Author Topic: Celebrating the Winter Solstice  (Read 298717 times)

Offline CellarDweller

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #280 on: December 26, 2019, 07:49:54 am »
I love the calendar next year!

I"ll leave work early Thursday, be off on Friday, and my area is closed Saturday and Sunday.

:)


Tell him when l come up to him and ask to play the record, l'm gonna say: ''Voulez-vous jouer ce disque?''
'Voulez-vous, will you kiss my dick?'
Will you play my record? One-track mind!

Offline Penthesilea

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #281 on: December 26, 2019, 08:01:26 am »
I love the calendar next year!

I"ll leave work early Thursday, be off on Friday, and my area is closed Saturday and Sunday.

:)


I guess it's all a matter of perspective :laugh:
I'll have Thursday, Friday, Sat and Sun completely free. That's 1/2 a day more than you have, but still I feel cheated out of one holiday (the Saturday).

And in two years it'll be worse because both Christmas holidays will be on the weekend. They're totally lost, eeek! >:(

Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #282 on: December 26, 2019, 10:07:11 am »

I guess it's all a matter of perspective :laugh:
I'll have Thursday, Friday, Sat and Sun completely free. That's 1/2 a day more than you have, but still I feel cheated out of one holiday (the Saturday).

And in two years it'll be worse because both Christmas holidays will be on the weekend. They're totally lost, eeek! >:(

I can see how that would be frustrating ... unless you had a friend across the pond who gets only six holidays a year (there are other holidays, of course, but they're not typically days off work for most people). And she has to use vacation days to take those holidays off. And if she or a family member gets sick, there go more vacation days. (We don't even call them vacation days -- they're PTO, or paid-time off.)

And this is someone who has a relatively comfortable middle-class job with decent benefits. Those aren't uncommon, but they're becoming less so. Then there are poorer people with hourly wage jobs -- who can by law take time off to care for a sick family member but aren't necessarily paid for it and are not guaranteed holidays off or anything else.

But that also applies to people with theoretically middle-class jobs. A few years ago, I worked part-time contract at a huge international Fortune 500 company, My hourly pay was good (by my standards) but I had no benefits, including no PTO. On my 14-person team, mostly graphic designers, 11 were contract employees working 40 hours. But were contract employees. So they, like me, got no PTO or anything else but worked 40 hours a week.

Then there are rich people who, studies show, actually work more hours than people with lower incomes. But of course, in return they get high incomes and cushy benefits.

And don't even get me started on employer provided (or not) health care.  ::)



Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #283 on: December 27, 2019, 05:27:16 pm »

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

That could be it, although I'm sure there are additional explanations too.

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Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #284 on: December 27, 2019, 05:29:15 pm »

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


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

You and me both, Chrissi!  :-* ;D 

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Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #285 on: December 27, 2019, 05:30:56 pm »

And in two years it'll be worse because both Christmas holidays will be on the weekend. They're totally lost, eeek! >:(


 >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:( >:(

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Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #286 on: December 27, 2019, 05:41:35 pm »
Well, if y'all hadn't fought against the English army, you would've had vacation and other benefits too!  ;D
Not to mention proper spelling   8)

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #287 on: December 28, 2019, 05:16:12 pm »
That could be it, although I'm sure there are additional explanations too.

Sure. Though some of those are connected. For example, many Americans embrace a "rugged individualist" ideal, which comes with a lot of characteristics that can lead to unfairness.

I wrote the vacation story almost 20 years ago, but as I recall it included a number of different explanations. But unless unions work really differently in Europe than they do in the United States, they are a major factor in determining benefits like vacation time for large groups of people.

Unions have often been unpopular here forever and in recent decades have become increasingly weak. Most industries aren't unionized (mine is, thankfully). The United States does not have a Labor Party, unlike many countries in the world, including European countries.

(FYI, the Wikipedia entry on "labor parties" lists the United States as having a labor party, too, but Wikipedia thinks it's called the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Which I can say as a Minnesotan -- the only state to even use that moniker -- just means Democrat. I don't know why we keep that DFL designation, which may have come in handy early in the 20th century or something but now is outright inaccurate. Many farmers and laborers vote Republican.)






Offline Sason

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #288 on: December 29, 2019, 01:56:33 pm »
Sure. Though some of those are connected. For example, many Americans embrace a "rugged individualist" ideal, which comes with a lot of characteristics that can lead to unfairness.

I wrote the vacation story almost 20 years ago, but as I recall it included a number of different explanations. But unless unions work really differently in Europe than they do in the United States, they are a major factor in determining benefits like vacation time for large groups of people.

Unions have often been unpopular here forever and in recent decades have become increasingly weak. Most industries aren't unionized (mine is, thankfully). The United States does not have a Labor Party, unlike many countries in the world, including European countries.

(FYI, the Wikipedia entry on "labor parties" lists the United States as having a labor party, too, but Wikipedia thinks it's called the Minnesota Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party. Which I can say as a Minnesotan -- the only state to even use that moniker -- just means Democrat. I don't know why we keep that DFL designation, which may have come in handy early in the 20th century or something but now is outright inaccurate. Many farmers and laborers vote Republican.)


I'm quite convinced that unions and labour parties are a very big factor in achieving benefits and legal rights for employees. Among other groups.

In Sweden the unions were really struggling and not always legal during the first decades of the last century, but later on the unions and the social democratic (aka labour) party have been one of the most important determing factors in developing the political, social and work related systems here.

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Offline serious crayons

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Re: Celebrating the Winter Solstice
« Reply #289 on: December 29, 2019, 03:20:49 pm »
the unions and the social democratic (aka labour) party have been one of the most important determing factors in developing the political, social and work related systems here.

That's why a lot of Americans think your system sounds better. Others, however, think America is always the best at every possible thing.