7 ms·
It boggles my European mind that 4 weeks of holidays is considered a lot...
by dkersten 9y ago
It boggles my European mind that 4 weeks of holidays is considered a lot...
- flunhat 9y agoHow many weeks off are you guys given? 4 weeks sounds like quite a lot (it's a whole month!)
- to3m 9y agoIt’s 28 days in the UK. Those weeks include the weekends!
- Trundle 9y ago4 weeks of annual leave is the minimum here in Australia. Not including the 10 days of sick leave as well.
- whatusername 9y ago4 weeks. plus 11 public holidays. plus sick leave.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- cynix 9y agoAustralian here, 4 weeks is the legal minimum. At my work place it starts out at 4 weeks and goes up to 6 weeks after 4 years of full time employment.
- dilap 9y agough, america really needs to copy this
- syshum 9y agowhy.. If you want 4 weeks find a company that offers it. Many of them do. My company does and I would prefer they just pay me.
- razorunreal 9y agoHave you asked them if they can just pay it out? It might mess with their budgeting slightly, but they'd be paying the same per hour worked so likely not be a big deal.
- dilap 9y agoit's more i wish we had a culture of encouraging people to take more time off, where it was normal/expected. (actually, i think the ideal way to work for me might be something like "insane hours for 3 months, no work for 3 months". or maybe every two weeks. or something.) i just think there's a strong expectation/cultural momentum to be working all the time, more than is healthy. you can swim against it, but you're still swimming against it.
- maxerickson 9y agoBut only for full time jobs right, screw the tens of millions of people that work hourly and are managed to be legally part time. (What I mean is, vacation time for full time white collar jobs probably isn't the first thing we need to address in our labor laws)
- dilap 9y ago
- esnard 9y ago5 weeks is the legal minimum in France.
- criddell 9y agoDoes that count national holidays as well? I get three weeks of paid vacation, but I also 10 national holidays (two for Thanksgiving, two for Christmas, 4th of July, etc..).
- Oletros 9y agoIn Spain the minimum is 30 natural days or 22 work days. Plus 14 national holidays
- stuaxo 9y agoUK is 28 days paid leave (includes public holidays). ...although, under the current government many employers have moved workers to be contractors on "zero hours contracts", so you're uber driver, food delivery guy, amazon packing guy etc have basically none of these rights. On the other hand, if you are software dev you are either employed and have the 28 days - or you are a contractor, less rights but paid more than the permies. Some IT contractors line up something before their current one ends, or there will be a gap while you find something.
- ferongr 9y agoIt boggles MY European mind that you consider 4 weeks too few.
- dkersten 9y agoWhere did I state that in my comment? The comment I replied to implied that 4 was high, I only said that it boggles my mind that this would be considered high. Where I am, its the legal minimum, so I wouldn’t consider it high, but I also never said[1] that its too few. You made that up. [1] In the comment you’re replying to. I did say elsewhere that I would happily trade a pay cut for more holidays, but that’s a choice I would personally make. Having said that, with the state of mental health here and in the US (according to stuff that’s been posted to HN over the past year or two) and personal anecdotes with friends, family and coworkers, I do think that most people need to work less.
- ryanwaggoner 9y agoIt’s not really considered a lot for many corporations in America. Not to mention government workers, who often get even more. All military personnel get 30 days (6 weeks), for example. What’s mind-boggling to me is that Europeans can’t help but continue to make these smug comments, when your minimums are usually either 4 or 5 weeks, and the average isn’t much more. Yes, Americans work too much and don’t get enough vacation. But for software developers in particular, the overall comp in America is WAY better than for Europe. I’ll happily trade a week or two off (if I even have to) for double the salary.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- themagician 9y agoThere are very few companies that give four weeks paid vacation. Can’t be more than 10%. Two week is the status quo, and that’s after you earn it. Silicon Valley is an anomaly.
- paulcole 9y ago2 weeks + 10ish federal holidays is pretty standard for professional white collar office jobs. Works out to about 4 work weeks.
- ryanwaggoner 9y agoPlus a lot of offices are closed over Christmas to New Years. Not most, but many.
- themagician 9y agoVS 4 weeks plus holidays in many European counties. No matter how you cut it, we absolutely suck at time off. And even when companies offer it people don’t take it because the culture discourages it. He’s right to be smug about it. We need to change the culture here.
- 9y ago
- foobaw 9y agoTo be fair, a lot of tech companies these days offer unlimited PTO. Then again, taking more than 6~7 weeks is still somewhat taboo.
- theparanoid 9y agoUnlimited is more of a code word for none.
- maxxxxx 9y agoI talked to start up with unlimited PTO and told them I will for sure take at least 6 weeks. That was pretty much the end of discussion. Unlimited PTO mainly means that they don't have to pay out unused vacation when you leave.
- EpicEng 9y agoIt boggles my American mind that you are willing to work for half of what I make in trade for a couple more weeks vacation time. I'm sure we could both find more snotty lines to throw at each other if we try, but what's the point?
- dkersten 9y agoI make less than a SV salary, but my cost of living is also substantially lower. It works out fairly close last time I checked, assuming your salary is approximately the SV average for software engineering jobs. I’d also happily take a pay cut from what I earn now in exchange for more free time.
- edraferi 9y agoQuit?
- dkersten 9y agoBecause earning nothing is the same as earning less?
- matte_black 9y agoPeople (especially Europeans) always say something along these lines, that they earn less but they also have a lower cost of living so it’s ok. But it’s not a good trade off. Having a lower cost of living does not give you nearly as many options as simply having more cash. A person with a high salary can always cut his standard of living and go into a high savings mode if they are planning some big money moves.
- dmoy 9y agoLast time I considered moving to Europe and ran the numbers, it didn't come out "fairly close" in any major city, even Oslo and Zurich. Zurich was closest though. Some cities were ridiculously out of wack, like London where the pay cut would be like 30-50%. When you can swing an after tax savings rate of near 30-50% on the west coast, it becomes really, really difficult to make the numbers work out. But then again this is anecdotal for a specific level. Though when I did a more brief look for levels above me, the difference was even more stark (we got some serious income inequality for upper levels in the US).
- syshum 9y agoMy company has to force me to take the 4 weeks they give me, if it was allowed I would simply case it out for more money..
- kyriakos 9y agoMy European mind thinks 4 weeks are a lot. We have 3 weeks by law here. So the 4 weeks is not a universal thing in EU.