the 2-day weekend, which makes 4 days straight, that's about as good as it gets here.

[fcel]

I did notice that there are a lot of employees in the company that I work for taking vacation in the month of August. It might be that kids are going back to school in September.

I'm in the electrical engineering field of work. Companies basically shut down between the days of Chritsmas and New Year.

[Hans L]

Originally posted by kingdaddy
Not even close, our biggest holiday is Thanksgiving, most get off for 2 days, plus the 2-day weekend, which makes 4 days straight, that's about as good as it gets here.

Really? I mean, really really? How many vacation in days per year does an average employee have?

I have 22 days for instance, which I think is the minimum in NL by law based on fulltime employement. And part of my salary is flexible, meaning I can spend it on various purposes, one of them being extra vacation. I normally buy at least 5 extra days, but 10 feels more comfortable. Those days ain't cheap, but well worth it imo.

[runebivrin]

In Sweden we have what is known as "industrisemester", i.e. industrial holidays. That means most large factories are closed four weeks in July, which in turn means a lot of people have vacation in July. This is becoming less of the rule, but is still quite common.

As a consequence, blue collar Sweden pretty much grinds to a halt from midsummer to beginning of August.

The law in Sweden mandates at least 5 weeks of vacation every year, with the right to have 4 of those in the summer, with 3 being consecutive. Most white collar people have 6 weeks or more.

Rune

[kingdaddy]

Originally posted by Hans L

Really? I mean, really really? How many vacation in days per year does an average employee have?

I have 22 days for instance, which I think is the minimum in NL by law based on fulltime employement. And part of my salary is flexible, meaning I can spend it on various purposes, one of them being extra vacation. I normally buy at least 5 extra days, but 10 feels more comfortable. Those days ain't cheap, but well worth it imo.

7 or 8 days a year for the typical blue color worker, Government employees or banks get quite a few more. Some large corporations give a few more as well, but the bulk of the taxpayers get only 7 or 8 holidays per year, for the past 20 years in the aviation industry I’ve only had 7 days each year. After 5 years of employment I get 3 weeks of vacation and 4 personal (Sick) days, so that’s a grand total of 26 days each year that I can take off. The average workweek for me (I’m typical) is about 45Hr and I most often get the weekends off (Saturday and Sunday) but have to work about 10-12 Saturdays a year, and a few Sundays. This is very average for an American worker, but on the lighter side we get to keep most of out money, my net taxes are approximately 23%, so I get to keep about 77% of what I make.

Holidays
1-Christmas
1-New Years Day
1-Memorial Day
1-4th of July Independence day
1-Labor Day
2-Thanksgiving

[runebivrin]

Originally posted by kingdaddy
... 7 or 8 days a year for the typical blue color worker...

Is the color due to breathing deficiencies, or are you just referring to workers in paint factories?

[SY]

Originally posted by runebivrin


Is the color due to breathing deficiencies, or are you just referring to workers in paint factories?

He's talking about these guys.

[Hans L]

Originally posted by kingdaddy
7 or 8 days a year for the typical blue color worker, Government employees or banks get quite a few more. Some large corporations give a few more as well, but the bulk of the taxpayers get only 7 or 8 holidays per year, for the past 20 years in the aviation industry I’ve only had 7 days each year. After 5 years of employment I get 3 weeks of vacation and 4 personal (Sick) days, so that’s a grand total of 26 days each year that I can take off. The average workweek for me (I’m typical) is about 45Hr and I most often get the weekends off (Saturday and Sunday) but have to work about 10-12 Saturdays a year, and a few Sundays. This is very average for an American worker, but on the lighter side we get to keep most of out money, my net taxes are approximately 23%, so I get to keep about 77% of what I make.

Yes, our taxes are pretty high. It's hard to establish what is fair as far as redistribution of wealth is concerned. I think everyone agrees that certain things are better done by the community (like infrastructure) and quite a few willing, unable people need financial support for a number of reasons. Apart from that it's hard to tell wether of not the government is spending the money effectively and efficiently. Some bright minds in the NL say yes in general, others say no. I justs accept it as it is, because it seems to work for now.

Are you comfortable with your and the average amount of holiday in the US? Like I mentioned in the other post, I chose to trade part of my salary for extra days off. Can and would you choose the same in your current line of work, or does this immediately backfire? In my view the average amount of holiday your talking about is just not enough to live a 'full life'... whatever that means... you get the idea. I say this mainly because I've never met a human being who had a job which was truly fullfilling. If one does have such a job, the work/private time discussion instantly becomes meat.

[SY]

It's hard to establish what is fair as far as redistribution of wealth is concerned.

In fact, it's impossible.

I think everyone agrees that certain things are better done by the community

...but there's always the question of community versus government. Far too often, things are done by the government with an eye toward benefitting the government (or more usually, the government employees) at the expense of the community.

quite a few willing, unable people need financial support for a number of reasons.

The difficulty comes in objectively separating the willing and unable from the unwilling and able.


In any event, we've got a two-tier system, where government workers do FAR better on matters such as vacation, pension, health care, disability, and other benefits than most private-sector workers. In my own case, I haven't had an extended vacation (more than 5 or 6 days) in at least 8 years. How can I? The business needs to run and our customers have urgent problems and demands that need attending to all year round. I'd love to trade off compensation for vacation, but we'd be out of business if I took off for a three or four week stretch.