Author Topic: Celebrating the Winter Solstice  (Read 298682 times)

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #270 on: December 24, 2019, 01:29:50 pm »

We don't particularly like that calender. We never get a free weekday to make up for a holiday falling on a weekend. That's just a lost free day  :'(.

OTOH, Xmas here is three days off. The 24th, which is when people celebrate; the 25th, which is when people recover, and the 26th, boxing day, which is when people start picking fights with their annoying relatives  ;D

So this year, xmas falls on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and a lot of people are able to take Monday and/or Friday off.

The next four years we'll lose 1 or even 2 days off  :'( :'( :'(

Well, let me ask you this. How many annual days of vacation are mandated/commonly provided in Sweden? In the United States, it's common to get two weeks off (especially early in your career), plus five or so holidays, plus a few sick/family leave days. Nothing is legally mandated except family leave days. Many, many people get no paid vacation.

From what I've heard, European annual vacations are much more generous.

Offline southendmd

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #271 on: December 24, 2019, 01:41:27 pm »
Ahem.  Some people with 18 days off at xmess shouldn't be whining about the occasional "lost free day".   :laugh: :laugh:

Offline brianr

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #272 on: December 24, 2019, 03:39:17 pm »
Four weeks vacation is the government mandate in both NZ and Australia. I just read it is 5 weeks in the UK. Of course, as a teacher I had 5 to 6 weeks at Christmas and 3 other 2 week breaks in a year, all on full pay, so I cannot imagine only having 2 weeks.

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #273 on: December 24, 2019, 06:03:02 pm »
Ahem.  Some people with 18 days off at xmess shouldn't be whining about the occasional "lost free day".   :laugh: :laugh:



:laugh: :laugh:


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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #274 on: December 25, 2019, 11:55:32 am »
Four weeks vacation is the government mandate in both NZ and Australia. I just read it is 5 weeks in the UK. Of course, as a teacher I had 5 to 6 weeks at Christmas and 3 other 2 week breaks in a year, all on full pay, so I cannot imagine only having 2 weeks.

I once interviewed for a full-time professional job where they told me they only allowed one week off per year. I said nothing, but I’m sure a look of horror briefly passed over my face. Possibly one reason I didn’t get the job, which would have been a terrible one for a number of reasons anyway.

Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #275 on: December 25, 2019, 02:33:22 pm »
Well, let me ask you this. How many annual days of vacation are mandated/commonly provided in Sweden? In the United States, it's common to get two weeks off (especially early in your career), plus five or so holidays, plus a few sick/family leave days. Nothing is legally mandated except family leave days. Many, many people get no paid vacation.

From what I've heard, European annual vacations are much more generous.

I don't know about the rest of Europe, it varies from country to country, but here in Sweden everone has a right to 25 paid vacation days, by law. If you don't work a full year, you'll get a proportional number of days.
Then, depending on your employer and age, you can get additional days. I work in public health care, and when I turned 40 I got another 6 days. When I turned 50 I got one more day, thus I now have 32 days of vacation. That's maximum in my field. People employed by the state have more, I don't know exactly how many. Private companies often stick with the 25 days, OTOH wages are usually higher in the private sector.

There are around 12 holidays throughout the year where most people don't work. Some of these will always fall on a weekend and hence be lost. So, roughly 8-10 free holidays a year.

Parental leave is now 15 or 18 month I think. When my son was born 32 years ago it was 9 months. It's not paid by the employer but by the social insurance, aka our taxes.

Sick leave is paid by the employer the first 2 weeks, after that by the social insurance. The employer can't restrict your number of sick leave days, but there are many rules in place by the social insurance system to try and get people back to work during a long sick leave period.



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Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #276 on: December 25, 2019, 02:34:52 pm »
Ahem.  Some people with 18 days off at xmess shouldn't be whining about the occasional "lost free day".   :laugh: :laugh:


Blahblahblah  ::)

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Offline brianr

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #277 on: December 25, 2019, 06:15:18 pm »
My main social networking these days is with Tripadvisor and it is always slightly amazing to us when people from the USA ask about trips to Australia and/or NZ for 2 weeks. Even worse when they want to cover both countries in the 2 weeks. I do feel sorry for them. We have to explain that Australia is much the same size as the Lower 48 states. Even with NZ, with only 2 weeks, you are best to stick to just one of the islands.

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #278 on: December 25, 2019, 08:37:54 pm »
I don't know about the rest of Europe, it varies from country to country, but here in Sweden everone has a right to 25 paid vacation days, by law. If you don't work a full year, you'll get a proportional number of days.
Then, depending on your employer and age, you can get additional days

Well, suffice to say that in this country it’s worse in every imaginable way. None of it is government mandated, a huge portion of the population gets zero paid vacation, holidays, parental or sick leave. Most poor people don’t have those things but neither do middle-class people with contract jobs. Even people with fancy high-paying jobs don’t necessarily have it that much better (in terms of time off) either because their jobs are demanding, they want to look dedicated or both.

Years ago I wrote a feature story about this vacation inequity. The main explanation seemed to be that Europe’s labor unions are stronger.



Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #279 on: December 26, 2019, 07:12:43 am »
The lawfully minimum in Germany is 4 weeks of paid vacation time, but 6 weeks is the rule. I don't know anyone who has less than 6 weeks.
We have roundabout 14 holidays, depending on your federal country. Of those 14 holidays, 2 are always on a Sunday, thus lost. Makes around 12 holidays per year.

Like Sweden, if a holiday falls on a weekend, it is lost, no making up for it.

Christmas is three days here, too. But Christmas Eve is no official holiday. Some people have to take 1/2 day vacation time, same goes for New Year's Eve.



Ahem.  Some people with 18 days off at xmess shouldn't be whining about the occasional "lost free day".   :laugh: :laugh:


Totally with Sonja here: blahblahblah...... ;D :laugh:


I can feel you, Sonja, regarding the Christmas holidays for the next years. Hate the calendar.