Baby61212

I get 2 weeks off per year, which I think is way too short. I realize that 2 weeks is the norm, but I'm wondering: how much vacation do people on this board get?

juiciking

30 days paid vacation per year!

aSiAnRiCk

About 3 1/2 weeks of paid vacation. It's increase every year though.

However my department allows shift swap as well as accumulating COMP hours.

Plus we get additional 3 weeks of paid sick time per year that we can use

Baby61212

I'm so jealous!

Really, I think employers would have a lot more happy employees on their hands if they gave us more time to enjoy life.

jimbo99

I feel this is in the wrong forum.... but....

The norm here in Taiwan seems to be 7 days paid holiday, but only after you've worked a full year. With each passing year, people seem to get an extra day. Staff often take additional unpaid days without too much hassle. However, TW companies like to organise an annual "company tour" and staff seem to face social pressure to join even if they don't want to. This is deducted from their holiday allowance - often they lose 2 or 3 days plus a weekend. Even if they don't join, they might still lose the days as they are forced to sit at home whilst the office is closed. Also they can lose financially - often the tour is in at least part funded by a social fund deducted from their salary. If they don't go, they lose out. Most of the Taiwanese I know never have a "decent" holiday by my standards except between jobs or after college. Their "holiday away" is spent with their colleagues and bosses on the tour. They spend the lunar new year holiday with their families with all the stresses that can involve. Not much time to venture out on their own.

When I worked here full time, I negotiated for extra, but that's rare.

In the UK, 20 days paid seems like a pretty standard minimum and it runs from when you join (pro-rata). 25 or even 30 are not unknown, especially after a few years service.

Of course you have to allow for national holidays which differ from country to country. UK holidays are always on Monday, except Good Friday and Christmas/Boxing day and New Year. When these fall on a weekend, the following Monday/Tuesday are national holidays to make up.

Here in Taiwan if a holiday falls on a weekend, you just "lose" the day off.

BlackBird

Wow, this thread makes me feel good! Looks like we have nothing but holidays here in Finland. Of course that depends on which sector you are working in, but I'm working in private industrial company and our holidays goes like this:
- summer vacation 4 weeks
- winter vacation 1 week
- 12 days off (=2 weeks) to spread around the year as you agree with emlpoer

For me that makes 6 weeks of vacation and a few separate days off.
And I'm thinking how to get more

uproared

4 weeks paid holiday (20 days)
7 paid sickdays

We can also "purchase" (i.e. unpaid holiday) up to 4 weeks per year.

Swanhunter

25 days paid holiday, plus the 7 UK public holidays which is pretty average here. I wish my employer allowed us to buy more - another 10 days would be perfect.

2 weeks is very . You need to find another employer, or another country to work.

WHBM

At our company (IT in the Thames Valley, a very IT-competitive area) we used to do 20 days, extending to 25 after 5 years. But we found this was uncompetitive at recruitment time and was becoming an issue. So we extended from 20/25 to 25/30.

Here in the UK we find the US approach to "sick days", where if you don't take them you can add them to your holidays, is an extraordinary one though. Likewise some US employers seem to grant your birthday as an extra days holiday, also seems strange. And there are significantly more US public holidays than in the UK.

Internaut

Unfortunately, this seems to be the norm for US employers.

GreatDane

In Denmark we have 6 weeks paid vacation + several national and religious Holidays.... not a bad deal overall.

Punki

I own my own company and am thinking a lot about holidays right now.

At present our employees get:

5 working days sick leave for everybody,
7 paid holidays for everybody,
10 working days vacation up until 5 years service, and 15 working days vacation thereafter.

That is 4+ to 5+ weeks a year, paid time off.

Our employees tend to take fewer and longer vacations than we do, so, since, we often take what I call "basket leave" and fly to the East Coast or Europe for a long weekend, it seems like we have a lot more breaks. I personally feel very revived after a four day weekend in a new environment, and would start getting bored after more than a few of days in a new city, so mini-breaks are great for me. Maybe I have been reading "Three Perfect Days in ............." for too long.

Anyway, I am thinking of increasing it to 4 weeks of vacation after 10 years. The funny thing is that our most senior employees tend to be the ones who prefer to just keep working and cash in their vacation time. Go figure.

Tor Viking

Here in Norway:

5 weeks.
We may take 4 3day sickies a year with pay.

Plus I can take as much extra vacation I want.......without pay.

Though this is the case where I work.

cph_flyer

And you could add -full pay on sick days ! And if you have underage kids that gets sick and need parental care, you can stay home on their first day of sickness with full pay.

greenery

Studies have shown that 40-45% of American workers have no formal sick leave or vacation pay and almost that many people can not take a regular vacation. That number continues to go up as more people become self employed or work for very small businesses.