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France implemented 35H week more than a decade ago. In practice folks still work around 40h, but they have more vacations to compensate. I don't see much down

France implemented 35H week more than a decade ago. In practice folks still work around 40h, but they have more vacations to compensate. I don't see much downside, beside... people working less overall. The end goal of this law was to share work. I work in the US since 6 years. I miss a actual work life balance. I've quit 2 jobs because I was not able to obtain proper level of vacation and that 'pay without leave' was not an option. I did show them twice that, leaving and not being pay is always an option with a at-will contract. They did not like it, I told them all I was asking was some down time and that I was more than willing to compromise for it, but that they were not. I would not have those issues for similar level of responsibilities in France.

orwin 5y ago
In fact, i mostly work 35h/w while collecting the additional vacations. I still have crunch time before deliverables so I guess its evens out over the year. But yeah, i wonder how people survive without at least 5 week/year. So much stuff to do and so little time :(
- dopidopHN 5y ago
  I switched job recently, very nice compensation package. Whole shabang. 3 weeks vacation. Being relatively senior, I asked to receive less money, and more vacation. It was a very, very hard negotiation to go to 4 week of PTO while reducing my yearly salary by the equivalent of 40H*MyRate. What's bug me the more in this context is how insane people think I am to ask for more free time. I don't count my hours outside of vacation. I do what I'm supposed to do and I enjoy it. But once in while. Once or twice a year, I want to be away from any type of technology and fuck off in the woods. It should not be that hard. Plus, preventing me to do that will just hast my departure from the company that apparently can't suffer a employee being gone 1 more week? Nobody is irreplaceable, and if someone is, that person is not doing it's job and should be replaced. Edit : to your question about having less than 5 week / year. I think my quality of life has vastly decrease, that my mental health as well, and that I missed a lot of bonding with my wife and children. As a result, I will gladly go back to a french level of financial compensation to get those benefit back.
  - akvadrako 5y ago
    What country are you talking about? The best way to get more time off is contracting instead of being salaried. You don't need to ask for less money, so it's a simpler transaction to negotiate.
  - ric2b 5y ago
    > It was a very, very hard negotiation to go to 4 week of PTO while reducing my yearly salary by the equivalent of 40H*MyRate. Simple, because the value you're providing is much higher than your salary, so reducing your output costs more than the savings in salary paid. Now if your output is actually linear with hours work, that's another story.

orwin 5y ago

In fact, i mostly work 35h/w while collecting the additional vacations. I still have crunch time before deliverables so I guess its evens out over the year. But yeah, i wonder how people survive without at least 5 week/year. So much stuff to do and so little time :(

dopidopHN 5y ago
I switched job recently, very nice compensation package. Whole shabang. 3 weeks vacation. Being relatively senior, I asked to receive less money, and more vacation. It was a very, very hard negotiation to go to 4 week of PTO while reducing my yearly salary by the equivalent of 40H*MyRate. What's bug me the more in this context is how insane people think I am to ask for more free time. I don't count my hours outside of vacation. I do what I'm supposed to do and I enjoy it. But once in while. Once or twice a year, I want to be away from any type of technology and fuck off in the woods. It should not be that hard. Plus, preventing me to do that will just hast my departure from the company that apparently can't suffer a employee being gone 1 more week? Nobody is irreplaceable, and if someone is, that person is not doing it's job and should be replaced. Edit : to your question about having less than 5 week / year. I think my quality of life has vastly decrease, that my mental health as well, and that I missed a lot of bonding with my wife and children. As a result, I will gladly go back to a french level of financial compensation to get those benefit back.
- akvadrako 5y ago
  What country are you talking about? The best way to get more time off is contracting instead of being salaried. You don't need to ask for less money, so it's a simpler transaction to negotiate.
- ric2b 5y ago
  > It was a very, very hard negotiation to go to 4 week of PTO while reducing my yearly salary by the equivalent of 40H*MyRate. Simple, because the value you're providing is much higher than your salary, so reducing your output costs more than the savings in salary paid. Now if your output is actually linear with hours work, that's another story.