Cellar Scribblings

[Sason]

Brainwashing. Clearly brainwashing. ...

We totally stand above that. 

[serious crayons]

I don't know about the rest of Europe, but in Sweden everyone gets 25 vacation days a year by law, given that you work a full year.
Depending on your employer and your collective labor agreement, some people get more. I work in public health care, and I got 6 extra days when I turned 40, and another extra day when I turned 50. So I now have 32 days a year, which is maximum for me. No more extra days when I turn 60 

So what do you need holidays for? 

In the U.S., an entry-level employee in a full-time job typically starts with two weeks (10 days) of vacation a year. (I interviewed for a job about seven years ago that offered one week of vacation, and I'd been in the business for 20+ years. I think one reason I didn't get the job is that I must have turned pale in shock at that point.)

So our entry-level worker gets 10 days of vacation, but typically it's actually just PTO (paid time off), and the days double as their paid sick days. Pretty much everyone gets the main federal holidays off: Christmas, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Thanksgiving off (am I forgetting any, Americans?). If they're a nurse or police officer or newspaper reporter or someone else who has to be on duty, they would work those days but probably get extra holiday pay. There are other federal holidays they may or may not get off, depending on the employer (Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Columbus/Native Americans Day, Veteran's Day). And some get extra days thrown in with the holidays -- Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving, etc.

So the typical entry level worker might get 15 days off a year, and hope not to be sick for many of them. An employee with more experience or a more generous employer might get more like 20-30, but no way is it guaranteed by law. (As you probably know, paid parental leave isn't even guaranteed by law here -- the U.S. being one of three countries in the world, and the only industrialized country, not to require it.)

I've been around long enough that I get five weeks of PTO at one of my jobs. It's a half-time job, so it's five weeks at 25 hours a week, but still, it's a nice little perk. We have to use our PTO days if we want holidays off, but because I work part time I just schedule my hours around them and save the PTO.

The other job is a contract job, which means I get nothing, nada, zilch. No PTO, no holidays, no sick pay. Not to mention no health or dental care, no retirement plan, no whatever other benefits real employees get. However, this job pays much better than the other job, and they do take us out to lots of lunches and dinners in nice restaurants and throw fancy parties twice a year.

[CellarDweller]

I would die without my holidays!  I'm so glad I have them l

[serious crayons]

I would die without my holidays!  I'm so glad I have them l

You must get a lot of them, I bet, hunh? All the Veteran's Day and Presidents' Day types when many of us have to work.

[Front-Ranger]

Pretty much everyone gets the main federal holidays off: Christmas, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day and Thanksgiving off (am I forgetting any, Americans?).
There are other federal holidays they may or may not get off, depending on the employer (Martin Luther King Day, President's Day, Columbus/Native Americans Day, Veteran's Day). And some get extra days thrown in with the holidays -- Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving, etc.

You forgot New Year's Day! Although New Year's Eve is not a holiday and by January 1, many of us are too hung over or tired to really enjoy the holiday. I never got Christmas Eve as a holiday and could have really used it. . .there was so much to do. Most of the time, I spent Xmas Eve running errands on the way home from work in traffic and bad weather. Enough to get a Bah, humbug! out of me.

So the typical entry level worker might get 15 days off a year, and hope not to be sick for many of them. An employee with more experience or a more generous employer might get more like 20-30, but no way is it guaranteed by law. (As you probably know, paid parental leave isn't even guaranteed by law here -- the U.S. being one of three countries in the world, and the only industrialized country, not to require it.)

It is shocking and unethical to not have sick days, because it means that most sick people go to work anyway and infect their coworkers. The Obama administration established some rules against this, I recall, but that will go out the window in the current administration, if it hasn't already. 

The other job is a contract job, which means I get nothing, nada, zilch. No PTO, no holidays, no sick pay. Not to mention no health or dental care, no retirement plan, no whatever other benefits real employees get. However, this job pays much better than the other job, and they do take us out to lots of lunches and dinners in nice restaurants and throw fancy parties twice a year.

As a consultant myself, I'm surprised that there are so many people who think that if they have fed you, they have paid you. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

You must get a lot of them, I bet, hunh? All the Veteran's Day and Presidents' Day types when many of us have to work.

OTOH, he has to work the day after Thanksgiving, when a lot of us have a holiday and get a four-day weekend.

[brianr]

You forgot New Year's Day! Although New Year's Eve is not a holiday and by January 1, many of us are too hung over or tired to really enjoy the holiday. I never got Christmas Eve as a holiday and could have really used it. . .there was so much to do. Most of the time, I spent Xmas Eve running errands on the way home from work in traffic and bad weather. Enough to get a Bah, humbug! out of me.
It is shocking and unethical to not have sick days, because it means that most sick people go to work anyway and infect their coworkers. The Obama administration established some rules against this, I recall, but that will go out the window in the current administration, if it hasn't already. 
As a consultant myself, I'm surprised that there are so many people who think that if they have fed you, they have paid you. 

I think it is funny that NZ has a public holiday called the Day After New Year's Day. Not in Australia. Of course both countries have Boxing Day holiday (the day after Christmas).
As a teacher I had 23 sick days per year plus another 23 on half pay. 20 of them carried over each year and I rarely had more than 5 in any one year. Unlike Long Service Leave, you are not allowed to be paid out for them when you resign so in my last 3 month's of full time permanent work I took a day every 2nd week (I think I had about 150 so only got rid of about 6 or 7)
Many teachers, especially women had many family days off (they came out of the sick pay) because their kids were sick. I was so pleased when my mother moved house in 1999 and my sister wanted me to help. It was the only time in my whole working life I was able to claim a family day.

[CellarDweller]

You must get a lot of them, I bet, hunh? All the Veteran's Day and Presidents' Day types when many of us have to work.

Yeah, we get a good amount.    Here is the banking holiday schedule.

Jan 1st  (New Year's Day)

Jan 15th (or so - 3rd Monday in January - Martin Luther King Jr. Day)

Feb 15th (or so - 3rd Monday in February - President's Day)

May 28th (or so - Last Monday in May - Memorial Day)

July 4th - Independence Day

August 28th (or so - Last Monday in August, or first in September - Labor Day)

October 11th (or so - Columbus Day)

November 11th (Veteran's Day)

November 23rd (or so, third Thursday in November - Thanksgiving

December 25th - Christmas  day.

[CellarDweller]

OTOH, he has to work the day after Thanksgiving, when a lot of us have a holiday and get a four-day weekend.

As I said when I first started at the bank in 97:  "I've just spent the last 10 years working on Thanksgiving Day, I'll work the day after!"

I actually like working that day.....most (if not all) of our clients are closed, so I spend the day doing filing,  catching up on busy work, and then get to leave by 2:00 - 3:00 instead of the customary 5:00.

[CellarDweller]

So the typical entry level worker might get 15 days off a year, and hope not to be sick for many of them. An employee with more experience or a more generous employer might get more like 20-30, but no way is it guaranteed by law. (As you probably know, paid parental leave isn't even guaranteed by law here -- the U.S. being one of three countries in the world, and the only industrialized country, not to require it.)

I've been around long enough that I get five weeks of PTO at one of my jobs. It's a half-time job, so it's five weeks at 25 hours a week, but still, it's a nice little perk. We have to use our PTO days if we want holidays off, but because I work part time I just schedule my hours around them and save the PTO.

This is how my job works.  I get almost 236 PTO hours, this is almost 6 weeks of time.  If I don't get sick, I have that full allotment of time as vacation time.  Otherwise, if I get sick, it gets deducted from the PTO hours.  Ex:  I call out sick for three days, 24 hours gets deducted from my total of 236 hours, with the remaining as 'vacation' time.