Cellar Scribblings

[Sason]

So what do you need holidays for? 

Oh you have no idea! We need holidays to rest up between our extensive vacations! 

I knew about USA having no parental leave. It's hard to understand; one of the richest countries in the world. I don't know how y'all manage to have babies and keep working at the same time, but I guess it comes with a cost. And I don't mean money.
We have 15 or 18 (I'm not sure exactly) months of parental leave with 80 % pay. They can be used until the child is 8. Most mommies take at least a year when the baby is born, and many fathers take at least a couple of months. When my son was born 30 years ago it was 9 months, so at least some things have improved since then. We were able to stretch the time until he was almost 2 years before he started day care.

Our vacation days and sick leave are not connected. Vacation days are paid by the employer. If you have a contract job (if it means what I think it means), you get paid by the hour and get 12% more than those with a steady job, the extra money is meant for you to be able to have vacation.

Sick leave is paid by the public health insurance, which also pays for health care. The employer can not limit your sick leave, and you can't be fired because you're sick. There is some limit to the sick leave, the regulations are set by the government and change now and then. After you've been sick for a year there is an assessment, to evaluate if you need more rehab, or maybe can work in a different field.

There's a constant discussion and political debate going on about the sick leave insurance and the rules, it's very expensive for the state and they try in different ways to minimize the number of people who are on long term sick leave.

We also have leave for sick children. When my son was little it was 60 days per year per child that the parents could stay home with a sick child. I don't know if the number has changed since then.

[CellarDweller]

European countries tend to have a much better set up that we do here, specifically for parental leave.

[serious crayons]

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.

Agreed. And not just for that reason. Some people get to take vacations in fun places; other people get to stay home sick or care for a sick child. They should definitely be separate entities.

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.  Tongue

Well, I'll have to admit that job pays pretty well. Much better than my newspaper staff job, anyway. But if you count the benefits from my newspaper job -- I don't get sick pay, but dental and PTO and 401K match -- the gap narrows. So the lavish parties and dinners and lunches and team outings are a nice little perk in the contract job.

Newspapers never do any of that stuff, at least not anymore. My editor took me out to lunch on my first day at work and, although the union holds potlucks and a once-a-year holiday party with cash bar but free hors d'oeuvres, that first-day lunch was the last bite of food the company itself ever provided.

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

I've never had that Friday off. Newspaper reporting is one of those jobs that at least somebody has to be there every day to do. So a few people work on Thursday (and get paid time and a half), and everybody (who doesn't take PTO) works on Friday, but it's usually pretty slow.

I don't shop Black Friday, so I don't care about that. But the real importance of having that day off is so that people with out-of-town families can be with their loved ones on Thanksgiving. I've spent many a Thanksgiving with friends or friends' families, which is fine. But now I think about my poor mom during the years both my brother and I lived far away, when she would have been alone. 

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.

I recently applied for a job with the State of Minnesota. I haven't heard from them, so I assume I'm not getting it. That job posting said it came with 11 holidays. I count 10 for you, Chuck. I wonder what the other would be? The day after Thanksgiving would be the logical one, but it doesn't seem like a typically government-mandated holiday.

The main reason I wanted that job (besides the fact that it sounded fun) is that it came with a pension. Oh, anything for a pension.

We also have leave for sick children. When my son was little it was 60 days per year per child that the parents could stay home with a sick child. I don't know if the number has changed since then.

We finally got that in 1993 through the Family Leave Act. You can take time off to care for a sick relative. Unpaid of course. And as I recall it barely squeaked through Congress.

So that's fine for people on salary (except the sacrifice of PTO). But if you're an hourly wage or contract worker and stay home with a sick child, you don't get paid for that day. And many people can't afford to take even a day off, let alone more if the child has a lengthy or chronic illness.

The only explanation I can give for these ridiculous U.S. policies is that Republicans hate women and poor people, and Democrats are too weak to combat them. That's a slight oversimplification, of course.

I'm sure you could dig deeper and form a theory involving America's classic idealization of "rugged individualism" or something. Years ago, when I wrote about the unfairness of European vs. U.S. vacations, there were a few different explanations offered but the most credible one was that Europe has stronger labor unions. (That's why the state job I mentioned had such good benefits -- government employees have among the strongest remaining unions.) But again, that's related to America's stupid fondness for rugged individualism vs. collective action and people supporting each other and helping those in need.

I'm not even sure where that "rugged individualism" thing even came from. Andrew Jackson propaganda? Old Davy Crockett mythologiy? Jeff, maybe you can elaborate.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Agreed. And not just for that reason. Some people get to take vacations in fun places; other people get to stay home sick or care for a sick child. They should definitely be separate entities.

I'm not quite sure what to say about that right now.

This year, my employer kept the company holidays but otherwise abandoned the old division of paid time off (vacation, sick, personal, personal emergency), and went with one category, just "paid time off." They claimed this was more common now than the old way of different categories (I don't know how to research that to verify the accuracy of that statement), but it probably made life easier for the bean counters in the Payroll Department because now they only have to deal with one code for time off on time sheets instead of several. Nobody lost any paid time off; each employee's vacation time, sick time, and personal time just became his or her own individual "pot" of paid time off.

It's been so long since I've been here that I don't actually remember how many vacation days I got when I started; I think it was 10. Plus I had 10 sick days and 2 Personal days. So under our new system that would be 22 days a starting employee would have to take off at his or her discretion.

If you have enough time to begin with, perhaps it isn't necessary for individual categories.

And if you have to take time off to care for a seriously ill parent or child, there is also time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Twice last year I took off a week/five work days under FMLA when my dad had serious health issues.

[brianr]

The main reason I wanted that job (besides the fact that it sounded fun) is that it came with a pension. Oh, anything for a pension.

In Australia in the 1980's, the Government and the Unions collaborated in what was called the Accord. The Unions did not push fora wage rise and instead the government brought in compulsory superannuation. It began that all employers had to put in 4% of wages to a fund that the employee cannot touch until they are 60 (there can be exceptions eg terminal illness) It is now 9%. After I paid off my house, I increased it to 20% (my own money  for the extra) which is why I can now travel for a few months each year. Like everyone I lost a lot in 2007 but while it went down a bit in 2015, this year it has been keeping up with my withdrawal.
However the Australian Government takes it into account when giving me an aged pension. They have just tightened up on it and reduced my Australian age pension by about $50 per week.(They expect me to live on my superannuation not take overseas trips )  But I do not receive that money anyway. It is paid to the NZ government who give everyone over 65 the same amount although they tax it. I use my NZ government superannuation to live and my Australian superannuation for other things mainly travel.

The only explanation I can give for these ridiculous U.S. policies is that Republicans hate women and poor people, and Democrats are too weak to combat them. That's a slight oversimplification, of course.

I'm sure you could dig deeper and form a theory involving America's classic idealization of "rugged individualism" or something. Years ago, when I wrote about the unfairness of European vs. U.S. vacations, there were a few different explanations offered but the most credible one was that Europe has stronger labor unions. (That's why the state job I mentioned had such good benefits -- government employees have among the strongest remaining unions.) But again, that's related to America's stupid fondness for rugged individualism vs. collective action and people supporting each other and helping those in need.

Thankfully Australia and NZ had strong Union movements in the past and often led the world on gaining worker's benefits. At times they pushed too hard and we had lots of strikes when I was younger. They are less powerful these days (although teachers have remained strong). We generally blame the American influence. Young people do not join unions. Compulsory unionism disappeared at some stage. Australia has just removed double time for Sunday work. I think it is now time and half  the same as Saturday. It is a big loss for workers in retail and hospitality who depend on that amount. By the way we rarely tip in restaurants in Australia and NZ. About the only time I tip is I round up the cab fare (and I rarely catch a cab). Something I dread about travelling to the USA.
I caught a cab to the bus terminal before Christmas when flying to Australia and gave the driver an extra $2 as we had all green lights through the city and it was less than usual and he said "Are you sure?"  

[Sason]

  America's stupid fondness for rugged individualism vs. collective action and people supporting each other and helping those in need.

Unfortunately there are many signs over the last 20 or so years, that we are headed in that direction too 

Our conservatives's favourite mantra is "free choice", even if that choice doesn't include everyone and has a lot of negative effects on society.

[CellarDweller]

*waves*

Hiya everyone!

Today is Bring Your Action Figures to Work day, and everyone has been commenting on my collection of Super Friends. 



some people have one or two figures out,  one has 5, another about 8. 

I have 19!!!

[serious crayons]

I'm not quite sure what to say about that right now.

Well, me neither, frankly. I can't say it's overtly a ripoff. But it just doesn't seem fair that some people should spend their time off in Hawaii and others in the hospital. Then again, if everybody got X amount of sick days and X amount of vacation days, the healthy might feel cheated. I guess life is unfair.

But you can bet all the changes in employment customs in recent years -- the skyrocketing practice of companies filling their staffs with long-term contract employees, the emphasis on part-time rather than full-time workers to avoid health insurance, etc. -- benefit employers. Even the switch from pensions to 401(k)s, initially popular even among employees because they were transportable from one job to the next, saves employers from having to maintain their pension fund through stock-market volatility. Instead, individuals get to suffer the consequences of a stock market crash, as well as the human hardwired difficulty in delaying gratification on behalf of the future.

And if you have to take time off to care for a seriously ill parent or child, there is also time off under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Twice last year I took off a week/five work days under FMLA when my dad had serious health issues.

The Family Leave Act does not require payment. But my paystub says I have 40 hours in something called "income protect." Maybe that's a similar thing. Since that would only amount to about a week and a half for me, it's not hugely valuable, but I guess every little bit helps.

Meanwhile, the paystub says I have almost 7 weeks of vacation this year (172.50 hours, with 25-hour weeks). How did that happen?? Either it's a mistake, or that last union contract was better than I thought.

[serious crayons]

Meanwhile, Jeff, I'm disappointed that you did not explain the historical roots of "rugged individualism." I find it baffling, and I rely on you to be our BetterMost historian! 

[serious crayons]

Today is Bring Your Action Figures to Work day, and everyone has been commenting on my collection of Super Friends. 



some people have one or two figures out,  one has 5, another about 8. 

I have 19!!!

If I worked there, I'd have spent last night at Target.